Crime – Page 17 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Contradiction

One question I would have for our opponents, is that if private sales are such a huge loophole, why is straw purchasing such a problem? It would seem to be that, since private sales are completely lawful, that it would be preferable for gun traffickers to go this route, over the route of committing a felony in order to acquire guns. Why is straw purchasing such a big issue then?

I suspect for the same reason I’ve gotten very few guns in private sales: generally speaking, it’s really hard to find what you’re looking for, if you have something particular in mind. Every private buy I’ve ever done has been a purchase of opportunity. I wasn’t specifically looking to buy that particular gun, but someone wanted to sell it, the price was right, and it was something I thought I might want to have. As a collector, I’m generally looking for opportunities. An illegal gun trafficker is going to want guns that are desirable on the streets. He will also not likely have contacts among lawful gun owners looking to sell. That’s why they choose to use straw purchasers — it’s quicker and easier to find what you want.

Gary Kleck on Mass Shooting and Gun Control

Very good article in the Wall Street Journal by criminologist Gary Kleck, suggesting gun control is unlikely to do anything to control mass shootings. Kleck is always very useful in these debates because he’s not really one of us, as you can tell by his suggestion for how and where gun control may be effective, but he’s not out to advance a political agenda.

More Police Die Due to Gun Violence

Before our opponents get all uppity, it is in China:

Three policemen were killed and six people wounded in a shootout with a pair of murder suspects in Ti’an city in eastern China a news report said Wednesday.

Gun crime is relatively rare in China owing to strict gun control laws in the communist state, which outlaw the manufacture, ownership, transport, renting or sale of guns and ammunition by private individuals or institutions.

I think gun crime is relatively rare in China because it’s a police state, and not because of the gun control. I doubt they compile realistic crime statistics anyway. The gun in question was a home made pistol and shotgun. This was a rampage shooter too, it looks like.

Homicides Up 15% in New Jersey

Washington D.C.’s violent crime rate might be going down, but New Jersey’s is going up. That’s because they are busy spending resources prosecuting otherwise law abiding people for violating their ridiculous gun laws rather than locking up criminals. Of course, we all know it’s Pennsylvania’s lax gun laws that are causing this, because it’s always someone else’s fault. It’s never that the laws in question simply don’t work.

Interestingly, New York’s murder rate has also been up, and as we’ve noted before, New Jersey’s murder rate seems to closely track that of New York City.

A Victory for Common Sense

Two guys walk into a bar in Pennsylvania, both carrying guns. An argument ensues, causing both men to be shot in the process of said argument. At least one of them was a felon-in-possession, having previously been convicted of aggravated assault with a firearm. The felon who was shot sued the bar owner, arguing that his failure to search bar patrons was negligence. A federal court has just rejected the lawsuit.

Problems Prosecuting Gun Crimes

The Philadelphia Inquirer yesterdayÂ ran a fairly lengthy and detailed piece that illustrates the problems with prosecuting gun crimes in the city. It speaks of the head of Philadelphia’s Gun Court, Judge Paula Patrick. I don’t honestly have enough information on these cases to say whether or not Judge Patrick is insufferably soft on criminals, or is just a stickler for civil liberties and for the police following the law.

It does seem odd though that Pennsylvania would have a rule on “forced abandonment.” Basically, under federal search and seizure law, if a suspect runs from police and tosses a gun, the gun is admissible. Apparently in Pennsylvania, it’s not. It’s one thing if police unlawfully search someone. I can see the civil liberties implications of that. But if you willfully toss something? Is that even a search at this point? It’s hard to see how it could be incident to an unlawful seizure since someone running isn’t exactly seized.

We pay a price for civil liberties. What angers me is that the same people, and I agree with them, that believe in strong Fourth Amendment protections, don’t feel the need to protect the Second Amendment.

Latest Florida Shooting

So a convicted felon managed to get a gun anyway and went to a school board meeting with the idea of shooting himself some people. Only his plans were thwarted by someone else with a gun and he decided to shoot himself before someone took away all his glory:

District security chief and former police officer Mike Jones ran in and shot Duke, ending his shooting spree. At that point, Duke pointed the gun on himself and committed suicide. SWAT officers stormed the room soon after.

