Rand Paul recently penned an excellent op-ed in Time Magazine arguing against the militarization of police forces. It reminded me of the email I got from Rand Paul last month. It was sent to me in error and it had a very different tone. It urged me to sign up defend America’s gun rights. For only $10/month I could be “automatically entered into the FRONTLINE DEFENDERS monthly gun giveaway to win a Remington Versa Max 12-gauge shotgun with Realtree camo. Each month we give away a new gun. It could be an AR-15. It could be special high-end handguns, shotguns or hunting rifles.”

Frightening stuff.

I agree with Rand Paul that turning local police forces into small armies is a bad idea. But I’m not sure how giving ordinary citizens (especially the paranoid ones) camoflauge, shotguns, automatic riffles, and ammo is any better. In fact, it sounds a lot worse.