Yet Michael Fanone, CNN’s favorite former cop turned talking head, decided to opine on why people buy AR-15s.

It’s a free country, so of course he has a right to voice his opinion. Yet I also have a right to poke holes in his nonsense.

Editor’s Note: Michael Fanone is a CNN law enforcement analyst who served for 20 years with the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department. The views expressed here are his own. Read more opinion at CNN.

That’s important, probably because even CNN knows he’s talking BS.

No weapon has been more in the public eye in America of late than the AR-15, in large part because of its tragic role in some of this country’s deadliest shootings.

The AR-15 has the dubious distinction of being America’s most popular semi-automatic rifle. I’m more familiar with the gun than most people: I own one. And one thing I know for sure is that this weapon doesn’t belong in the hands of the average civilian.

It should be noted that despite his law enforcement background, he’s now an “average civilian” yet maintains his ownership of the rifle in question.

Tells you a lot, doesn’t it?

I’ve sold guns at big box retailers and I’ve also sold firearms at a small retail gun store. Some gun buyers have been misled into thinking that the AR-15 is somehow practical for self-defense. But frankly, it’s the last gun that I would recommend for that purpose.

Usually, the motivation for purchasing the AR-15 is simple: People want one because they want one. Most times, the person who buys an AR-15 comes into the store already knowing that they intend to purchase one.

I’ve pressed some customers about why they want an AR-15, but no one could ever come up with a legitimate justification for needing that particular weapon.

The glory of our nation is that we don’t need a “legitimate justification” to buy jack squat.

Moreover, if you’re a salesperson at my gun store pressing people to give you a reason to buy a firearm, you’re not going to be selling guns at my store very long.

That’s because there’s no requirement for a customer to justify any purchase of a firearm to a salesperson and pressing them for such a reason may well make many just walk out of the gun store and buy somewhere else.

In fact, this is also why I think Fanone is lying.

I’m generally hesitant to say someone is lying. It’s not a lie if they actually believe what they’re saying. A lie isn’t the same thing as being wrong, after all.

But Fanone is spinning a story that he routinely “pressed”–his word, not mine–customers to justify their purchases of AR-15s to him. I can’t imagine any gun store, be it mom-and-pop or big box retailers, that will tolerate that for very long.

I also don’t see all that many customers interested in being interrogated like a criminal suspect while trying to lawfully purchase a firearm.

Oh, but there were reasons given. Fanone just didn’t accept them.

Some members of the tinfoil hat brigade have come up with the reply, “We need these weapons because we want to be effective against the government if it becomes tyrannical. That’s part of our Second Amendment right.” Personally, I think that’s ludicrous, but it has become an increasingly popular justification for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle.

So, of course, the problem here isn’t that they didn’t have a reason for Fanone. It’s that he’s convinced it’s nonsense.

Of course, Fanone has been very vocal about January 6th. He was apparently tased during the event and has spoken out about the supposed insurrection.

That’s the same “insurrection” that nearly toppled the United States government with a few signs and a guy cosplaying as a member of the Loyal Order of the Water Buffalo from The Flintstones, mind you. But you wanting an AR-15 to resist a tyrannical government is “ludicrous.”

Regardless, Fanone then goes on at length to describe why police have AR-15s, most of which aren’t inaccurate–he brings up the shootout in Los Angeles when the police had to borrow guns from gun stores to engage the bad guys–but then he gets to this:

The prevalence of these weapons means police sometimes are overmatched, as we saw with the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last month. In a situation where you have small children near the shooter, you want to remove the threat as quickly as possible.

Now, this was just published, so I don’t know what he means by “last month.” He may mean “last year,” but regardless, invoking Uvalde is beyond stupid.

The cops had the killer outgunned. They not only had AR-15s, they had a buttload more of them. They just refused to enter the room and put an end to the situation, allowing the killer to continue murdering people. It wasn’t that they were outmatched. They had the same firepower.

They just neglected to use it until it was too late.

See, the problem here in Fanone is more than willing to justify gun control and restricting your rights with any trick in the book, including lies, because he’s one of those people who can’t handle the idea of your rights existing without his permission.

He should learn to deal with disappointment, though.