by James Bovard

About the author: James Bovard, a freelance writer, is author of Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty.

“Rank and file police officers have never had a better friend in the White House than Bill Clinton,” announced national Fraternal Order of Police President Gil Gallegos when his group endorsed the president on Sept. 15, 1996. A few weeks later, Mr. Clinton signed a gun-control act that is wreaking havoc on America’s police and also decimates the constitutional rights of millions of other Americans.

Most police organizations have enthusiastically supported every gun-control gambit Mr. Clinton has put forward. That may be because such legislation almost always contained an exemption for the policemen themselves while they were on duty. No more. On Sept. 28, 1996, as part of a massive appropriations bill, Congress passed the...