Houston police chief rips NRA amid rift between gun lobby and U.S. top cops

John Bacon | USA TODAY

A bitter social media episode pitting the Houston police chief against the NRA has erupted as hundreds of police chiefs nationwide are lining up against the gun lobby giant over controversial concealed-carry legislation.

Chief Art Acevedo, who has called the bill "a bad idea," had an angry Tweet-storm encounter emerge from last week's deadly school shooting at Santa Fe High, about 30 miles south of Houston. Eight students and two teachers died before the teen shooter surrendered to police.

Acevedo, who discussed the bill in one of the tweets, also raised the notion of legal action against the NRA for "twisting" the truth.

The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, awaiting Senate action, would require states to recognize concealed carry permits regardless of where they are issued. More than 400 U.S. police chiefs have signed a letter opposing the legislation.

The House approved the bill in December in what NRA lobbyist Chris Cox called a "watershed moment for Second Amendment rights.” The group claims chiefs who opposed the bill in a recent letter "have abandoned their constituents in order to curry favor from out-of-state political interests."

More: One Santa Fe student's struggle to cope: A plea to arm teachers

More: House votes to expand concealed-carry rights

The letter, however, describes the bill as a "dangerous encroachment on individual state efforts to protect public safety" because states requiring more stringent standards would be compelled to allow visitors from states with more relaxed rules to carry concealed firearms.

That has big-city police chiefs such as Houston's Art Acevedo, New York's James O'Neill and Boston's William Evans on edge.

O'Neill, noting that millions of tourists from across the nation visit his city, said the bill "puts us all in jeopardy." Evans said "anything that makes it hard to get a gun, or safer to get a gun, they (NRA) seem to be against it."

Concealed carry reciprocity should only occur for states with LTC requirements like we have in Texas. Let’s have a national LTC standard with Texas process as the minimal standard. https://t.co/DZyDodtEDM — Chief Art Acevedo (@ArtAcevedo) May 22, 2018

Acevedo has never been on the NRA's favored list. He has long lobbied for nationwide, universal background check standards, strict mental health guidelines for possessing guns and strict requirements for storing them.

"Shame to all given the task to enact common sense statutes & policies & continue to fail our families & especially our children," Acevedo tweeted after the shooting.

Acevedo also issued a less controversial statement calling for metal detectors at all Texas schools. But his frustrations boiled over on a Facebook post.

"I know some have strong feelings about gun rights but I want you to know I’ve hit rock bottom and I am not interested in your views as it pertains to this issue," he said. "Please do not post anything about guns aren’t the problem and there’s little we can do."

A couple days later, he tweeted that "the vast majority of American gun-owners are responsible & reasonable & I proudly stand with them... Public policy can not continue to be hijacked by the fringes in the extreme left or the extreme right."

"@ArtAcevedo calls my views fringe, and that's important because my views are about freedom and protecting the #2A. Those views are fringe? Remember, he took an oath to uphold the Constitution, yet he slams my belief in it as fringe."

—@stinchfield1776 #TuesdayThoughts pic.twitter.com/l1OOTUc8jU — NRATV (@NRATV) May 22, 2018

NRA spokespersons Dana Loesch and Grant Stinchfield took notice of Acevedo's tweets on NRATV, which tweeted their responses.

"Art Acevedo is a police chief who thinks ... he has the right to apparently go into every home in Texas and inspect how everybody's storing their firearms," Loesch said.

Stinchfield accused Acevedo of "playing the part of a police chief,' adding that Acevedo wanted to create criminals out of "law-abiding gun owners." He dismissed Acevedo's "fringe" comment, saying the chief "took an oath to uphold the Constitution, yet he slams my belief in it as fringe."

Acevedo tweeted that the NRA was losing the moral high ground and lining up "on the wrong side of history."

"Unlike the @NRATV I believe guns belong in the hands of law-abiding Americans of sound mind," Acevedo tweeted. "And will do everything I can to keep it that way and to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and mentally unstable."

He also accused the NRA reps of cyberbullying and implied he could file suit over "your twisting of the truth."

Stinchfield did not waver, noting that Acevedo was a public figure and he and others have the right to say what they want so long as they believe it to be true.

"You think you call all the shots," Stinchfield said. "Don't forget, the people are your boss."