John Lott takes a look over at National Review, and notices that it’s not all that uncommon over there too. What surprises me is how many of these I never heard of.
Category: Crime
Standoff in Bethlehem
This one was due to a prank call from someone on a deactivated pre-paid cell phone telling police he had just shot his wife and was going to shoot himself. They apparently extracted everyone from the house, and the calls kept coming. What I want to know is, why call out the “emergency response team” for a guy threatening to complete the suicide part of the murder-suicide. Shouldn’t the correct response to “I just shot my wife, and I’m going to shoot myself,” be “It would be nice if you could save the taxpayers all that money. Go ahead. I’ll wait for the bang to dispatch the meat wagon?”
Sea Shepherd Trial Begins
Japan is not noted for having a fair justice system that respects the rights of the accused. But these idiots probably should have thought of that before boarding a Japanese vessel on the high seas. Interesting that he’s facing knife charges. What’s the difference between a legal and illegal knife in Japan? Surely they have cutlery.
Changing Definitions
Chicago can’t reduce their murder rate. So how do we solve it? Why, change the definition of murder, that’s how. Everyone knows it’s a lot better to get killed indoors than outdoors.
Gun Crime in New Jersey
Cemetery reviews a gun control special put together by News 12 on Long Island. I could tell his expectations where very high when he said of the Mayor of Newark, “Bonus points for Cory Booker for not looking like a fat drunken slob.” That would be an allusion to the mayor of his city, who is.
Lessons from the Palin Hacker
Remember the story about Palin’s e-mail getting hacked back during the campaign? Instapundit reports the hacker has been convicted for felony destruction of records to hamper a federal investigation and misdemeanor unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer.
Lesson here is don’t commit a felony to get yourself out of a misdemeanor.
Gun Control Working, As Murder And Shootings Rise
I think the claims in this article contradict themselves all over:
“City is winning the war on street guns”
“Cops recovered 5,129 firearms from suspects last year, compared to 5,537 in 2008 — an 8 percent decline”
“An ATF spokesman said the weapons recovered were not recently manufactured, which meant the flow of newly minted weapons was also continuing to decline.”
“[M]urders are up 20 percent, from 119 last year at this time to 143 through last Sunday. And shootings are up 14.8 percent so far this year, to 373 from 325 for the same period last year”
And naturally, it’s everyone else’s fault other than Bloomberg’s. He’s winning the war against guns! Unfortunately for him, he’s losing the war against criminals. Has it ever occurred to him that he’s fighting the wrong enemy? Nah.
The Daley Solution to Crime in Chicago
Apparently is martial law, or something close to it. I don’t know how this is such a problem, since guns are illegal there and all.
Blackwater in Trouble
Blackwater officials enticed the local sheriff’s office to pose as the purchaser of 34 automatic weapons that would be stored on the company’s campus, something prosecutors called a straw purchase, according to the indictment. The Camden County Sheriff’s Office provided blank letterhead to the company, which then used the stationery to prepare letters ordering weapons.
They probably figured they were safe, since they had the local LEOs on board with their scheme and were cozy with the Bush Administration. Personally, I would go to jail for doing this, so I don’t think there should be exceptions. The law is the law.
Prosecutors also focused on Blackwater’s supply of short-barrel rifles, which dealers must register. The company purchased 227 short barrels and installed them on long rifles without registering them, and officials shipped the weapons with the barrels detached so that they could be reassembled overseas without facing the charge of exporting regulated weapons, according to the indictment.
Sounds like they bought a bunch of M4 uppers and put them on unregistered AR-15 lowers, which is definitely a no no. Even having them together is constructive possession. If you have an M4 upper, you better have a registered lower to go along with it. I’m sure that makes operating a private armory difficult, since you need spare parts, but that’s how ATF interprets the law for me. Corporations shouldn’t get a pass.
In a 2008 interview with the AP, Jackson and other Blackwater executives said the company provided the local Camden County sheriff’s office a place to store weapons, calling the gesture a “professional courtesy.”
“We gave them a big safe so that they can store their own guns,” Jackson said at the time. Added then-executive vice president Bill Mathews: “We give stuff to police departments all over the country, and we take particularly good care of our home police departments.”
It’s going to be an interesting case, for sure. Can a police agency contract out storage of their NFA stuff to a private third party? If they can, can the private third party use them for their own purposes? Does letterhead abuse amount to an illegal straw purchase? I can understand why Blackwater might have thought that the federal gun laws were a real problem for their business model, and I’m sympathetic to that argument, but the proper course of action is to lobby Congress to change the law, not to break it and hope for the best.
Newark’s Murder Free Month
I figure there will probably be some dopey gun control folks that will credit one-gun-a-month for Newark’s drop in crime, but this article from NJ.com suggests it was improved police methods that are responsible. Imagine that.