Street Gangs guns Racketeering
Seized street gang guns. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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The New York Times published a recent article titled, “Bravado, Self-Defense, Fear: Why These Young Men Carry Guns.” In it they talk about the 2020 gang violence spike in the city and somehow tie it all in to being the fault of what they believe is a world representative of the “gun culture.”

The article begins:

“More than 1730 people have been shot so far this year as of Nov. 29, double the number for the same period a year ago – a level of gun violence not seen in 15 years.”

What’s going on in New York? Well, most of the gun-related crime is — surprise! —  gang-related. But Covid is also having an effect. Now, I realize there is some truth to economic downturns being tied to increases in crime, but the issues at play in New York aren’t nearly that simple.

“The police say feuds between street crews over turf and drug deals are driving most of the violence. A single gang feud in Brooklyn, for instance, has been blamed for 26 deaths. Those conflicts have been made worse by the pandemic’s economic and emotional toll on low-income families.”

This next sentence makes me think the New York Times has little to no grasp of cultural differences and violence norms in New York, let alone America as a whole:

“But the authorities said they are also grappling with a deep-rooted gun culture in the city’s poorer neighborhoods, where some young men carry firearms not just to commit crimes but also in a misguided attempt to protect themselves.”

And then it’s time to point fingers at other states’ allegedly lax gun control laws.

“Black market guns, usually bought in other states with lax laws and smuggled to New York City in cars, were easy to buy on the street, they said, where they cost anywhere from $300 to $1000.”

If only all states were as strictly regulated as New York.

Here we come to the fun part. Basaime Spate, one of the authors of the study cited in the article, presents his take on the root of New York’s “gun violence” problem:

“Basaime Spate…said guns have long been mythologized in the United States, equated in popular culture with self-reliance and power, and it was no different in densely populated cities.

‘This is about America embracing the gun culture,’ Mr. Spate said. ‘This is an American problem.'”

Somehow, though, neither Spate, or the article’s author, Edgar Sandoval, mention the fact that the city now has a zero bail policy that releases criminals almost as soon as they’ve been charged. Oh and the fact that Mayor Bill de Blasio just sliced $1 billion out of the NYPD’s budget didn’t merit a mention in the discussion of the city’s crime spike.

Could either of those be factors in the fact that New York will end 2020 with a 14-year high in the number of shootings? Or maybe it’s just too convenient to package the problem as part of America’s mysterious “gun culture.”

Here’s a news flash for Mr. Spate. This is about criminals behaving criminally and a violent subculture of violence that has been part of society for a very long time. It isn’t about embracing the gun culture, it’s following a way of life where it’s all about survival…kill or be killed, and the mindset is that there is no way out.

That’s a brief summary, but you get the gist.

Violence isn’t gun culture. And the gun culture isn’t violent. Guns are simply the inanimate objects many criminals choose to wield to exert power and influence. Criminals also use knives, blunt objects, fists, and feet. It would be fantastic if the mainstream media and the anti-gun left in general were capable of grasping the reality of the situation, but that’s not really in their interest.

Criminals will act criminally The tools they use aren’t to blame.

It would also be nice if they understood illegally obtained firearms wielded by criminal hands are not the same as legally obtained firearms owned, carried and used by law-abiding gun owners. But I digress.

Let’s hear it. Do you think America’s gun culture has anything to do with gang culture?

 

 

 

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92 COMMENTS

    • I’ve had firearm since age 6, in rural Cumberland mountains. Kids had their own guns at about the same age and hunted does with me at about age 7.At 10 they hunted squirrels alone with just the family dog in the woods behind our home.We do not belong to any gangs! We haven’t shot anyone yet and I’m72.
      A lot of firearms in our home. I like guns, old guns, some new guns.
      Too Bad:The New York Times employs Morons and for their anti American Socialist assault on our Country.
      I think it was somewhere off new York that an Ancestor was imprisoned by British on a Ship during the Revolution, later released or escaped he was at Yorktown. 2018 we spent much of October in New York tracking down Ancestors that were on the Mayflower. People said we didn’t vote for these people and don’t know anyone who did, meaning the Democrat Marxists and their ilk on the New York Times. Free the people, New York. Quit publishing lies and garbage New York Times.

