The idea that a letter to the editor in San Francisco would back gun control isn’t particularly surprising. They live in a completely different world over there, from what I can tell.

However, one letter to the editor hit on what they thought was a brilliant way to undermine the National Rifle Association. Get police officers to back gun control.

Faced with gun violence, police officers are on the front line, so why aren’t the police officers’ associations also on the front line in getting guns off the streets? It’s easy for the National Rifle Association to gain support by dismissing their antagonists as liberal hippies or chastising people like James Brady, former Rep. Gabby Giffords and David Hogg as deluded survivors. They would have a much harder time trying to marginalize police officers. Police rightly expect sympathy when one of their own is killed, yet they don’t seem to do much to try to prevent it.

Wow. What a suggestion.

So, why aren’t the police out on the front lines of “getting guns off the streets,” as the letter suggests? I mean, this is brilliant. Why not get the police to try and push more and more gun control. People paid by taxpayer money making a political stand never goes wrong or anything, now does it?

Of course, maybe it’s because the police are already on the front lines and many of them have come to the conclusion that gun control is an abysmal failure?

Think about it.

California, of which San Francisco is a large city of, has the strictest gun control laws in the nation. It’s virtually impossible to do anything legally with a firearm without the state knowing everything about what you’re doing. It’s Big Brother using the Second Amendment as toilet paper.

It’s also a state with high rates of violent crime despite the claims of every anti-gun politician ever elected there.

And guess who sees this? Police.

These are the same people who are pulling guns off of gang bangers barely old enough to shave, much less own a firearm legally. They’re the ones who have to deal with gang violence committed by people they’ve already locked up a half dozen times on felony arrests. People legally barred from owning guns.

Police are the ones who have to respond to calls of someone breaking into a home or robbing a store, only to arrive after the fact and are forced to call the coroner.

The letter-writer is right. These folks are on the front lines.

The fact that so few of them advocate for gun control laws should be incredibly telling to people like the letter-writer. The fact that law enforcement officers are often among the staunchest advocates of the right to keep and bear arms should show them a whole lot.

Gun control has no impact on the criminals out there. It only hurts people who want nothing more than to defend themselves and their families. The criminals aren’t using legal means to get their guns. We know this. The police know this, too.

Oh, you’ll find the odd police officer here or there who thinks otherwise, but my experience says the vast majority of them know better. They understand the realities, which gets to why the letter-writer won’t find them standing on the front lines of the gun control debate. Those who sign their paychecks wouldn’t like what side they choose to stand on.