High Crime Not "New Normal"; Defensive Gun Uses Up

A higher crime rate in the Las Vegas area is not a "new normal." Crime rates rise and fall. America is as peaceful as it was during the last major lull in homicide rates, the late 1930s through early 1960s. Review-Journal reporter Rachel Crosby wrote that she's glad she's leaving the crime beat. She bemoans the violence she's covered and recounts a few stories.

A man in a broken relationship snapped and killed his family before killing himself. A teenager who broke the law killed himself to avoid the consequences of his actions. Unarmed security guards were shot by a robber in a mall that bans firearms. Well, it's better than the Sun's examples callingfor gun control, at least. None of those examples are really outside the norm of the valley.

If blame is to be laid for rising crime rates, look to the failed administration of Sheriff Lombardo. Under Lombardo, homicide rates are up. Attorney General Sessions came to Las Vegas in regards to the Las Vegas sanctuary city policy. And everyone is afraid to point out the causes and solutions of crime. Crime to middle and upper class citizens of all races is not a problem. While homicides are up, defensive gun uses are also way up over the past few years. There have been 24 defensive gun uses so far in a year that's only a little more than half over, versus 18 last year.

The how, why, and who of local crime is far more important than the numbers. A man who murders his wife does not make me fear for my safety, it makes me feel sad. High violence in certain neighborhoods occurring between certain members of certain communities for particular reasons, none of which are common to me, means that I am not in danger, though violence is statistically up. Just as we cannot ignore the uncomfortable realities behind crime and violence, we can’t ignore the solutions of personal responsibility to help curtail violence and protect ourselves.

Perhaps it is the limitation of the print version of the newspaper (which shouldn't limit the online version) that the details and causes behind the crimes are left out. Many stories have no follow up and leave out many details, including race. Much of Las Vegas area homicide is among minorities who are often involved in drugs or gangs. The failure of inner city minority communities to end violence among themselves by no longer tolerating it does not exist. In the Old West, frontier violence did not decline until western communities became tough on crime and did not excuse easy killing.

My suggestion to newspaper owners: higher ex-cops to investigate and write crime stories. They can handle the heat, understand the cause, and communicate to the reader whether or not fear is merited. I do not have the resources (money and time) to go to crime scenes, talk to the PIOs, order police reports, talk to witnesses, etc. The newspaper "journalists" do, but they don't. They merely regurgitate press releases or press conferences, digging down to a Facebook account at the most. Within a few days, the story is forgotten.

Today's college kids that seem to populate newspaper offices need to read real newspapers from a hundred years ago. People who take the time to read news are on average smarter than TV news viewers and we want analysis and details.

We should never accept higher crime rates as normal. We each have the ability to safeguard ourselves from criminal attack by exercising our right to self-defense. Those in communities plagued with violence have the responsibility and the duty to reform their own communities by turning in criminals and setting the standard at home and in church that crime and violence is unacceptable. For the rest, we can start by getting handle on things by voting out Sheriff Lombardo in 2018 and by electing legislators and politicians who will be tough on crime and enforce immigration laws.

Recall Scummy Joe!

Our brother over at Nevada 2A (NV2A) has started a petition to recall Scummy Joe in his position as Clark County Sheriff in response to his un-American, anti-gun statements to the Las Vegas Sun supporting a standard capacity magazine ban. As of press time, a little over a thousand people have signed it. The goal is 1,500.

We'd start a petition to return all cops to six-shot revolvers and five-shot pump shotguns, but that would be stupid. Wonder if Black Lives Matter might be interested...

Lombardo’s department has been shockingly ineffective at keeping homicides and violent crime at bay. Homicides were up 80% in March of 2016. In October, homicides evened out to a 25% increase over 2015 and a case of dubious self-defense caused a 20 year high for murders. Lombardo says 50% of the homicides are related to gang activity, but some of his changes have been criticized. 

Gang expert Wes McBride, a retired gang detective, said that Lombardo's decision to break up the gang unit helped increase street crime. Metro blames California for exporting it’s gang members (true to a degree), but Metro can’t admit that Las Vegas simply has a gang problem because of the endemic poverty in some neighborhoods. “If they admit to having a local gang problem, they’re seen as being a weak administrator,” said McBride.

Sign the petition at Change.org

 Metro police officers, via their unions, blame the decentralization of the gang unit for making sharing intelligence harder and diverting gang detectives to other types of investigations. Don’t forget the plan to pull detectives into black and whites for a few weeks of patrol to help out on the manpower shortage. Seems no one wants to be a cop anymore and the “more cops” tax just isn’t enough.