      • “If she changes her name to Yusuf Islam,…”

        Thanks, now I have an earworm of ‘Moon Shadow’ that will not go away.

        Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  1. The liberals are committed to willful ignorance of what gun culture is. Hunters, self defense, target, competition and sports shooters are the gun culture, not gang members. Their first clue should be that guns are illegal in New York but gangs still carry them and when they get arrested they are out before the cops can write the reports. Liberals want to go easy on criminals but still complain when they shoot people, who would have thunk.

  2. Yes, but gang are not taught proper trigger control or weapon discipline & care.
    Many just get 2nd hand weapons, no one is trained on the right way to carry & use a weapon. So gang culture is missing a lot of what makes gun culture a good thing in the USA. This is the key reason the two are linked by gun control advocates, to make everyone look bad & remove all gun from all Americans.

  3. Of course it is. That also explains the fact that NYC’s street gangs are comprised exclusively of OFWGs from Florida, Texas, and Mississippi. /s

    • observation of and adherence to the 2nd amendment has a;ways been a scarce commodity in the land of the sullivan law….

    • You got us. You figured us out. All of us OWFGs who were listening to original gangsta rap back in the 80’s when we were teens are coming back into the life hardcore now that were hitting our 50s. I was just up in the Apple the other day runnin game on hos. (For the humorously challenged I was not in New York. This is a joke)

      Now I’m straight addicted to the jackin and the slangin. Cross cords saggin and my flag shows I’m bangin.
      😉

      • DJ Crimson Pirate,
        Word!

        Actually, reading through your shtreet poetry made me realize what I’ve been missing all along: “OG” is just short for “OFWG”. I rest my case.

  4. Thus continues the downward slide of the NT Times….they are becoming less and less relevant and it ticks them off, so they tell outrageous lies to generate clicks trying to keep at least some ad revenue coming in.

  5. “Oh and the fact that Mayor Bill de Blasio just sliced $1 billion out of the NYPD’s budget didn’t merit a mention in the discussion of the city’s crime spike….Could either of those be factors in the fact that New York will end 2020 with a 14-year high in the number of shootings?”

    No.

    Just as booze creates drunks and alcoholics, guns create gun crime and gun death. Without the booze, there would be no drunks; without the guns, there would be no gun crime…no gun culture.

    Why is this so hard for everyone to understand?

    Oh yeah, all this talk about criminals being released without bail and stuff? It is just the price of living an a modern, sophisticated, caring, nurturing country.

    • Excellent post, Sam.

      You forgot that without pharmacopeia there would be no Drug Culture…ie. no addicts / dependent persons preying on the rest of us to support their life choices.

      • “You forgot that without pharmacopeia there would be no Drug Culture…ie. no addicts / dependent persons preying on the rest of us to support their life choices.”

        Yeah. I got lazy.

        • Mornin’ Sam,

          Lazy…it happens to the best of us.

          Trying to snow here…plan on spending the day muttering puttering around in the shop.

        • “plan on spending the day …. puttering around in the shop.”

          Make sure you have someone nearby to clean up after you.

      • “You forgot your sarc. tag.”

        Not actually. Readers such as yourself would understand immediately. If you have to explain a joke, it wasn’t funny.

        Thanx

    • Isn’t it a shame the criminals don’t see it that way. Why are they not inspired by the kindness 9f others to do good works for the betterment of society? Probably because criminals can see suckers and know how to play them.

      From the series “Yes Minister” and “Yes Prime Minister”, heads so full of wool it is child’s play to pull it over their eyes.

      None are so blind as who choose to be so.

      • “Isn’t it a shame the criminals don’t see it that way. Why are they not inspired by the kindness 9f others to do good works for the betterment of society?”

        Some of them do – To a point.

        It’s not unknown is some cities for the gangs not to mess with the elderly, for example. It’s just done to keep the heat off of them…

  6. So according to the NYT people like us are out warring over drug selling turf? Since it’s part of gun culture and all.

  7. Well, to be fair there are two gun cultures.

    There’s the gun culture where you have a tool that can be dangerous and demands proper respect.

    Then there’s the gun culture where having this object magically adds inches to your dick.

