(Editor’s Note: Remember Joe Biden? He’s supposedly the one running our country though other than some sightings at his vacation home in Delaware, he hasn’t been heard from since Kamala Harris was installed as the face of the Democratic presidential campaign. His – and Kamala’s – policies are responsible for blood in our streets and for failing the American people as Lee William’s story shows.)

Four heavily armed gangsters formed a skirmish line of sorts outside of a nightclub in Birmingham, Alabama’s popular entertainment district known as Five Points South Saturday night around 11 p.m., and then sprayed a large crowd with their illegally converted fully automatic 9mm handguns. 

Four people were killed and 17 were wounded – at least four critically. Police later found more than 100 shell casings on the blood-drenched sidewalk. 

Investigators determined it was a “targeted hit.” The shooters were after a specific person. The 20 innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire were not even a consideration. The gangsters, who police say were likely paid for the assassination, have not been caught.  

This is not Birmingham’s only brush with extreme gang violence. In July, four people were shot and murdered and 10 were wounded in a shooting outside another nightclub. In February, four people were murdered while standing outside of a library. 

Officials have offered a $100,000 reward for information about Saturday night’s shooting. Alabama lawmakers even sponsored a bill that would outlaw conversion switches, which turn a legal semi-automatic pistol into a machinegun, even though the switches are already heavily regulated under federal law – possession is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison. 

One frustrated Birmingham Police officer told CNN the killings “have more to do with culture than they do criminality. We’re seeing far too many arguments being settled by bullets.”

Biden’s Nonresponse 

The Biden-Harris administration weaponized the ATF soon after taking office, but rather than siccing ATF agents on inner city gang members who are responsible for the majority of the shootings and murders in the country, the ATF was ordered to target law-abiding gun dealers and gun owners instead, most often for simple clerical errors or some minor violation of ATF’s everchanging rules.

Joe Biden has issued more than 40 anti-gun executive orders since becoming president, but not a single one does anything to yank guns from the hands of criminal street gang members. 

The ATF claims it’s a participant in Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal program designed “to reduce gun violence and other violent crime, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.” However, most of the ATF’s investigations occur after-the-fact, after local law enforcement officers who are not afraid to confront armed gangsters make an arrest and discover an illegal conversion switch or some other violation of federal law. 

To be clear, most of ATF’s highly touted arrests take place within the comfy confines of their field offices, not on the streets where it matters – where they should be deployed. After all, possession of stolen firearms, conversion switches and possession by a convicted felon are federal crimes and ATF’s responsibility. 

Not Crips or Bloods 

Rather than attacking gang violence head-on, the Biden-Harris administration cannot even say gang violence. They talk about groups of youths or at-risk teens. They demonize the gangsters’ tools but never the gangsters themselves. To do otherwise would be racist, they mistakenly believe. However, forcing law-abiding residents of the cities impacted by gang-violence to live trapped in their homes by crime is about as racist as it can get. This type of attitude is mimicked by the corporate media, who ignore the problem because they don’t want to offend anyone by citing an arrestee’s race or gang affiliation. 

Today’s gangsters are not the Bloods and Crips or Folk and People law enforcement encountered during the 1980s and 1990s. While a few still claim some type of traditional gang affiliation, most are drug crews who are drawn together solely to make money rather than out of allegiance to a specific gang. 

These crews are primarily armed with handguns, not the “assault weapons” the Biden-Harris administration would have you believe. They acquire their illegal handguns the old-fashioned way – either by stealing them or buying them from other criminals. The gangsters aren’t purchasing them at local gun shops, so cracking down on local gun dealers is a waste of resources, which would be better spent cracking down on actual gang members. 

Add weak-willed, George Soros-funded prosecutors to the mix – who are responsible for the catch-and-release seen in most major cities – and a revolving door of criminals and skyrocketing crime rates follow. 

