ARIZONA NEWS

Phoenix police union rep in favor of universal background checks

Apr 10, 2013, 9:40 AM | Updated: 10:58 am

PHOENIX — Former Phoenix Police officer Levi Bolton is a supporter of universal background checks but also believes that those checks are not the ultimate answer to stopping gun violence.

Bolton was on the force for 32 years and represents 13,000 Arizona police officers as executive director of the the local law enforcement association. Closing the so-called gun show loophole with background checks is not the ultimate answer to stopping gun violence, he said.

“There’s no single thing we can do to bring about the kind of overall safety that is being envisioned or talked about. While it’s lofty and something we should be working toward, I don’t know practically how you would get there.”

Bolton said someone who is hell-bent on carrying out an act of gun violence will do just that, regardless of tougher gun laws.

“The one dynamic that no one wants to talk about is most of these people came there to die. So what deterrent can you impose when someone came there knowing that they would be among the casualties and that was part of the equation.”

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Phoenix police union rep in favor of universal background checks