    ======

    But that’s really superfluous. The real issue is people finally coming to the stark realization that gangbangers are not crazy or stupid. They’re rational actors in an irrational system. If you want to drastically alter their behavior you have to drastically alter the system in which they exist.

    This is something Democrats running cities have shown a steadfast unwillingness to do. But, then in some ways so have Republicans but that’s usually in different geographical locations.

    • “Then there’s the gun culture where having this object magically adds inches to your dick.”

      I had fun with a local woman in the comment section my local newspaper awhile back –

      After she went to the tired trope of “It’s just a replacement for your dick” I told her, in all seriousness, that I would be happy to prove to her in person that the gun I carried was smaller than the one I was born with. (It was actually true, at least on the days I carried the tiny NAA-mini around my neck.) Sadly, she never took me up on the offer. And she never used that colloquialism on me again.

      Sometimes, people can be such fun toys to play with! 😉

  8. NY Times, really? If the paper was a little softer it would have a real purpose as toilet paper. Liberal rag, totally and willfully ignorant of any facts. It’s the new National Enquirer. Responsible people, no matter what race, carry guns because of reality, they know they are responsible for their own life and safety. It’s that simple.

  9. Yeah…. Don’t think for one second that these liberals are oblivious to the truth….. They know exactly what their doing by trying to merge LEGALLY OWNED AND CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED gun owners with ghetto criminals….
    I mean C’MON MAN, YOU DOG FACE PONY SHOW…..
    They are trying to legitimize these filthy criminals by lumping legal gun owners with gang banging ghetto trash…
    I guess this is the whole problem with this country …. There are so many naive people who think liberals are just misguided and it’s just another day in da Hood….. NO M F E R, THIS IS WAR AGAINST WHITES AND EVERYTHING THEY STAND FOR…..
    TAKE YOUR BALLS OUT OF YOUR BFS MOUTH AND WAKE THE FK UP ALREADY… YOUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED BY UNGRATEFUL GHETTO SCUM….. FIGHT BACK AND DON’T JUST STAND THERE GETTING YOUR A $$ BEAT LIKE MOST WHITE PEOPLE DO WHEN ATTACKED BY GHETTO CRIMINALS. .

    JUS’SAYIN….BEEOTCHES..

  10. I live in an area where both the gum and meth culture thrive and it is generally quiet and peaceful. Maybe the NYT ought to take a deeper look at crime in NYC

    • This is on point. There’s more guns and just as many drugs in rural America but people don’t walk around killing each other daily. Self reflection is not a skill liberal mayors and city councils care to engage in. They have no interest in examining how their policies have contributed to the crime and violence that proliferates their cities.

    • tdiinva,

      Your area is quiet because the gum dealers infused their product with marijuana: thus all the gum chewers are ultra-relaxed and it is nearly impossible for them to ever get worked up to the point of going violent on someone. Badump tish!

  11. The very idea of the New York Times opining on the nature of gun culture is as hilarious as the thought of the Ku Klux Klan holding forth on the true meaning of Rosh Hashanah.

  12. The New York Times is simply trying to equate the gun owning public at large, including the firearm manufacturers and firearms rights organizations and with gang and criminal culture.

  13. Only a fool would believe taking a gun from someone will make them suddenly care about human life.

    This from a paper that runs purely on a leftist agenda.

    I wonder how many guns were stolen from this years first time gun owners by a gang member.

    It’s just too difficult for me to believe a single word knowing the let criminals out of their cages and are so very proud of their abortion accomplishments.

  14. Well Duh.

    Guns and gangs go together, who knew?

    Breaking News….Criminals use guns.

    This just in…Dogs actually bark, rain is wet.

  15. I’m not looking to send clicks to the NY Times but does anyone know the make/model of the PCC gun DA Eric Gonzalez is holding up in the second photograph?

      • He’s making a reference to Stalin’s starvation of millions of Russians because he didn’t like their attitude.

        And face it, the Leftist scum would love to do that to us today if they could get away with it. But they would have a real difficult time doing it, since we’re the ones who manufacture and operate the combines that harvest the crops that feed them, and drill and refine the fuel that runs the combines and fuels their BMWs.