Why This Matters

Gang violence impacts all of us. During prohibition, it led to the National Firearms Act of 1934 and its inane $200 stamps. 

Gang interdiction is not rocket science, but it requires the type of leadership we have not seen at the federal level for quite some time. There are strategies that have proven effective, including RICO Act prosecutions, sentence enhancements for documented gang membership and mandatory minimums, such as Florida’s 10-20-Life law. 

Every so-called gang expert will say we can never arrest our way out of the problem, which is partially true. Gangs are a community problem, and any solution must involve the community. However, before they can marshal community resources – such as families, educators and clergy – the killings must stop or at least slow down. This is where the federal government with its nearly unlimited resources could play a significant role, if gang interdiction ever becomes a federal priority. 

Nowadays, while the Biden-Harris administration does not recognize gangs or gangsters, they’re quick to cite their bloody handiwork as one of the reasons for their constant infringements of our civil rights. In other words, the Biden-Harris administration uses gang violence as an excuse to crack down on legal gun ownership by law-abiding Americans.

This has happened before. 

“To ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the law abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless.” Lysander Spooner said that, an American abolitionist and essayist. Spooner died in 1887, but his words still ring true. 

The next administration must target gang violence. It must become a federal law enforcement priority. It’s time to stop ignoring the killings. 

The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.

35 COMMENTS

  1. biden was not mentally fit from day one. Our country had a real coup, not a fake j6 coup, the day he was installed in office.

    We are way past due a Nuremberg 2.0. Now let’s hear from roland freisler(miner49er).

    • Why is no one talking about the biggest political scandal of our lifetime? It’s a literal threat to democracy. People voted for a man that was never in charge of this country. The entire country was lied to. Who enabled that? One person in particular had the power to do something about it.

      Kamala is on the record covering for our senile president from day one. She should never be trusted with any power.

      • “People voted for a man that was never in charge of this country.“

        Another empty claim.

        It seems “our senile president(‘s)” administration knows how to run the economy:

        “The closing price for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) between January 1, 2021 and September 25, 2024 is $41,914.75, today. It is up 36.9% in that time. The latest price is $41,923.27”

        • And the stock market means what to the poor sap out in these Dementiacrat controlled cities being destroyed by the criminals and leftist politicians? Speculators, brokers and wealthy business types seldom are affected by the policies enacted by the politicians.
          Sorry kid, the party you seem to favor is the cause of most of this country’s problems. And no the other party isn’t usually the answer or solution.

        • Without getting into a discussion on how the stock market is now unquestionably disconnected from Main St. (if you haven’t noticed that by 2020, then you’re hopeless), how does stock market performance, good or bad, prove that Joe Biden is in control of anything? Please explain this new type of logic you’re using.

        • “Another empty claim.”

          See the 2024 debate between Biden and Trump. Are you the last person in the country to figure out the secret?

  2. Arrests alone cannot solve the problem.
    Liberal application of executions would be a good supplement.
    They may not deter but they’ll cut down on the recidivism.

    Three strikes may be too harsh but we have a surplus of 12+ strike offenders running around that society could do without.

  3. Gang violence will always be used by government to justify infringement against those who are not responsible for said gang violence because it’s not about the violence it’s always about the control.

        • Given the age of mass surveillance you would be caught and easily prosecuted without prints ever being a factor. Especially if you don’t routinely wear a mask and are around areas where gangs tend to operate.

            • Oops did I miss a joke/reference or have I just seen too many selective prosecutions/investigations to see what resources will be dumped on any non-gangmember involved in a shooting and how good the resolution is from ring and similar everywhere in the suburbs and lamp post cameras popping up in the cities pairing with cell phone tracking?

  4. “traditional gang affiliation, most are drug crews who are drawn together solely to make money”

    1) the traditonal gangs are drug crews.

    2) Drug crews require drug laws – they starve without them.

    3) The chemicals of concern are CHEAP to produce – a dollar or two a day will supply the most egregious addict. No drug laws, no big profits.