Scummy Joe also blames “the increase in firearms.” The increase in the use of firearms? The increase of illegal possession of firearms? Or does he mean “more guns=bad?” That kind of statement is like blaming an increase in car sales for an increase in traffic deaths and DUIs, but logic is not exactly the ken of anti-gunners.

Of course, there are remarkably few prosecutions and convictions for illegal gun possession. Why not create a task force dedicated to targeting crooked FFLs, street gun dealers, and felons in possession of firearms? The DA’s firearm task force is a couple of ADA’s who work on violent crime cases that involve guns, not getting guns out of the hands of bad guys. Sadly, gun laws are seldom enforced.

In the mind of a gun grabber, of which Scummy Joe certainly is one, passing a law, like Question 1, is easier than actually catching criminals and prosecuting them. Banning standard capacity magazines is part of an incremental strategy to ban guns. Police administrations (not your beat cop) don’t like armed citizens because they tend to compete with police’s monopoly of power as the only gun-toters on the street.

Another reason is civilian disarmament is a favorite of governments and police because all gun possession is illegal, and therefore anyone who has a gun is a criminal. For this reason, top cops like disarmament. Anyone with a gun is a bad guy. Patrol cops don’t need to think about it and can’t really wink at grandma who has a magnum in the glove box. It makes their job a lot easier if they can arrest anyone who has a gun in public.

Imagine a patrol officer stops a car full of young black men in a Hispanic neighborhood known for a gang problem. The officer believes the men are ready to do a drive-by, but the gun is legally owned and possessed in the vehicle. The driver, who has the gun, has no known gang ties and is not a prohibited person. Unless the officer actually has probable cause to arrest the driver for conspiracy to commit murder, etc., he cannot arrest the driver for having a gun. Damn you, US Constitution and racial profiling prohibitions! This was a huge problem to California cops—except when the cops just said “screw it” and decided to just arrest everyone and take the guns anyway.

Rather than deal with the gang at its roots, more and more gun control laws were passed. So if an officer found a loaded gun in car, then an unloaded gun, then a unloaded handgun not in a locked container, he could make an arrest. Criminals evolved with the law or simply ran the risk of being caught, so the law had to change until the point that basically thinking about a gun in public became a felony. Instead of treating the underlying disease, gun control only treats the symptoms.

Nevermind that a perfectly law-abiding person just wants to be safe; sorry, thems the breaks. Carry a gun because you drive a truck through George Soros funded riots in Oakland and don’t want to be the next Reginald Denny? Sorry, that’s illegal. All guns are bad you see.

These points are lost on Scummy Joe. In his defense, he actually seems to give a shit about violence, but is unwilling or unable to actually confront the problem which causes gangs. Prosecutors plea bargain things down and criminals don’t do the time they deserve. Our criminal justice system is hopelessly broken precisely because the men who are able to effect change, Lombardo and DA Wolfson, don’t do it. Calling for the prompt execution of murderers, three-strikes, long prison sentences, etc. is politically inconvenient and too much trouble.

Where does the mag ban come in again? Civilian disarmament is unlikely in the United States and would undoubtedly start a civil war, so steps must be taken incrementally. Public opinion has swung well in favor of firearms and continues to rise. What anti-gunners want to do is slowly erode rights and change gun culture. By making guns harder to own, use, and carry, it becomes too difficult for gun owners to keep up and comply with the laws. Eventually, they give in an surrender to the inevitable. Once guns become uncommon and people aren’t interested anymore, there is no public outcry when a ban is called for. Question 1 and this magazine ban is part of that whole plan.

It’s not guns that are the problem and Scummy Joe knows that. The violence in the valley is likely a cause of California criminals coming to Nevada for a cheaper cost of living, to escape California warrants and rap sheets, and also the release of California criminals due to prison overcrowding (known as Jerry’s Kids, after Gov. Jerry Brown). Las Vegas is also where a lot of people move to when they run out of options. Nevada has been the place to run away to for a new start for a long time, the sun and heat, and no state income tax is really appealing. With the amount of poverty in the valley, you’re going to see crime and gangs right along with it. Until society confronts problems that create gangs—a weak criminal justice system, poverty, and ghetto culture—gang violence will be a problem.

If Lombardo had simply been a crappy sheriff, it wouldn’t matter. Street cops and detectives are the heart of law enforcement; the brass could elope to Mexico and no one would probably notice. Instead of just sucking at his job, Lombardo doubled down and jumped on the disarmament train, thinking that Nevada’s slide to a Democrat voting blue state and Democrat dominated legislature was the perfect cover. Nope, sorry. Gun owners and people who actually care about their safety and liberty are fighting back.

