It takes a lot to get a member of the gun-nut faction at National Review to write something critical about a nifty rifle, but I’d like to inquire, with a bit of skepticism, as to whether the ladies and gentlemen of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife really require as their standard patrol rifle a weapon more powerful than what U.S. soldiers carry into battle in Afghanistan. Behold the .308 semiautomatic from Patriot Ordnance Factory:

Cool gun. But for game wardens? I suppose you folks out in California had better be sure your fishing licenses are in order.

The militarization of our law-enforcement agencies is one of the many unhappy consequences of drug prohibition and the thing we keep calling the “war on terror.” Its ridiculous consequences include the deployment of battle-ready armored vehicles in such warzones as Fargo, N.D., and Lubbock, Texas. As an inevitable result, you get SWAT teams in Austin kicking down doors and drawing guns on people suspected of hijacking and terrorizing . . . brightly colored carp. Etc.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says it needs heavy weaponry because it encounters so many armed suspects. But surely that has not changed in recent years: Hunters are pretty much armed by definition, and most fishermen carry knives.

Yes, there are bears and wildcats in California. That POF308 is not about bears. It’s about psychology.

I was particularly struck by this tale of the dangers of patrolling Riverside County and environs. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the area, where the greatest danger most people ever encounter is the possibility of heat stroke on the back nine at Indian Wells or an encounter with the buffoons on the San Bernardino city council. It isn’t Tora Bora — it’s Palm Springs. 

Ah, but consider this: Game wardens increasingly are involved in the eradication of marijuana grown in public places — grown by people who are not likely to take kindly to the eradication of their favorite cash crop. Law-enforcement reports have documented cartel-linked operations growing marijuana everywhere from California to Michigan, from the Carolinas and Appalachia to British Columbia. Which is to say: Our government’s law-enforcement agencies cannot control marijuana cultivation on the government’s own land. This suggests very strongly that our reality-show trout commandos are not quite up to the task, and a bigger rifle is not going to change that. But they are going to look really cool while basically failing to do their jobs.

From controlling the border to policing visa overstays to putting away violent offenders for crimes short of homicide, our law-enforcement agencies perform with approximately the same level of competence as any other government bureaucracy, and conservatives’ natural sympathy for police and the rule of law should not blind us to that fact — indeed, it should heighten our awareness of their shortcomings.

Cops aren’t commandos. We should let cops be cops and let game wardens be game wardens. They should be uniformed and armed like police and game wardens, not like soldiers. And if we cannot prevent drug cartels from operating on public lands under the very noses of our law-enforcement authorities, then perhaps it is time to rethink our approach to the issue. Turning the fish police into an ersatz SOCOM surely is not the solution.