    No big profits, no big turf wars…

  5. It’s all by democRat Party design. Not only does the party inspire inner city youth to primarily kill and maim each other they also inspire mental cases to become assassins while others display their sick anger when the assassins fail. In other words America has a democRat Problem.

    I received my absentee ballot and will photo it getting postmarked at the USPS.

    TRUMP/VANCE 2024.

  6. Does anyone really think Biden/Harris will target gang members? Their “community organizers” are a vital part of the po_litic_al machine and even a core voting block.

    • “Does anyone really think Biden/Harris will target gang members?“

      Kamala Harris has been targeting gang members for decades:

      “Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Announces Major Gang Arrests in Tracy
      Press Release Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Announces Major Gang Arres…
      print button email button facebook button twitter button messenger button
      Thursday, June 9, 2011
      Contact: (916) 210-6000, [email protected]
      SAN FRANCISCO — Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced today the arrest of 30 gang members in the Tracy area.

      The arrests come one day after Attorney General Harris announced the arrests of 101 leaders and members of two transnational gangs operating violent criminal enterprises in the Central Valley cities of Madera, Los Banos, Livingston, Merced, Atwater and Dos Palos.“

      • Yes, we know. They tell us about that one daily. Then she was the most left wing senator, even beating out Bernie and Liawatha. Then she was the most disliked VP in the history of this country. Why are they pretending like she didn’t exist after she entered national politics? Why did she reverse almost all of her major views, outside of being extremely pro-abortion, from only 4-5 years ago?

        • to make up for lost time Kamala now imports gang members into the country by letting them illegally cross the intentionally open and insecure border she and Joe created

  7. Gang violence and other violent crime has long been a necessary evil in liberal progressive democrats war on the 2nd Amendment. Without it they have nothing to scare their acolytes with in regards to firearms ownership.

  8. Just imagine the carnage that could be inflicted by a quartet of right wing, MAGA folk who compete in ISPSIC Practical Pistol matches who are armed with merely semiautomatic Glocks. Knowing how to use the front sight is infinitely more effective than spraying and praying.

  9. Have you ever wondered why so many ancient cities ended up burried, sometime 3- cities deep? It is because they did not have guns. Without guns, the inhabitants could only throw rocks and mud at each other. Everytime there was a fight, rocks and mud, rocks and mud, until the city was so occluded, all they could do was finish covering it up, and build a new city. Then, the fights would start again…rocks and mud, rocks and mud….

    All because they did not have guns.

    That is why there are so many good-paying jobs in archeology and why everyone and his duck wants to be an archeologist.

  10. The Democrat swamp is disinterested in doing anything about the gangs since they enjoy a symbiotic relationship with that bunch. The gangs help the Demoswamp by creating the opportunity to call for gun control and Democrats reward them by interfering with putting the thugs in jail.

  11. As always, the politicians get things bass-akwards. And as usual their solutions deal with the symptoms instead of the disease. More government or more laws will never solve the problems. Unless and until the idiots in charge decide to deal with the human part of the problem nothing will change. Go after the actual violent criminals and stop going after the law abiding who disagree with the current policies and politics.

  12. “Joe Biden has issued more than 40 anti-gun executive orders since becoming president, but not a single one does anything to yank guns from the hands of criminal street gang members.”

    Why do I need to repeat this?? Democrats are loathe to hold the 13% responsible for anything. Yes, they would rather repress the law-abiding than send their pets to prison. It has nothing to do with law and order or safety, and everything to do with fomenting chaos and undermining institutions. It is straight out of the commie playbook — encourage the criminals to run rampant, crack down on the law abiding for political crimes, and eventually the people will be begging for the state to step in and stop the madness. This is the cue for the revolution — the criminals are shot alongside the left’s political enemies, and the general populace is placed under totalitarianism.

    Commies are nothing if not predictable.

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