Who Guards the Guards: Columbus Police Department Creates New Gun Unit
10TV in Columbus ran a story noting how Columbus Police are trying to get illegal guns off the streets, and while the numbers of confiscated weapons actually fell, the department is looking to create yet another unit. Here is what the Web story had to say:
“Police have already created a unit that does nothing but process guns seized from the streets, but a new plan to go after illegal weapons is expected to be unveiled soon, 10TV’s Kevin Landers reported on Thursday.”
We’ll be watching this new “plan” very carefully. Let’s hope it isn’t just a plan that would make all guns owned by citizens of Columbus to suddenly be illegal.
Who Guards the Guards: Police Still Losing Guns
We regularly report on how the police lose, sell or steal guns. But we surely can’t cover all of the fobbles by the boys in blue, so we were happy to see that our good friend David Codrea at Examiner.com offered a round-up of recent examples:
Guess who is putting lots of guns ‘on the street’?
While we still thank law enforcement for the hard work they do, and we’re really not “anti-police” at all, we do think the media gives the bad apples a pass too often. We’re happy to see that this isn’t always the case. And thanks to David for compiling the list.
Philly Inquirer Editorial Calls for Gun Control
Any editorial that offers the opinion: “Another good sign is the 159 cities and towns that have joined the state’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns group,” isn’t going to be one we agree with at all!
This isn’t a good sign, this is a horrible sign for law-abiding gun owners nation-wide, and while The Philadelphia Inquirer in an editorial this past weekend attempted to draw attention to illegal guns, this notion of “getting guns off the street” through legislation is in our opinion completely misguided. It is criminals, those who don’t legally own guns who are responsible for the bulk of crime. Does anyone at the Inquirer really think more laws will get the criminals to fall in line?
Police to Auction Guns!
While we at Firearmstruth.com occasionally note our disagreements with law enforcement on the issue of firearms right, and point out that we don’t believe events such as gun buybacks actually “get guns off the streets,” we are pleased to offer kudos to the Twin Falls Police Department. The Magic Valley Times News is reporting that the police are auctioning off firearms that were evidence and are no longer needed. The paper notes:
“The department plans to sell an estimated 91 firearms that are no longer needed for criminal justice purposes, and revenue is slated to go into the city’s general fund.” Read more
Who Guards The Guards: Police Pull Guns in Two Unrelated Incidents!
Talk to any anti-firearm zealot and they’ll likely tell you that if guns were banned, no one would ever have to stare down the barrel again. But what if the police are still armed? Couldn’t a police officer then break the law and aim a gun at you – say in a bar? Well, this happened not once but twice this past weekend.
The Associated Press, via The Dallas Morning News reported:
“An off-duty police officer is accused of hitting two bar workers and pulling a gun on them because they refused to let him back inside after closing. Sgt. Hector Roa, 37, was charged Sunday with two counts of aggravated assault, Dallas police said.”
Meanwhile, to the north, in Tulsa, KTUL noted:
“A Tulsa Police officer is suspended with pay after he pulls a gun near a bar. It happened early Saturday morning at a bar near 17th and Boston. According to arrest reports, 33-year-old officer Thomas Fees was asked to leave the bar after a disturbance.” Read more
Editorialized Philly Gun Story Passed Off as News
Philly.com, home for The Philadelphia Daily News, has run a highly editorialized piece under the guise of news. Ironically, it ran said piece in the local news section, but yet it is about a gun law and those with ties to Florida. So is this really national news?
The story covers the main points without too much bias:
“Pennsylvania’s firearms reciprocity agreements require the state to recognize permits from 24 other states that have permit laws as strict or stricter than its own and that those states, in turn, recognize Pennsylvania weapons permits.
“Among the states covered, there are three – Florida, Utah and New Hampshire – that allow out-of-state residents to get permits even if they don’t qualify or apply for permits in their home state.” Read more
Baltimore Mayor Calls for Tougher Gun Laws, Interesting Fact Noted
While we support law enforcement (even if we call out their fobbles from time to time), we realize that crime in our nation’s cities remains a problem. But we found an interesting fact in a story in The Baltimore Sun, which noted how the city’s incoming mayor, Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, is calling for tougher gun laws. The laws in this case we actually agree with, where use of a gun is added to a criminal’s charges when arrested (i.e. “use of handgun in commission of a crime”), but it is this passage that we found interesting:
“Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III tried to steer the focus back to the legislation, saying that 26 percent of the guns seized in Baltimore last year were long guns.”
This is notable because many cities make it so much harder to own handguns. In New York for example, you need a different permit for long guns (rifles and shotguns) as you do for handguns. Two different offices handle these permits, and these aren’t even located in the same borough of New York City let alone the same building.
Now we worry that the anti-gun zealots will use this as ammo to say, “all guns are bad,” but we’ll flip the argument and say, “see if criminals can’t get handguns they’ll use rifles,” and to make our point, “if they can’t use rifles, they’ll use bats, axes or sticks with a nail.” Criminals, in other words will use anything they can as a weapon.
Newsday Makes Dubious Claim About Illegal Handguns
New York Newsday reported on a buyback in Nassau County, and how police paid up to $200 per handgun. The interesting part is the dubious reporting:
“A gun buyback program run by the Nassau County police department Saturday at a church in Rockville Centre was responsible for taking 173 illegal but operable handguns off the streets, police said.”
How do the police know – or the reporter for that matter – that these were “illegal” handguns? And does this mean that guns that were registered and legally owned couldn’t be turned in? That seems highly biased. So was this a case of bias in the buyback, or just biased (and inaccurate) reporting?
Baltimore Police Commissioner Declares War on Guns
In a scene out of HBO’s The Wire, the police commissioner in Baltimore declared war on guns reports The Baltimore Sun. We praise the commissioner, and the Baltimore police department’s efforts to make the city safer. We just hope that “getting guns off the streets” doesn’t mean out of the hands of law-abiding citizens as well.
Seatte Area Man Convicted for Wife’s Gun
Luke T. Groves of Bremerton, Wash., will be headed to jail for first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. Groves had turned down a plea deal that would have allowed him to avoid jail time reports Seattle PI. As we previously reported Groves had been previously convicted of breaking into a school in 1990. What is disturbing about this case is that it was actually Groves who had called the police for help. Seattle PI notes:
“Groves called police in late November 2008 after he returned home to find a broken window in his Hewitt Avenue house. He says he told officers that his wife owned a rifle and handgun.”
He now faces 31 to 41 months in prison. He will be sentenced January 29. We wish our best to the Groves family.
