“If it wasn’t for the diligence of these court officers, who knows what tragic events could have unfolded.” That’s dire warning came from New York Supreme Court Officers Association President Patrick Cullen. He was referring to the discovery of a 9mm “assault rifle clip” in the bag of someone entering the Bronx Supreme Court building Friday.
As the New York Post reports . . .
Isaiah Brown was on his way into Bronx Supreme Court at 10:30 a.m. Thursday for a housing-court case when he was caught with the ammo as he was coming through the magnetometers, the source said.
Oops. More from Mr. Cullen.
Our fear is that the ammunition could be paired up with a weapon that is already in the building or could be coming in at a later date.
But wait. How could that be? As we all know, New York City has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. So strict that it’s not legal to transport a firearm from your home to any other location in the city other than a shooting range.
And then there’s Governor Cuomo’s famously effective SAFE Act. Under those restrictions, it’s illegal to own a magazine that will hold more than ten rounds. And even then, the law says you can’t put more than seven rounds in at any one time.
Court officers confiscated the fully loaded assault-rifle magazine with 24 rounds, including a hollow-point bullet, which expands on impact, according to the source.
What was Mr. Brown doing with such a dangerous “assault rifle clip” like this in the first place? And how could someone have possibly secreted a handgun into the court house when that’s plainly against the law, too?
The Post reports that, upon further investigation, it turns out that Mr. Brown, the man who was caught with the magazine in his backpack, has “gang affiliations.” He’s no doubt cooling his heels now on Rikers Island while the NYPD tries to figure out what a dangerous item like that was doing in their city.
It’s almost as if criminals don’t really pay attention to gun control laws, no matter how strict they are. In fact, you’d be forgiven for concluding that the only people whose behavior is affected by laws like New York’s are law-abiding citizens.