Mr. John Delicate Leaf, Criminal Justice Coordinator of the City of New York and tax-paid agitator for citizen disarmament.Fresh from covering the Great GOP Powder Puff Incident, Birmingham News ace night-shift crime reporter Jeremy Gray reports breathlessly: "Alabama 5th in U.S. for supplying crime guns."
He writes:
A report released Monday says Alabama is the United States' fifth largest supplier of guns used in crimes in other states. In 2009, 1,561 guns sold here were used in crimes in other states, according to the report from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition formed in 2006 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.
What? We don't get credit for doing our part to boost the sagging economy? Seriously though, to quote the Bard, "Who hath measured the ground?" As we well know from previous ATF statistics mongering, "crime guns" are not the same as "trace guns."
Three Alabama mayors -- Mobile Mayor Samuel Jones, Prichard Mayor Ron Davis and Tuskegee Mayor Omar Neal -- are among the coalition's 500 members, according to the group's website. The group works to reduce the threat of illegal guns, the site states.
Personally, I doubt that any of these Democrat mayors are making further restrictions on firearms a campaign platform this year.
Weak state gun control laws have turned Alabama into "a supermarket for guns," said the group's chief policy advisor, John Feinblatt.
"Feinblatt" translated from the German means "delicate leaf."
"John Feinblatt is the Criminal Justice Coordinator for the Mayor. Prior to his appointment, he most recently founded and directed the Center for Court Innovation. He has also served as Director of the Midtown Court, Deputy Executive Director of Victims Services (now Safe Horizon), and a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society. Feinblatt earned a BA at Wesleyan University and a JD from the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University." -- www.nyc.gov
The state needs to implement several laws to prevent guns sold legally here from being used illegally somewhere else, the report states.
Just to make it explicit:
Among the measures the group said are needed here are: Laws making it a crime to buy a gun for someone who can't buy one legally,
Of course we already have a federal law to that effect.
requiring background checks for handgun sales at gun shows,
The old canard of the "gun show loophole" rears its ugly head once more. These people won't be satisfied until they get federal control over all private firearms transactions. Of course, they could be dead before they do.
requiring purchase permits for all handguns, requiring people to report lost or stolen guns to police, allowing cities to enact gun control ordinances, and allowing police to inspect gun dealerships.
What this is about is empowering anti-firearm rights mayors to wage their own wars of citizen disarmament without reference to vagaries of state or federal enforcement. The lords of the manor do not wish their peasants to have access to armor-punching crossbows while they steal the crops and diddle the peasant women.
James Moses, president of the Alabama State Rifle and Pistol Association, argued that such laws would not keep people from buying guns here and shipping them elsewhere. "I don't think those measures have worked anywhere else," Moses said. "It's just more talk."
One quote of counter opinion in the entire story. This is what passes for "fair and balanced" in the Birmingham News these days. It could have been a more eloquent or fact-based refutation than "Just more talk." Yet, given the political realities of this state, that's probably true. Still we should keep firmly in mind what these walking appetites for other people's property, liberty and lives have in mind.
But Feinblatt said Alabama has gained a reputation as a state with weak gun laws and more needs to be done here.
If Mr. Delicate Leaf thinks so, I invite him to come down here and try it. Please.
The report stated that Alabama has a gun export rate of 33.2 guns per 100,000 inhabitants, more than double the national average of 14.1 guns exported per 100,000 inhabitants. "For years, the thinking was what makes America safer is giving people more access to guns," Feinblatt said. "This report shows what makes people safer is common sense gun laws."
Common sense. Yes. How about this common sense proposal: If you try to take our firearms we will kill you. Does that work for you Feinblatt? 'Cause it sure as hell works for us.
The report commended Alabama for having laws making it a crime to use false information to buy a gun, selling guns without background checks, giving police discretion in issuing concealed weapon permits, and prohibiting violent misdemeanor criminals from owning guns.
Yes, well, I'd like to thank Mr. Delicate Leaf for reminding us of how anti-gun local authorities can deny CCW permits to the law-abiding out of personal animus. I'm sure that after this election, when both the Alabama House and Senate change party control, that we're going to be addressing that and other issues. I like Vermont carry, myself. And an Alabama Firearms Freedom Act will be almost a certainty.
