New York Daily News Gives Bloomberg Platform to Rant
While the story this week in The New York Daily News wasn’t entirely biased, it did basically just parrot New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It offered this passage:
“Federal laws say you can’t get a gun if you have a drug problem, psychiatric problem, criminal record or [are a\] minor, and yet Congress doesn’t give monies to make sure that we can have a background check,” Bloomberg said on “Meet the Press.”
Criminals seeking guns can take advantage of “too many loopholes,” the mayor said.
“The background database isn’t up to date, private sector sales of guns is something like 40%, and they don’t do background checks,” he said.
The problem with this argument is that it basically blames the loopholes and not the criminals. It also tries to suggest that those 40 percent are 100 percent of the illegal gun problem, and there is no evidence this is the case. Once again it seems clear that Bloomberg isn’t just part of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, he’s a mayor against all guns.
Gun Control Myth Eight: Gun Control Laws Keep Criminals From Obtaining Guns
The loudest voices for gun control claim that it will keep guns out of the hands of bad people. What is generally not explained or possibly considered is that criminals don’t care about the law. If they’re going to break the law to commit a crime, then why would a law against owning a gun be a problem for them?
In fact, according to Morgan O. Reynolds in his study Myths About Gun Control, less than one percent of firearms involved in a crime and used by felons is obtained through licensed channels. In other words, criminals aren’t punished by gun control, yet law-abiding citizens are.
Some figures that Reynolds included show exactly what little impact gun control has on keeping guns from criminals:
-Just over half of the felons (compared to one-quarter of the general population) said that they owned handguns
-Fewer than one in six had purchased their guns from a retail dealer
About the only gun control law that really had an impact on gun ownership and crime was the 1934 National Firearms Act, which tightly controlled the ownership of fully-automatic or machineguns. And yet today, machineguns are legal to own with very special permits and background check. However, criminals seldom – if ever – bother with these checks and many drug cartels and other criminals do manage to obtain illegal fully-automatic firearms, suggesting that the law may have had an effect but criminals still found a work around.
ATF Allowed Guns to Walk in Indiana Too
The list of operations goes on and on. Project Gunwalker, Project Gunrunner, Fast and Furious and Operation Castaway. Criminals don’t need to turn to the black market, they just need the ATF!
Now our good friend David Codrea of Gun Rights Examiner noted that ATF may have allowed guns to walk in Indiana as well. We have to question the logic of letting any gun walk, and once again kudos to David Codrea for being on the front line of the war on guns.
Gun Rights Examiner: Exclusive Report: Documents indicate ATF, FBI allowed Indiana ‘crime gun’ sales
National Rifle Association: UK Mayhem Leaves Disarmed Citizens at the Mercy of Criminals
From the NRA:
By now you have seen the headlines and images of destruction: the rioting, looting, violent assaults, and arson.
London and other UK cities look like war zones and their citizens are afraid to venture out, because the danger is very real.
It’s a view of the temporary breakdown of society. It is gut check time; a time when the concept of being able to defend oneself gives way to the stark reality that few viable options to do so exist. Read more
Pittsburgh Post Gazette Offers Insulting Headline – Suggesting NRA Wants Criminals to Have Guns
Either the 150 protestors were sending the wrong message, or The Pittsburgh Post Gazette offered an insulting headline – possibly both. The paper’s piece is titled, “‘Let’s Talk,’ marchers tell NRA: Protesters want guns away from all criminals, terrorists.”
What does that headline even mean? We don’t think anyone wants criminals or terrorists to have guns, and suggesting otherwise is just misguided. Also it is interesting that the paper notes this bit:
“About 150 advocates of tighter gun laws called upon the National Rifle Association, which is holding its convention here this weekend, to open a dialogue about ways to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, terrorists and the mentally ill.”
Again, there are plenty of laws in place already, and these calls for “tougher” gun laws would only make it harder for law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. We also note that “150” people protested, but the paper fails to mention in this article that up to 70,000 people attended the show.
