The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
The Philadelphia Inquirer is noting the growing momentum of the anti-gun movement in Pennsylvania, and taking shots at the only man who ever went after straw purchasers in a big way in Philadelphia: Tom Corbett.
So they are willing to cast aside someone who’s actually tried to do something about criminal misuse of firearms, by actually prosecuting criminals, and advocate replacing that person with someone who will just pass more laws the City won’t bother to enforce. Brilliant!
When they do catch people, and prosecute them, under the laws we have against straw purchasing, they don’t get any real punishment. Yet they scream louder and louder every year at Harrisburg that they need more laws they won’t enforce. How are more laws going to help when they aren’t even using the ones they already have?
I know, it’s hardly new advice to readers here. But apparently things are getting worse with the second fatal attack on pizza delivery guys in a two weeks.
I guess that quest to “minimize” the right to self-defense is working out pretty well for the city. I guess the only hope Philly has for economic recovery is a bustling underground economy that has a side effect of improving the economy of putting people underground.
The Philadelphia Inquirer seems to be on to something:
Philadelphia defendants walk free on all charges in nearly two-thirds of violent-crime cases. Among large urban counties, Philadelphia has the nation’s lowest felony-conviction rate.
Only one in 10 people charged with gun assaults is convicted of that charge, the newspaper found.
Only two in 10 accused armed robbers are found guilty of armed robbery.
Only one in four accused rapists is found guilty of rape.
The data also show that people charged with assaults with a gun escape conviction more often than those who use fists or knives. Of people arrested for possession of illegal handguns, almost half go free.
Nationally, prosecutors in big cities win felony convictions in half of violent-crime cases, according to federal studies. In Philadelphia, prosecutors win only 20 percent.
So does the Inquirer want to explain how more gun laws are going to help if we’re not even enforcing the laws adequately against rape and robbery? This is scandalous, yet the Inquirer’s editorial board will continue to blame guns and the NRA, and shame Harrisburg for not passing more laws. Can we try locking up criminals first?
It looks like the Philadelphia media is rather fascinated that criminals straw purchase guns in other states and traffic them back to Philadelphia. In this case, the feds are prosecuting because a police officer was killed with the gun. Straw purchasing is a state crime too. How often do run of the mill, non-cop-killing criminals end up getting let go because the authorities ordinarily don’t care?
Today Andrew Breitbart released video and audio from the Philadelphia ACORN office sting. It did not just prove that ACORN staff were lying to cover their butts, but it also proved David Gambacorta of the Philadelphia Daily News didn’t really investigate the local office’s claims before publishing a full fledged defense of the organization.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKZykXm-23Q&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
I don’t believe that being invited to come back for a housing workshop to help a declared prostitute evade the law is being “shown the door,” a claim made by Mr. Gambacorta. Nor does hearing the staff argue that it doesn’t matter how many underage illegal sex slaves are brought in cause any kind of disturbance, another claim published by Gambacorta without evidence.
And they honestly wonder why no one is buying their papers anymore? They don’t do any kind of reporting, just a little reorganizing of the ACORN press releases and they call it a day at the Daily News!
Both DA candidates in Philadelphia say they will have no tolerance for illegal guns.
“My number one priority as a father of three daughters and a lifelong resident of Philadelphia is to make Philadelphians feel safer. And we are going to do that by prioritizing illegal guns. We are going to be going after the people that are using guns illegally. We are going to be going after the people that are selling guns illegally.”
I have no real beef with this position. But will they follow through if elected? If Bloomberg’s group were lobbying to put illegal gun traffickers and people illegally using guns in jail, I would have no problem with the group. But that’s not what they are doing.
The Pocono Record has run another glowing op-ed on Mayor Baughman of Stroudsburg, praising his membership in Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Tunnel vision gun owners, spurred by the powerful National Rifle Association, have been sending hostile messages to Baughman urging him to resign from MAIG. The NRA and groups like it hold tremendous sway over gun owners and elected officials.
Hear that? You have tunnel vision. You’re too stupid to think for yourself, according to The Record. They, of course, can see the big picture. But they wouldn’t be running this op-ed, once again today, if Baughman wasn’t continuing to be pressured by his constituents. Hopefully we can keep it up and get him to leave MAIG.
Or maybe not. Even city council members can become victims of the City’s bureaucracy. Seems back in 2005 City Council member Rick Mariano went up to the city hall tower and started acting oddly. It would seem he was upset about a pending federal indictment. Family decided it would be best if the Philadelphia Police took his guns, including the 9mm he apparently liked to wear on his ankle. Â Only problem is, they sort of accidentally melted his guns down:
“It’s obvious this wasn’t supposed to happen,” said Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman. “It looks to be just an error.”
Vanore said he was not aware of anyone’s being disciplined because of the error.
Mariano’s recourse? Vanore said the department told the family it could file a claim with the city and would be reimbursed for the destroyed guns, which included a Romanian AK-47 rifle. Vanore had no estimate of their value.
But it is LYMOB, because if that had been anyone else, they would have told them “Sucks to be you.” and made you sue them. I’ve heard of more than a few cases of people unable to get guns back from the city when the city had no lawful authority to hold them, and having to file lawsuits. And these are people who are found to have broken no law. Mariano is a prohibited person now.
Before we were largely speculating. Â Now we actually have some facts in the case. It seems Colosimo entered into a plea deal with prosecutors. Â We also have this:
The government’s plea memorandum said that on Aug. 4, 2004, a straw purchaser identified only as “Person #1” received money from “H.B.” and a male known as “Shiz” to purchase four firearms on their behalf at Colosimo’s.
H.B. accompanied Person #1 into Colosimo’s and provided money to Person #1 in the presence of a store employee, who recorded that the purchase had been made by Person #1.
None of the four firearms has been recovered. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tomika Stevens told Savage that prosecutors did not know if the firearms had been used in any crimes.
After that purchase, ATF agents set up controlled buys using informants for the purchases of six firearms between Dec. 8, 2005, and April 18, 2007, the plea memo said.
Those guns were turned over to ATF agents immediately after the purchases, which were set up and monitored by the ATF, court documents said.
On one occasion a cooperating witness, A.P., identified himself as the buyer, but Person #2, the straw purchaser, filled out the paperwork, identifying himself as the buyer. A Colosimo’s employee recorded the transaction in the straw purchaser’s name.
On another occasion, a government informant and Person #3 entered Colosimo’s together. Court papers said that the informant had told a Colosimo’s employee that Person #3, the straw purchaser, was buying a handgun for the informant because the informant could not buy a gun. The Colosimo’s employee recorded the purchase in Person #3’s name, court papers said.
Now those are better facts, but they raise some questions:
What’s described here is most definitely a crime committed on the part of the dealer’s agent. At best, he’s not training his employees correctly, and at worst not being careful about hiring scrupulous employees. I’m sorry I ever stood up for this guy. This looks like strong evidence, and I suspect the prosecution is actually going rather easy on the defendant in this case.