If you're a regular reader here at Bearing Arms, you know that I've got my own concerns about Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman's "special deputy sheriffs", but mine are substantially different than the anxieties of Long Island Democrats shared by the New York Times.

 In a piece headlined, "A Trump Ally Is Training 75 Armed Citizens. Is That a Militia?" reporter Corey Kilgannon plays up the fearmongering by Democrats over Blakeman's plans for a reserve deputy force that would be deployed during emergencies. 

The leader of a New York City suburb is recruiting 75 armed citizens, many of them former police officers, for a force of “special deputies” to be activated whenever he chooses.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who has allied himself with former President Donald J. Trump and thrust himself into the culture wars, posted a call in March for residents with gun permits and an interest in becoming “provisional emergency special deputy sheriffs.”

The posting called the initiative a strategy to assist in the “protection of human life and property during an emergency” such as a hurricane or blackout — and perhaps, Mr. Blakeman later added, “a riot.”

The new force has drawn vocal opposition in this well-to-do Long Island county, which is one of the country’s safest, protected by one of the largest police departments. It has plunged Nassau into a national debate about authoritarianism in an election season that some see as a fork in the road for American democracy.

Whether Nassau County actually needs a reserve force of deputies is an open question, but these types of programs are hardly unusual. They can be found in New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.; just to name a few deep-blue cities that have similar reserve or auxiliary officer programs in place. And despite Kilgannon's contention that the reserve force in Nassau County will be under the sole supervision of Blakeman, who could call them out at his whim, the reserve force is run by Sheriff Anthony LaRocco. According to the sheriff, the "Provisional Emergency Special Deputy Sheriffs will have no police powers unless an emergency is declared by the County Executive and they are activated."

Despite those guardrails, Long Island lefties are losing their minds over what they see as Blakeman's "private militia". 

Jay Jacobs, the Democratic Party chairman for both Nassau County and New York State, accused Mr. Blakeman of using such issues to distract voters from his lack of progress on cutting property taxes and fees and fixing the property assessment system.

“This is all to solidify his extreme right-wing base,” Mr. Jacobs said. “Instead of solving the county’s problems, he’s appealing to the right wing by speaking the language they like: militia, guns, law and order.”

“There is no problem he is looking to solve,” Mr. Jacobs added. “Does he think we’re going to be invaded by Suffolk County?”

Meh. If this is a play to gun owners, it's not a very good one. I imagine most Second Amendment supporters in Nassau County would prefer to see Blakeman and the sheriff make it easier to apply for a concealed carry license, not establish a reserve force of auxiliary deputies. 

Jacobs' comments are nothing, however, compared to what Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, the Democratic minority leader of the Nassau County Legislature, has had to say about the reserve force. 

“It’s fear-mongering, and it’s very damaging to people,” said Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, the Democratic minority leader of the County Legislature.

“It’s the opposite way we want to be going, a private militia with guns,” she said. “We’re trying to work on gun control, rather than promote them.”

She should be working to ensure that every Nassau County resident has access to their Second Amendment rights, but that's clearly too much to ask from someone who blithely shares comparisons of the reserve force with Nazi stormtroopers. 

Ms. DeRiggi-Whitton said in an interview that she had heard from Jewish residents who likened Mr. Blakeman’s initiative to the rise of Nazi forces under Hitler. One person referenced the Brownshirts, a paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party formed in the 1920s.

When Ms. DeRiggi-Whitton told reporters this in April, Mr. Blakeman, who is Jewish, called the comparison offensive and demanded her resignation.

She's still in office, and the sheriff's department is still training those reserve deputies, so I guess neither DeRiggi-Whitton or Blakeman got what they wanted. 

Again, maybe this reserve force is completely unnecessary, but that doesn't mean that the Nassau County Executive is creating his own private army of 75 gun owners. Kilgannon and the Times had the opportunity to tamp down on the fearmongering, but they shamefully chose to amplify it instead.