Does NBC New York Reporter Believe in Checking Facts?

There is a role in the media called a “fact checker” but strangely it seems many firearms related stories in the mainstream media just accept anything said by anti-gun types as a “fact.” Case in point, this week NBC New York offered a story on how this weekend a commercial will run featuring Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston – who happen to be the founders of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Here is what we are talking about:

Bloomberg asserted the (recent) shooting (in New York City) made clear the importance of gun control. He added: “We had too close a brush with death tonight due to illegal guns.”

And the figures prove he’s right. Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne told me that about 85 percent of the gun crimes committed in New York City result from gun purchases made in Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, “states with comparatively lax gun laws.”

First question, where does Paul Browne get his information? And more to the point, how do the figures prove Bloomberg is right? This number is widely cited, but without a source. Second, what numbers of those are legal vs. illegal gun purchases? In other words, are these even legal purchases that take advantage of “lax gun laws” in the first place? This point is never made clear and is often very vague. Not exactly the facts now are they?

But the facts get even more twisted:

John Feinblatt, the Mayor’s chief policy adviser, told me that states with tough gun laws are unlikely to be the source of illegal guns. He noted that, in fighting gun crimes, two measures are vital: having universal background checks for gun sales and putting all such data in the FBI files. In the case of the Virginia Tech massacre, in which 33 people were killed, the gunman, Seung-hui Cho, had a mental history that indicated he was dangerous but , Feinblatt said, that was never passed on to the FBI. Some state laws on gun sales, he added “have loopholes like swiss [sic] cheese.”

Again, this is twisting the message and points. Seung-hui Cho’s ability to get a gun wasn’t because of lax gun laws, but rather a failing in the mental health system. But what “loopholes” are like “Swiss cheese” exactly? Would this be private sales? Even in New York private sales are legal, provided both parties have licenses to own the firearms.

But another point we’d like to make on facts. States with tough gun laws may not be the source of illegal guns, but it is hard to know for sure. Illegal guns aren’t exactly tracked the way commercial sales are tracked, so this is somewhat a vague point. It is clear that guns do change hands in New York and Illinois – as there is gun violence. Clearly an illegal black market operates and no amount of gun bans or gun control is going to destroy this black market. But that’s a fact that really pushes the issue – is it Mayors Against Illegal Guns or just Mayors Against Guns, because the way these guys talk it sounds like the latter.

Patch.com Piece Tries to Tie Gun Buybacks and Lower Crime Together

Much of the country has seen a decline in crime, while gun sales continue to soar. And yet this week Patch.com noted that Brooklyn held a gun buyback, in which “over 100 firearms were surrendered to the NYPD,” and noted that crime is down.

The article, titled, “Brooklyn Sees Lowest Murder Rate Since 1963” offered this passage:

The NYPD/Clergy Gun Buy-Back program, which has been running since 2008, has helped remove 7,600 weapons from the streets.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Brooklyn is now safer, and he has statistics to prove it.

We have to ask, does the gun buyback program have anything to do with it? Maybe a tiny small part, but couldn’t it be that many of the neighborhoods in Brooklyn have been transformed by gentrification also in no small part the reason for the drop in crime. There has been a renaissance in many parts of Brooklyn over the past decade.

It is just interesting that this aspect hasn’t been addressed.

Another Gun in NYC – How Will This Play Out

Two tourists to New York City, both of whom had permits to carry their guns in their respective home states, could face time in jail for bringing their totally legal guns to New York City – albeit illegally by NYC law. However, this week The New York Daily News noted that rapper “Cory Gunz,” whose real last name isn’t actually “Gunz” for the record, was arrested for possession of a loaded firearm.

“Rapper Cory Gunz – born Peter Pankey Jr. – was arrested in the Bronx Saturday when cops found he was carrying an unregistered Taurus .9mm handgun, police said.

He was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court Sunday night on charges of criminal possession of a loaded firearm.

His father, rapper Peter Gunz, posted the $30,000 bail.

Here is the part where we are sort of confused… see the quote from Cory:

“This was a big mistake on my part,” Gunz told The Daily News early Monday morning after getting out of jail. “I didn’t have any intentions of harming anyone or committing a criminal activity. So many young people look up to me and I need to fight though this.”

So was the gun part of a fashion or style statement – gun for Gunz? The law isn’t about intentions in this case. The crime was also committed already for mere possession, and Gunz should have known this fact. But it gets more bizarre reports the paper:

Cory Gunz and his dad recently started a campaign called “Gunz Against Guns” where they speak at schools across the Bronx to steer kids away from the deadly weapons, Peter Gunz said.

Now the real question is whether Cory – being semi-rich and famous – will get the same treatment as the two tourists to New York City? Personally we do see a difference in these cases. The tourists in question legally possessed their respective guns but broke the law by bringing them to New York City – believing they could legally carry their firearms.

Cory Gunz however has not only spoke out against guns, but must have known that he was in possession of an illegal firearm in the first place.