And yet we’re constantly told a gun wouldn’t have mattered at Virginia Tech. But I forget, this is a highly trained police officer with magical gun powers the rest of us can’t possibly possess. Apparently Jones is pretty torn up over shooting the guy. It’s understandable. But I’m glad he was there, and did what he did. Superintendent Husfelt acted valiantly too, trying to calm the gunman down, and buying time. Also valiant was Ginger Littleton, who tried to disarm the man (though quite ineffectively).

Littleton would have been more effective if she had grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher, or some other object, and bashed the guy’s skull in, but what she tried to do is commendable. In the end what was needed was someone else with a gun. Most of these murder-suicide types are acting out a fantasy, as soon as that fantasy gets interrupted by a gunfight they didn’t expect, they usually give up and off themselves before someone else gets to do it. These types aren’t fighters. I have no doubt our opponents will latch on to this, but it proves our points more effectively than it does theirs.

In this instance, people didn’t behave the way the shooter wanted, and refused to play the part in the fantasy, and in the end only the shooter was the dead guy. Resistance works. Passivity is what racks up the body count for these whack jobs.

A Basis for Gun Control?

Hard as I try to just let her be, Common Gunsense is the blog that keeps on giving. There’s no end to the ridiculous things emanating from our favorite Brady Board Member’s keyboard, and here is the latest thing:

Educated people shoot people as often as those poor uneducated people. I wonder why the gun lobby prefers not to believe that? Does it get in the way of their trying to convince us that most homicides are committed by criminals? Most homicides occur among people who know each other and often the shooter was not a criminal until he/she pulled the trigger.

We prefer not to believe it, because it’s simple just not true. Let’s look at what this study has to say on education and recidivism:

Inside our prisons, 19% percent of adult inmates are illiterate, and up to 60% are functionally illiterate. In contrast to this, our national adult illiteracy rate stands at 4%, with up to 23% functionally illiterate.

Or this study, which also shows that crime among more highly educated people tends to drop sharply. In fact, there’s no shortage of studies done by education advocates that show an inverse relationship to education levels and violent crime.Â As for homicides, there were 14,180 homicides in 2008, and of those, 44% of them authorities were unable to determine a relationship. Homicide among intimates represents only about 17% of the total. The largest category in “people who know each other” are acquaintances. It’s worthwhile pointing out that this would include the drug dealer capping a rival drug dealer.

As for the assertion that most murderers being non-criminal, that is also bunk. See this DOJ study on the matter, and we find:

54% have at least one felony conviction
70% have at least one conviction
56% have two or more felony arrests
67% have at least one felony arrest
81% of all homicide defendants have at least one arrest on their record

Now an arrest shouldn’t count for purposes of denying someone their rights, but it’s interesting data. This would suggest that no, the people who pull the trigger are largely already criminals.

Sorry Joan, but we don’t believe it because it’s not true. If you’re going to advocate for your ideas to be the basis of public policy, I think it’s imperative to argue from the right set of facts. Those facts just don’t support your conclusions.

Burglary by Explosives

Clayton Cramer points to what is no doubt a very old western statute in the Idaho Code.

BURGLARY WITH EXPLOSIVES. Any person who with intent to commit crime breaks and enters any building whether inhabited or not, and opens or attempts to open any vault, safe, or other secure place within said building by use of nitroglycerin, dynamite, gunpowder or any other explosive, shall be deemed guilty of burglary with explosives.

Of course, that made me immediately made me think of this:

Idiot

The guy in Virginia who’s become a Brady poster child after ordering a beer in a restaurant and having his unholstered gun go off in his pocket is losing his permit for a year, and forfeits the gun he was carrying. He also pays a 500 dollar fine. The 30 day jail sentence was suspended.

Tiller told the courtÂ Latham reached in his pocket to payÂ the bartender when either his hand or something else in his pocket set off the unholstered gun.

Bennett told the court that carrying a pistol asÂ Latham did, without a holster and with other items in his pocket possibly jammed into the triggerÂ guard, was reckless.

So this didn’t really have anything to do with drinking and carrying, but rather had to do with carrying without a brain. BTW, how the hell do you pocket carry a Glock 36? Those have to be some pretty big pockets.