By: José Niño

Certain public figures will always exploit crises to advance an agenda of behavioral control.

Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo fits this description to a T, especially considering his latest comments following a recent mass shooting in Miami. The incident took place at rapper ABMG Splitta’s album release party on May 30, 2021, when gunmen fired on partygoers and killed two people and injured more than 20 others.

After the shooting, Acevedo called for universal background checks during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation.

In the interview, Acevedo declared that the shooting incident was “an indication of the problem we have with the scourge of gun violence in this country, that we have to do much more at the federal level to stop.”

Acevedo continued: “We need to have universal background checks. We need to make burglarizing these licensed gun stores a federal crime with mandatory sentencing. We need the federal government and both sides to address these issues.”

The Miami police chief made it clear that he is no fan of civilian gun ownership.

“You’re either with law enforcement or you stand with the fringe and believe that everybody should have a firearm, regardless of their character, capabilities, and mental capacity,” Acevedo stated.

Acevedo has a long track record of pushing for gun control. When he was police chief in Austin, Texas in 2012, he promoted a gun buyback program that destroyed many otherwise useful firearms that could have been donated to lawful Austin residents of humbler means.


Advocating for gun control has been a constant throughout Acevedo’s career. Whether he was police chief in Austin or in his subsequent police chief gig in Houston, where he was an outspoken opponent of Constitutional Carry, Acevedo’s revulsion towards liberalizing gun laws was always on display.

Now, in his current position as Miami police chief, Acevedo’s enthusiasm for gun control has not subsided. The case of Acevedo demonstrates how out-of-touch police leadership can be. There are plenty of everyday police officers who understand the value of the Second Amendment. Their bosses, on the other hand, tend to function as de factopoliticians who care more about virtue signaling and advancing the Left’s anti-gun agenda.

Although being reflexively anti-law enforcement is counter-productive, gun owners must realize that there’s a major disconnect between regular cops and police chiefs who tend to behave as typical, corrupt politicians.

José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. Sign up for his mailing list here. Contact him via Facebook, Twitter, or email him at [email protected]. Get his e-book, The 10 Myths of Gun Control, here.