        Come to think of it, if they get too ‘uppity’ with us, we can cut the electricity to those big, shiny northern cities they are so proud of right in the dead of winter. Make it kinda tough to charge those electric cars they love so much.

        And we could easily ‘forget’ to drive semi-trailers stuffed full of food to those same cities.

        They really haven’t thought through what going to war with us would mean for them, it seems like.

        (And aren’t the mines that mine lead and the factories that make ammo all in redneck-infested flyover country? 😉 )

        • Obama’s EPA shut down the last smelting facility ( Doe Run, in Missouri) in late 2013, leaving a few reprocessing plants in the U.S. to recycle all of the existing lead, mostly into batteries. Since hydrogen imbrittled lead makes shitty bullet stock, most of the supply of virgin lead comes from overseas. Like from…. Russia. Good thing Joe is pals with them, or I’d be worried about that supply line… sarc

        • Geoff PR,

          Speaking of flyover country, I am right smack-dab in the middle of flyover country. Just yesterday I was at a “cottage” installing some important stuff that the owner is head-over-heels thrilled to have in operation. I should mention that this “cottage” is nicer than most homes in the area and sits on about 300 acres of land. Oh, and the owner is a dyed-in the-wool Progressive worth several hundred million dollars who earned his money working in the financial district of New York City and left New York City to live in flyover country.

          As I finished up my task at his “cottage” yesterday, two thoughts bubbled up in my mind:

          1) I find it interesting that he could live pretty much anywhere in the world and chooses to live in a quiet, out-of-the way, rural area in flyover country.

          2) Does he realize that the stability and attractiveness of this location is the result of conservative people and policies for the last 150 years and NOT the result of Progressive people and policies for the last 150 years?

        • ) Does he realize that the stability and attractiveness of this location is the result of conservative people and policies for the last 150 years and NOT the result of Progressive people and policies for the last 150 years?

          OR (3) Do you think he really gives a shit?

        • “Does he realize that the stability and attractiveness of this location is the result of conservative people and policies for the last 150 years and NOT the result of Progressive people and policies for the last 150 years?”

          If he is as rich as you report, he likely has mucho influence in high places; working hard to re-create the liberal haven he abandoned.

        • ” Since hydrogen imbrittled lead makes shitty bullet stock, most of the supply of virgin lead comes from overseas. Like from…. Russia.”

          Mexico has lead mines in the same rock strata as copper, silver, gold, and a few others like mercury. So does Canada. They will outlaw mining it here, and buy it from our northern and southern neighbors.

          Uncommon – I know *exactly* what you mean. They believe the peace and tranquility in flyover just happens magically. I’ve known a few of those folks over the years. Not super-rich, but worth in the tens of millions range. They were OK people, and a big part of that was them being sent to public schools in redneck Polk county, Florida.

          They type you ran into are an alien breed to me, and quite frankly, would not be able to relate to them…

      • “There is famine in Russia? Oh that’s not good.”

        Too verbose. Should have written, “There is famine in Russia? Ungood bellyfeel.”

  16. I had no idea I had so much violence stacked up against the walls of my closet – add that shame to my pile of white privileged guilt and institutional racism and I’ll get to it later…

      • That’s because that’s not the real Deborah.

        That’s racist scum trying to stir up shit… 🙁

        It would be nice if TTAG could ban by IP addy…

        • Geoff PR,

          A commenter’s IP address can change minute-to-minute. What does not change minute-to-minute is the electronic “profile” of their device. (The electronic “profile” of a device includes specific details which are unique to each device — and web browsers can/do readily share the device “profile” when accessing websites.) That would be the unique identifier that this website could ban.

          As relatively simple as that sounds, I can imagine that it would be fairly complicated and/or difficult to actually implement.

        • It’s pretty easy to tell with that particular one – He isn’t smart enough to do it well enough to make it impossible to tell.

          So, I’ll just identify the imposter and I’ll go about being the kind and friendly insufferable lout that I really am… 🙂

  17. On the other end of the spectrum, these educated idiots who want to abolish the Police. I hope their dream comes true. Want to see real law and order, just abolish the police. Within months there will be politeness and very little criminal activity. Think criminals will prevail, not so, they will be hiding from the hoards of decent citizen groups restoring order, no questions asked. That’s what ditches are for. Metro areas not apply, just park bulldozers blocking every highway and city exit roadway and let them starve. Katrina X 70%. Just my opinion.