-G. C.

Nevada to Ban "High Cap Mags"? Vegas Sheriff Supports It

So Clark County’s casino sheriff shows his true colors: he’s an anti-gunner who cares not for your rights. We suspected it a few months ago when he was telling people in private that he supported Ballot Question 1, banning private gun sales. Now Sheriff Joe Lombardo is calling for a high-capacity magazine ban, vomiting up the same tired bullshit that citizens don’t need or deserve them, hinting at the outright mendacity that “the Second Amendment is for hunting.”

Lombardo told the Las Vegas Sun (a liberal mouthpiece) “I’m a very avid hunter, I was in the military myself, and there’s no need to have a high-capacity magazine for any practical reason.”

Since we’re lacking the whole interview, we don’t know the full remarks of his statement, but this one is asinine. The Second Amendment is not about hunting. It is primarily intended to ensure that Americans can effectively rebel and kill agents of a tyrannical, abusive government. No Metro intel division, I have no intention of the sort and don’t know anyone who does.

Second, being in the military should have taught Scummy Joe (his new nickname here) that yes, “high capacity” magazines (actually standard capacity, but more on that later), are necessary for average citizens for the same reasons that Metro officers need them. If “high-cap” mags aren’t needed by average citizens, then there is no reason police officers shouldn’t return to six-shot revolvers and dump pouches.

There is no logical reason why any cop, which Scummy Joe ceased to be the moment he stopped pushing a black and white, should not support citizens owning the most effective tools to defend themselves with. The only possible motivations he could have are political ambitions or hatred for armed citizens; Joe isn't dumb enough to believe that a 17 or 30 round magazine is inherently evil. Whatever the case, his opinion is not based in fact and follows the same faulty logic that all gun control arguments seem to follow. 

If Clark County is stupid enough to vote this scumbag back into office in 2018, then this county and Nevada in general is doomed. Mr. Lombardo: you sir stand in violation of your oath to the Constitution and deserve no respect from the citizens you purport to represent or the officers you supervise. Shame on you.

This comment was likely a trial balloon for the legislative session to see what kind of reaction they get. Make sure it’s negative. You can email Scummy Joe at sheriff@lvmpd.com or contact him on Twitter at @Sheriff_LVMPD.

To any legislator or public official actually considering floating this to the legislature because Democrats control it, forget it. Losing Question 1 by a narrow margin woke up Nevada gun owners; any attempt to further turn us into California is going to be fought tooth and nail and will cost you in the mid-terms.

Gun owners: see what happens when you don’t get involved? Don’t let the mistake of Question 1 happen again during this legislative session. Get involved, NOW! More on this later.

Update: Legislators and the president of the Nevada Firearms Coalition oppose any bans. Read more at Newsmax.

Tell the liberal ass-rag the Sun what you think of their anti-gun agenda.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR E-mail your submission. Please send letters to the editor to letters@lasvegassun.com. Letters to the editor should be no more than 250 words and include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. Anonymous letters will not be printed.

-GC

WE ARE LOOKING FOR 30 ROUND AR-15 MAGAZINE DONATIONS FOR A GIVEAWAY. PLEASE EMAIL US IF YOU ARE A VENDOR OR MANUFACTURER WHO IS WILLING TO DONATE.

Sheriff Lombardo Supports Anti-Gun Question in Private

Alert!  

Don't take for granted that your pro-gun friends know to vote NO on question 1.

We just found out that our Clark County Sheriff, Joe Lombardo, who has officially taken a neutral position, is still speaking in favor of it in private circles.

We found this out from a couple of people who had attended an event recently where he was a speaker.  They took what he said as gospel, even though they were pro-gun people.  

Thankfully, we got to them before they voted and straightened it out.

But this should serve as a warning that we can take nothing for granted.  We need to be evangelists on this thing to everyone we come into contact with.  Go beyond social media.  Ask people at your work.  Even if you think that you might disagree with them on the entire rest of their ballot, don't worry about that.  Try to enlighten them on Q1.  Talk to EVERYONE in your family.  If you conduct a lot of business by email, add "Nevadans, Vote NO on Question 1" to your email sig.

We know that the only way this thing passes is if enough people are in the dark.  

Hit the bullet points:

Why does an out of state billionaire want to BUY a law in Nevada?

If we pass just one more law, criminals will surely start obeying them, right?

Who does this law affect?  The law abiding.  Criminals are amused by our futile attempts to regulate them into compliance.

Get out there and spread the word!  Be an ambassador for the 2nd Amendment!