NRA News: Support Grows for Marine Who Brought Gun to Empire State Building

Cam Edwards talks to Dave Bruce, a Boston lawyer and Former Marine who is trying to help Ryan Jerome, a fellow Former Marine who was arrested in New York City for his concealed handgun

Mayor Bloomberg Calls Out Obama on Gun Control

For us this is a lose-lose scenario, but at least we’re not the ones losing. This week, prior to last night’s State of the Union, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called out President Obama on gun control. It was the usual nonsense, about “loopholes” and supposed “easy access” for criminals to obtain guns. The truth is that all the measures Bloomberg wants only make it that much harder for the law abiding.

But anytime one sleazy politician calls out another we think an angel get wings! Bloomberg’s Letter After the Jump

NY Post Notes: Tourist’s Brothers in Arms

Apparently not every media outlet from the Big Apple is looking to target Ryan Jerome. This week The New York Post offered a story titled, “Tourist’s brothers in arms,” which noted that many Marines are lining to support the former Marine who made a mistake of bringing a gun to New York City.

The Post even offered this passage:

The irony that someone so highly trained and trusted to keep America safe might be thrown into prison — for a .45-caliber Ruger that he had legally registered in his home state and that he was actually trying to check with authorities — has not been lost on his Marine brethren.

Even the comments for this article show that many support Jerome, and blame Mayor Bloomberg. Maybe others have begun to see that Bloomberg is just a loud-mouthed anti-gun zealot who doesn’t care about the Constitution of the United States.

New York News Website Shows New York Arrogance

Ask a New Yorker to name the capital city of Alabama and most probably wouldn’t know. Ask a New Yorker what a “Michigan U-Turn” is when driving a car, and they probably wouldn’t know. Ask a New Yorker about laws for purchasing alcohol in Utah and chances are they might not know. Yet the New York City media seems to question why tourists don’t understand New York’s gun laws.

Website Gothamist for example noted:

Who believes that carrying a firearm into iconic, highly secured New York landmarks is a good idea? Metal detectors are designed to expose weapons, not belt buckles, yet clueless tourists keep getting hauled into court for packing heat at the Empire State Building. Now some Marines are claiming that Indiana native Ryan Jerome, himself a Marine who was arrested for trying to check his .45 Ruger with authorities in September, is more equal than others who have made the same mistake.

Is it necessary o describe these people as “clueless tourists,” especially in the case of Ryan Jerome, who was actually in New York City on business. But of course this is par for the course from the New Yorkers.

Forbes: Have Gun? Don’t Travel

Last week Harvey Silverglade offered his thoughts on the trouble involving Ryan Jerome, who was arrested for brining a gun to New York City. In a piece titled, Have Gun? Don’t Travel!,” he explains how and why Jerome could fact to up to 15 years in prison, and could likely serve at least two years. Silverglade writes:

The first major issue Jerome’s case raises is the justice of the “mandatory minimum” sentence. Mandatory minimums are what they sound like—they are minimum sentences delineated by state legislatures or Congress to ensure that certain acts are punished with at least a given amount of time in prison, notwithstanding that a judge, knowing the relevant facts of a particular case, might feel that a lower sentence would better serve the ends of justice.

He adds:

So what becomes of a person who clearly has an “innocence of intent”, who may have been aware that he possessed a gun, but had no idea he or she was committing a crime until the cuffs were put on.

The answer is not entirely clear, but as time has gone on in the last fifty years, intent has begun to matter less and less. There is an ancient tradition in the Anglo-American “common law” (inherited from the nation’s colonial past) that an individual should know not only that he is committing the act, but that the act is a crime, before being charged and convicted.

What is so frustrating and upsetting about this situation is that law-abiding citizens are facing jail time because they traveled to New York City and inadvertently broke the law, while street thugs and criminals carry guns illegally and never serve jail time!

Likewise, we’ve heard about high-profile celebrities who are able to “legally” obtain concealed carry permits – something almost impossible for the average New Yorker to obtain!

BLOOMBERG’S SLANDER OF GUN LAW VICTIM ‘DESPICABLE’ – SAF

Second Amendment Foundation:

More on New York City Gun Laws

The New York Daily News noted last week:

A Maryland businessmann who mistakenly brought a loaded pistol to New York — and then forgot it here — pleaded guilty to a reduced gun charge Wednesday, avoiding a potentially hefty jail term.

This is just the latest news involving a situation where a visitor to New York City found themselves in very hot water due to a misunderstanding. The issue here is that from the get-go these cases are treated a felonies, where otherwise law-abiding citizens – who did have permits for their firearms in their home states – faced serious jail time.

And yet, New York is still one of the safest big cities in the country. We understand why it is tough on crime, but on the flip side shouldn’t the real criminals be punished. Those with completely illegal guns, and not those who misunderstood New York City’s outrageous gun laws.

There is another solution: DON’T GO TO NEW YORK CITY FOR ANY REASON, EVER!

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