Mother Jones When Fort Worth Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead visited Capitol Hill last week to push for tighter gun control measures, he had some unwanted help from a felon back in Texas, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports:
At 5 p.m. Tuesday, Halstead was meeting with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in Washington, D.C., to discuss gun control concerns of the Major Cities Chiefs Association…This should serve as a compelling illustration of why our country needs tighter gun control laws. But then, so should the murder of 20 elementary schoolers by a maniac with an assault rifle—and we all know how far that has gone to sway people like Cornyn.
At that time, his concerns were being played out at a Haltom City auto shop, where one of his officers and personal friend—21-year veteran John Bell—was shot [in the head] by a convicted felon being pursued by Haltom City police.
If anybody can change the minds of Republican senators, however, it's probably somebody like Halstead, who represents a "cowboy town" in what's arguably the most pro-gun state in America. "We almost see every week where we have officers being ambushed by people who have no right to possess those weapons," Halstead told the Star-Telegram.
Halstead's Major City Chiefs Association is part of a coalition of nine national police organizations that supports a ban on semiautomatic assault rifles and high-capacity magazines and advocates expanded background checks.
