Joe Huffman and SayUncle talk about what wonderful success the authorities in the UK have been having trying to purge sharp, pointy things from human knowledge. I mean, if you want to talk about how stupid gun control is, this goes beyond ridiculousness. I can make an edged weapon capable of killing someone out of crap laying around my office inside of ten minutes. How do you regulate that?
Category: Crime
Easy Solution: Lock Them Up
The Reading Eagle is worried that The Supreme Court has limited local options for dealing with gun crime. They also tout figures by the Brady Campaign:
But when an average of 90 people a day are killed by guns in the United States, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, it can be an overwhelming job to trace the ownership of individual weapons — assuming law-enforcement officials know which weapon was used.
The vast majority of those are suicides, which the Brady’s are hoping is lost on the public. Of course, that’s not preventing them from arguing that guns cause suicide. But local communities still have at their disposal a time proven method for reducing crime and violence: locking up criminals. Unlike gun control, there are many studies that have demonstrated that removing criminals from society actually does reduce crime. Imagine that.
Disarming Britain
I don’t know why you need ads like this in a country where handguns are strictly banned:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-4JDlDs0E[/youtube]
You’d almost think the laws were ineffective, and only resulted in criminals having guns. Nah! Can’t be. That’s crazy talk!
Hat tip to reader Guav
UPDATE: Here’s the blog associated with the video.
Philadelphia Prosecutes More Straw Buyers
I would note that until the Attorney General Corbett came in, Philadelphia almost never went after cases like this. I guess they got tired of us telling them they weren’t using the existing laws. Of course, if they are serious about continuing it, how much you want to bet it lowers the murder rate in Philadelphia?
Seven People Dead in Japan Mass Killing
In a mass killing involving a guy with, what I’m guessing must have been a rather large knife.
“The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people,” said Jiro Akaogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. “He said he was tired of life. He said he was sick of everything.”
News reports said the man crashed a rented, two-ton truck into pedestrians, then jumped out of the truck and began stabbing the people he’d knocked down before turning on horrified onlookers.
Maybe we need some restrictions on two ton trucks and sharp pointy things.
Is Jacksonville More Dangerous Than London?
In terms of violent crime rates, it’s not even close.
UPDATE: Looking at the involved statistics, I’ve noticed one problem. The London statistics for violent crime include common assault, which isn’t included in the Jacksonville and Ft. Meyers statitics, so you have to strip that figure out for London in order to make a more valid comparison, which results in London’s violent crime rate being 1717 per 100,000 population, which is still higher than Jacksonville and Fort Meyers. Still, you’re far less likely to be killed in London than in either city, statistically speaking, but I’m not sure how comforted I am by “Don’t worry, our criminals will just beat the hell out of you!”
Don’t Drink And Drive
You might plow into a bicycle race. The photo there is disturbing, yet I’m drawn to the excellence of it in terms of the art of photography. That’s probably something that you’ll never see in photograph for the rest of your life. I would say that’s a good thing.
Best Criminal Name
James A. Hole. Beat a real estate agent to death with a fireplace poker, then lit a fire to get rid of the evidence. I’m guessing the kind of environment a fireplace poker is typically exposed to in the course of its use was lost on Mr. A. Hole.
A Tale of Three Criminal Records
The clarion call has been sounded, both by the politicians in Philadelphia, and by the Philadelphia media, that the only way we’re going to prevent cop killings on our streets is to pass more gun laws. The Philadelphia media has spent precious few resources concentrating on the three pieces of human debris that were responsible for the shooting death of Sergeant Liczbinski. I have managed to obtain complete criminal records for all three of the murderers.
Howard Cain was the trigger man in the Liczbinski murder. You can see his fifteen page criminal record here. Let’s look at all the violations of the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act that Cain has been arrested for. Keep in mind we’re only looking at gun charges, since that is what this blog concentrates on. Over Cain’s criminal career he had thirteen arrests for unlawfully carrying a firearm, that were listed “Nolle Prossed,” meaning the prosecutor chose not to bring charges. In a further eleven arrests for violations of Pennsylvania’s firearms laws, the charges were either withdrawn or dismissed. In only three cases was he prosecuted and either plead guilty or was found guilty. On weapons charges alone, he could have done 12 years in prison, in which case he would not have been on the streets to kill a police officer.
