Police should be able to obtain and use military-grade hardware in their fight against crime, retired Navy SEAL Carl Higbie tells
Newsmax TV.
"People always scream it's the militarization of our police force," Higbie said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"As weapons become more advanced and available to the public, like assault rifles — you can buy body armor and helmets and things like that — you need to have a police force that morphs with that. Like the Second Amendment says, we are a well-regulated militia."
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Higbie's remarks came after President Barack Obama's surprise announcement that he is banning the federal government from providing some military-style equipment to local police forces.
Obama also plans to put stricter controls on other weapons and gear distributed to law enforcement.
The president's announcement is in response to concerns about military-style equipment used against demonstrators last summer in Ferguson, Missouri, where a white police officer shot and killed a black teenager.
Higbie noted that communities with a high percentage of gun ownership are not necessarily crime-ridden.
"The issue is you look at Plano, Texas, gun capital of the world. [It has] 0.4 murders per 100,000. You look at Detroit, it's 59 per 100,000," he said.
Higbie is author of the book,
"Battle on the Homefront: A Navy Seal's Mission to Save the American Dream," published by Ameriman.
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