Thanks, Feinblatt, for raising this issue just in time for the election. We needed the reminder.
"Do you love it?
Do you hate it?
There it is,
the way you made it."
-- Frank Zappa, 1965.
Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.
Later: David Codrea's take on this.
10 comments:
I've always liked Alabama. I considered a job offer from a TV station in Huntsville once.
Although I am very partial to my native Commonwealth of Kentucky, I think I'd be pretty happy there.
The "Center for Court Innovation"? Yeah, with a name like that I had to look them up. It's a big social engineering project. You can't push people around in a social engineering project if they can fight back, hence the stated opinions of Mr. Delicate Leaf.
At least these people are honest about it:
"The Center creates new programs that test innovative approaches to public [sector] safety problems. Underlying this work is the concept of problem-solving justice—the idea that, rather than simply processing cases, the justice system should seek to change the behavior of offenders..."
(Bracketed phrase contains a word disarmers always forget to mention.)
That's interesting guys, but the federal and state's constitutions don't authorize "problem-solving" courts, only expedient ones so everyone has a shot at a fair trial.
Moved from Illinois to Bama in 1984. Have to say there are times when Alabama state politics make me homesick for Chicago.
First order of business after the 2006 election was for legislators to vote themselves a 63% pay raise by voice vote. This time around the state teacher's union spent $750,000 on an ad campaign to defeat the more conservative Republican primary candidate.
Hope Mike is right. I've held a ccw since 6 months after moving here, but Vermont carry would be nice.
I wonder how it will go over, these mayors presiding over decaying cities of the unemployed as they raise taxes, telling the voters they have too much freedom and are not to be trusted.
Well, the mayor of Richmond, VA, a MAIG city, seems pretty popular. He's giving "free" stuff to the right people, people who historically do what the hell they want anyway regardless of the law.
People who shoot people dead within sight of the Project Exile billboards, over drug gang territory.
I haven't been into the city since I was laid off from my downtown job 14 months ago. Me OR my money.
Re: "Crime guns" versus "trace guns"
David Hardy handily dispels this convenient conflation.
http://armsandthelaw.com/archives/2010/09/mayors_groups_r.php
"Second problem: the report constantly refers to "crime guns," then buries on p. 32 the concession that it is talking about traced guns, which are not the same as guns used in crime. (Its concession is misleadingly worded -- not all crime guns are traced. The real problem is that not all traces, in fact a majority of them, are of crime guns)."
MS got hit as "number 1" with the same crap from a gullible reporter.
You know, here's what I don't understand. All these "mayors" want the states to impose the same laws that the feds impose, yet scream that the sky is falling and arizona has no authority to enact the same law (illegal immigration) that the feds have.
Further, if we look to the study, it's not a 1:1 correlation of the "illegal crime guns". Why take out population? The state either a) does have a lot of guns used in crimes bought from it or b) does not. What difference does population make?
Also, what is the percentage of guns, purchased legally through an ffl, that are used in actual crimes, recovered, and then the actual legal purchasers are prosecuted? Just because guns are stolen in the "top 10" states more than others does not prove any causation that MS or AL traffics a large number of guns.
Man I hope that made sense.
Esq.
They never mention how the states of origin, where guns are "easily available," have lower violent crime rates per capita than the gun-banning states.
If a gun shop sells 1,000 guns, statistically 10 (1%) will come to the attention of the police. Those 10 might have changed hands in private sales half a dozen times. (You been satisfied with EVERY gun you ever bought?) Some buyers will be spotless, some will be shady, some will be outright demons. Just like cars and drivers.
The media are struggling mighty hard toward a zero trust rating and irrelevance. But learning about what you write about is so hard and takes time, and it's the NEWs business...
According to the AP article in the local Lafayette, Indiana paper on Monday, BATF traced 145,000+ crime guns and found that 43,000+ were sold in other states (Indiana is one). 49% of those 43,000 were sold in 10 states. They are trying to say that Indiana is too lax on background checks, also. Don't think so. I've been to the gun shows here, and those guys are calling BATF for the NIC info constantly.
Maddie
It seems fairly obvious that someone had to be 5th. It reminds me of the teacher who after testing her class said that half the students were below average! As a statistic it is meaningless that someone is 5th in something. A real "duh!" moment.
Go 'Bama!
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