    • What is more likely is that the more successful private militias will take over the criminal business. Joe citizen has things to do and places to be and will outsource protection because he won’t patrolling the streets in the cold rain.

  18. So some idiots at a news rag believe that if all honest citizens are unarmed, that gun violence will magically disappear? Criminals will not get rid of their guns but will feel much more secure when committing their crimes without fear of the victims defending themselves. Devil followers one and all!

  19. I’m not surprised that they didn’t want to talk about the emptying of the NYC jails. By order of the mayor. Supported by the NY Times and Libertarians. That is why they have a spike in crime. It just more intellectual dishonesty.

  20. New York Times? I thought they only did anti-Trump shit like Russian collusion, Russian hookers, Impeachment, sex with porn queens, “racist” stuff, white supremacy and more Russia shit… Anyway, yeah Gang culture is A gun culture but it’s also a knife culture a machete culture a Molotov culture and a whatever it takes culture, however that in no way comports to the “legal” gun culture being a gang culture… Besides If Biden actually pulls off this Grand Theft America the NYT, CNN and MSDNC will all be struggling even more for readers/viewers and some may not survive Obamas third term.. Biden is definitely putting the band back together for another “World Apology Tour”….

    • “…however that in no way comports to the “legal” gun culture being a gang culture…”

      Really? Gang culture = gun culture. Owning a gun makes one a member of the gun culture. Members of the gun culture are also members of the gang culture. Gun owners are a gang of their own (with many tribes). Circle complete.

      • Gun owners are a gang of their own (with many tribes). Circle complete.

        Hmmmmm, well I’m a gun owner many times over, as is my Brother, Brother-in-Law, Nephews, neighbors… All own guns but we don’t carouse the countryside looking for other “gun owners” to shoot because we don’t like the kinds of guns they own or because they might be infringing upon our “turf”… I’ve been involved with several different “groups” of like minded individuals and a couple might even be considered “gangs” but none of them required or relied upon gun ownership/possession to exist…. By your premise any group of people with the same interests is a gang… I belong to a Mustang Owners Club but have yet to see any of the members assault a Chevy or a Dodge owner…. But by your definition we would be considered a gang simply because we share an interest in a particular vehicle…. Your “informal logic” attempt makes no sense…
        Gangsters own guns…
        Law abiding citizens own guns..
        therefore all gun owners are gangsters? FAIL…

        • “By your premise any group of people with the same interests is a gang.”

          Surprisingly, you missed the point. By definition of the ruling class, anyone who owns a gun is a bad guy who hasn’t been caught committing a crime. I was merely explaining how “law-abiding” gun owners (under the rules, there cannot actually be any) are considered part of a dangerous “gun culture”. One extension leads to another, and so on.

          Explaining something is not an endorsement.

  21. 100% increase in shootings…protecting yourself is “misguided”.

    Well, we can’t all work from home in the Hamptons, pooping out screeds for our ivory tower newspaper about things we know nothing about.

  22. America should back the Mafia and it would have some criminal stability.
    These spick and moolie gangs are fckheads.

  23. I always come back with the drug comparison.
    Those are illegal in EVERY state…and NewYork still has heroin and meth and cocaine.
    Who do they blame for THAT?

    • Those are illegal in EVERY state…and NewYork still has heroin and meth and cocaine.

      Oregon Just Became the First State to Decriminalize Small Amounts of Hard Drugs Like Heroin and Meth

  24. I like how the article is almost surprised at the statements/outcomes here.

    You are dealing with people who want to destroy the country economically so they can feel safe from a virus with a less than 1 percent death rate. We wont even get into the fact how even the cdc lists the death rate of covid patients with no other preexisting conditions as 6 percent of the total deaths. Talk about getting your wig blown back by facts that a 2 year old could grasp.

    I really think our biggest problem is mass stupidity….the movie ‘idiocracy’ has become actual life.

    and therefore I go with this to solve all my problems in the age of stupidity…”go away im batin”.

  25. They’re not wrong in some ways. US gang culture is tied up in guns (in England it’s knives). But they fail to make the next leap: to wonder why gang culture is tied up with guns.

