From Deseret News archives:
Dinse post draws fire
Gun advocates object to his work with anti-violence group
Dinse was announced as a member of the center's 10-member board of directors last week.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, based in Bellevue, Wash., boasts 650,000 members nationwide and more than 6,000 members in Utah. The committee received an e-mail over the weekend from "somebody in (Dinse's) own" department expressing concern over Dinse's new position, chairman Alan Gottlieb said. Gottlieb declined to release the e-mail or identify the sender, but added that his organization had received some 30 e-mails or phone calls from Salt Lake residents reportedly concerned with Dinse's new position.
"We've gotten a lot of calls from members and citizens in Salt Lake City who are very upset and angry about this because they feel they can't trust law enforcement anymore," Gottlieb said.
The committee's sharply worded, one-page news release faxed to news organizations Thursday stated, "Dinse will be nothing more than a shill for the anti-gun lobby, working against the rights of the law-abiding citizens he was hired to serve."
Representatives of local gun-rights groups were careful not to endorse the statement but did express concern over Dinse's position on the Gun Violence Prevention Center's board of directors.
"I think it's inappropriate," Utah Gun Owners Alliance executive director Sarah Thompson. "I think for someone in his position it certainly is a conflict of interest."
Gun Owners of Utah policy director Charles Hardy agreed.
"We also have serious questions about parity," he said. "If one of his officers or captains or someone in the force were to want to join a pro-gun group or take a very visible role in a pro-self-defense organization, would that person feel comfortable doing it? Would they be allowed to do it? Would that person be allowed to do it on the same basis as the chief is going to participate in this anti-self-defense group?"
Dinse's boss, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, said the chief did not consult him before joining the center's board of directors.
"I am very supportive of Chief Dinse's work with this organization," said Anderson, a liberal Democrat who supports banning guns in churches and schools. "There may be political implications but I am happy to take any political heat that results from Chief Dinse's work to reduce gun violence."
A police spokesman who showed Dinse a copy of the statement said the chief was "amused by it."