Delaware Online Writer Knows Law – Misreads History and Facts
In writing for the community view section of Delaware Online, lawyer Michael P. Kelly offers his thoughts on why we should “Control guns for the ‘common good’” but he offers several glaring mistakes.
He states, in reaction to Heller v. District of Columbia and McDonald v. City of City:
“Municipal attempts to curb gun violence by limiting access to guns, successful throughout Western Europe, appear to be over.”
Have these been successful in Europe? Really? Gun crime is on the rise in places such as Manchester, England.
It also seems that Mr. Kelly is trying to confuse law abiding citizens with criminals. He does make an interesting argument that the right to bear arms implied doing so to face state power. But that isn’t totally accurate. The Second Amendment reads, “The right to keep and bear arms,” before noting anything about a militia. Thus private citizens should have the right to protect themselves, not from state power, but from bad guys with guns.
And this is an issue that Mr. Kelly ignores completely. He talks about “constitutional” issues as a big picture. Do criminals bother with the constitution? Most criminals of the street thug variety, those who will buy illegal guns, and commit the acts of violence in Chicago and Washington, probably can’t spell “constitution.” So Mr. Kelly should look past the legal niceties, he’s too much of a lawyer to make his case.
Baltimore Sun Asks Questions in Compelling Second Opinion Editorial
A piece in The Baltimore Sun’s Second Opinion section brings up a very interesting point. The piece titles, “The revolving door for gun offenders: A Deadly pattern,” tells how the city is facing repeat gun offenders. The editorial offers this passage:
“Gun offenders are in a different category than people picked up for possessing small amounts of narcotics or other nuisance crimes. For one, gun offenders are much more likely to use an illegal weapon in a crime of violence, and after they are prosecuted and imprisoned they’re also much more likely to commit more acts of mayhem upon release. Gun violation penalties that amount to little more than a slap on the wrist, such as those now in place, are a feeble deterrent to future crimes.”
The question here is why is so much being made in cities such as Baltimore about the guns being used rather than who is using them? Isn’t this an issue of criminals with guns, and not an issue of guns being used to commit crimes?
Perhaps the media need not to worry so much about legally owned guns, but should concentrate on the real problem of gun violence – as in the violent criminals with the guns.
Yuma Sun Notes Mexico “Gun laws not effective”
While much of the American mainstream media blames the United States for Mexico’s gun problems, this week the Yuma Sun got straight to the point in a piece titled “Mexico situation demonstrates gun laws not effective“:
“Criminals in Mexico, especially the drug gangs, are not deterred by these laws at all. Mexico is making every effort to stop them from getting guns, yet nearly a military-style war is being fought between drug gangs and authorities in that country.”
The story notes that some border cities are attempting buybacks. We believe the results will be about the same as in America. Criminals won’t bother, and it will sound good and do nothing.
Media Begins to Pick up on Mexican Prison Story
This past weekend the Associated Press was alone in reporting that prison guards in Mexico released violent prisoners, loaned them guns to conduct hits and then let them back in prison in time for the morning roll call. We didn’t know if this story would get much pick up, but apparently it is shocking enough that it is getting attention from the mainstream media after all. Read more
Who Guards the Guards: Mexican Prison Guards Released Prisoners, Lent Them Guns
We hear time and time from the American mainstream media how American firearms supposedly are fueling the war between the Mexican drug cartels. What isn’t reported nearly as much is the corruption south of the border. We know it is bad, but it seldom gets much pick up. Case in point, the Associated Press filed an interesting story this weekend, which received little pick up in the MSM. The facts are actually shocking:
“Mexican prosecutors say guards at a prison let inmates out and lent them guns to massacre 17 people at a party, then allowed them to return to their cells.”
Do you think this story will get much play? Probably not, because again reporting on corruption in Mexico just isn’t done that much. Maybe the American media doesn’t want to rock the boat. Imagine if American guns were supplied to those criminals? Now that would probably make the news.