    The NRA isn’t putting out brochures on how to do a drive-by. Shooter’s Illustrated isn’t doing a piece on how to properly carry your yeet-cannon in your waistband without a holster for maximum style.

    But you do have mumble rappers who glorify being a criminal and carrying a gun. You do have hollywood putting out film and show after show using guns as a solution to all of life’s problems. And then you have prosecutors and judges treating violent criminals like jaywalkers. Yeah, I’d want to carry a gun to protect myself if I were a criminal (or anyone else) in Chicago or Baltimore, too! This is not a problem spread equally across America. It’s a staple of urban blue cities.

    It’s almost as if there’s a sickness in the culture of inner cities and the Times comes right up to the line of recognizing it… and then turns away.

    • Hannibal,

      It’s almost as if there’s a sickness in the culture of inner cities and the Times comes right up to the line of recognizing it …

      Your comment is spot on, although it would not matter even if the New York Times acknowledged that truth. Why? Because they would blame the sickness of the culture on Whitey, climate change, the price of tea in China, or some such nonsense.

      If there is one immutable truth that we can always depend on like the sun rising in the morning, that immutable truth is that Leftists, Democrats, and Progressives will always blame someone or something else for their failures and NEVER take responsibility themselves for their own failures.

      • I’m very comfortable talking about black gangs causing so much crime. Because it allows me to also talk about the socialist progressive, atheists, and gays, all who said a father was not necessary to raise children. They all support the Welfare Industrial Complex. They all support replacing the father with a government check. And replacing his guns, with the guns of a big city police department.

        Because they are all sexually liberated they support enabling single women with government $$$, having 5 kids from 5 different men. Living in a “gun free zone” public housing project.

  26. A single gang feud in Brooklyn, for instance, has been blamed for 26 deaths.

    As long as they stick to murdering each other and leave good people alone, why is that a problem?

    Imagine one of the Pacific island battles in World War II where, suddenly, all the Japanese army started killing each other. Would the New York Times be crying from the rooftops about how problematic that was and how we should change policy/law in the United States in response?

    • “As long as they stick to murdering each other and leave good people alone, why is that a problem?”

      Face it, it gets the huge publicity when a little kid gets caught in the crossfire. There’s serious violence and murder in the poor parts of middle America, but they understand the value of keeping that shit on the down-low Folks just tend to ‘disappear’.

      The movie ‘Winter’s Bone’ is quite good and it shows some of that life :

  27. It was Col. Jeff Cooper, founder of Gun Site, who said the best way to solve the inner city gang crime problem, was to make sure everyone in the inner city had guns. That way they would solve their own problems.

    I agree with him completely.

  28. Hold up, I have it on good authority, specifically from the NYT, that the idea of “gang violence” is inherently racist and therefore not relevant to the wider “gun violence” debate. So by their own logic, if “gang culture” and “gun culture” are one and the same, then the concept of “gun culture” is inherently racist and not relevant to the “debate” right?

    Oh wait, I forgot that leftist “thought” frees one from the constraints of such racist and patriarchal concepts as “logic” or “ intellectual integrity”

  29. let’s look at the numbers…100M+ legal gun owners in the USA…34,000 gun deaths each year…65% are suicides (your body…your choice…right?)…so about 12,000 actual gun deaths by all firearms
    lets go to the percentages…12,000 divided by 100,000,000…times 100 = 0.012%
    A vanishingly small number….statistically insignificant ….
    And yet cause for bans and marches and lawsuits.
    It’s NOT gun violence, people.
    HMMMM.

    • “let’s look at the numbers…”

      Will you please stop it with the numbers, and statistics? Those are irrelevant. If you make me feel bad, you are illegitimate, dangerous, evil, wicked, mean, bad, and nasty….and wrong. You should be thrown in jail because of it. Nobody believes in numbers, it is truth that matters….not facts.

      Sheesh.

      • Sarcasm can be wielded like a broadsword or like a fine fencing foil…your comment, Sir, was delicately put…and it will cut!

        • “Sarcasm can be wielded like a broadsword or like a fine fencing foil…”

          Guess being on my college fencing team comes in handy once in awhile.

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