Newest Fox New piece: New gun rules for Neighborhood Watch volunteers in Sanford, Fla. about race, politics not saving lives

My newest piece at Fox News starts this way:

When lives are on the line, what saves lives -- not politics – should guide policy. 

Gun control advocates used to warn about blood in the streets if we didn’t tighten gun laws, but as concealed handgun permits in the U.S. have doubled from 2007 to now, murder rates have fallen by 18 percent. 

Enter a new strategy: playing the race card, along with claims that allowing people to defend themselves means that whites will hurt blacks. But this strategy ignores the crucial fact that blacks kill over 91 percent of blacks and that whites kill 84 percent of whites. 

Unfortunately, many politicians – from Sanford, Florida to the U.S. Senate – are following a divisive race based strategy. 

Tuesday, George Zimmerman’s hometown, Sanford, Florida, is instituting two changes to its Neighborhood Watch program. 

Residents who are members of the watch will no longer be allowed to carry a permitted concealed handgun with them nor will they be able to follow someone they deem suspicious. . . .

UPDATE: The Sanford Police Chief has issued a clarification about their new policy.  From Fox News:

The police department in the Florida city where Trayvon Martin was killed says that while it recommends that neighborhood watch volunteers not carry weapons, it won't formally prevent volunteers from doing so. 

Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith says the program will better train participants but won't infringe on someone's constitutional right to carry a gun. Smith spoke Tuesday to clarify the agency's policy, days after the department said it would work to ensure volunteers weren't carrying weapons. 

Smith says anyone who carries a gun can still participate in the neighborhood watch program, and no one will be asked if they have a concealed weapons permit. But block captains will be required to sign a waiver saying the city will relinquish liability if they decide to carry a weapon. . . . .