You can find Levon Warner’s criminal record here. His is only six pages. We are happy to see Warner facing three charges for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and for unlawfully carrying firearms, in his latest arrest for conspiring to murder a police officer, and we do hope Ms. Abraham’s office will make them stick this time. Previously, the Philadelphia DA’s office thrice declined to prosecute Warner for gun law violations. The Philadelphia judicial system chose not to try him for six other violations of Pennsylvania’s gun laws.
And last, but certainly not least, Eric Floyd. Again, hopefully this time, he’ll actually face weapons charges, in addition to the murder charges. But again, in 1994, he was arrested for robbery, and the prosecutors declined to prosecute him for carrying firearms illegally in two counts. Also in 1994, the courts declined to try him for two counts of carrying firearms illegally.
Now keep in mind, I’m only looking at weapons charges. The rap sheets of these scumbags total twenty six pages, and contains all manner of things that should have kept them off the streets for good. I think it’s time we had a serious discussion here in Pennsylvania about how absolutely and utterly broken the City of Philadelphia’s criminal justice system is, and talk frankly about things we can do to fix it. Gun control obviously is not a solution, since the system is currently not using the laws already in the books in prosecutions. The Philadelphia media must not continue to give the politicians a free pass on deflecting blame onto others, and shame on them that it takes bloggers to bring the criminals records of these scumbags into the public light. The citizens of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania deserve better, and they aren’t getting it from either their political leaders, or from the media.
How Many Must Die?
Before the gun lobby pays attention, asks Jill Porter of the Philadelphia Daily News. Well, how many indeed? But we are paying attention, but here’s what we see. Let’s take a look at Eric Floyd, one of the scumbags who gunned down Sergeant Liczbinski:
The man wanted in the fatal shooting of a Philadelphia policeman failed to show up at a prison halfway house in Erie a year before he walked away from the ADAPPT Treatment Services facility in Reading, state officials said Monday.
Eric D. Floyd, 33, of Philadelphia, who is wanted in the Saturday shooting death of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski in North Philadelphia. also has a criminal record that goes back at least 14 years, according to court records.
Floyd was charged in a robbery in Philadelphia in 1994, then convicted the next year. He spent four years in state prison for the crime.
In 2001 he was charged with a robbery in Lancaster, then convicted of the crime the next year.
Two convictions for armed robbery, and let they him out after a few years. He quickly disappeared from the halfway house. So how many indeed Ms. Porter, before we stop blaming the NRA, blaming the guns, and start locking these predators up in prison for a very long time? Armed robbery isn’t stealing a car, it’s a serious, violent crime. Who thought that after his first conviction, he should be let out of prison? How crazy do you have to be to think letting him out early a second time is a good idea?
The criminal who actually shot Sergeant Liczbinski, Howard Cain, also had a history of armed robbery, but he’s currently taking a dirt nap courtesy of Philadelphia’s finest. His rap sheet? Four counts of robbery, carrying firearms without a license, and criminal conspiracy. What was he doing on the streets? Especially when he got 10 years in prison for each armed robbery count.
The third suspect, Levon Warner, who the Philadelphia police have in custody, also had previously been convicted of armed robbery, and was sentences to 7 to 15 years. That was in 1997. I guess he didn’t end up doing the 15.
Howard Cain, Levon Warner, and Eric Floyd. These are the people who are responsible for Seargent Liczbinski’s murder. Making excuses for them by blaming the gun, blaming the NRA, or blaming the law, diverts responsibility for their actions, and cheapens the justifiable outrage over their crimes. It also takes the pressure off of politicians and judges for not doing everything they can to ensure that criminals like this stay behind bars where they belong. It should not take the death of a police officer to realize that dangerous men need to be seperated for society, for everyone’s sake.