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.
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.
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.
-G. C.
