“It’s time for the federal government — and other states — to take common-sense measures and ensure weak gun laws won’t continue to take the lives of New Yorkers.” Someone ought to tell Eric T. Schneiderman (above left) that gun laws don’t kill people, people kill people. Not that he’d listen. As far as the New York Attorney General is concerned, the only reason that gun control doesn’t work is simple: there isn’t enough of it!
To promote this anti-gun rights shibboleth, the NY AG’s office drafted a report helpfully entitled Target on Trafficking, New York Crime Gun Analysis. Unhelpfully, The New York Times doesn’t provide a link to the document not in question. Nor is Mr. Schneiderman’s opus online. But The Times is happy enough to wave the bloody shirt, then share the AG’s conclusions for its all-too-credulous readers.
The .40-caliber pistol used to kill a New York City police officer last year was bought in South Carolina on Feb. 28, 2008.
A 9-millimeter pistol used in a murder-suicide in a Buffalo neighborhood had been bought in Georgia on June, 12, 2010, just 102 days before the double shooting.
And a 9-milimeter [sic] pistol used to fatally shoot a couple on Long Island in 2010 was bought in South Carolina on April 10, 2009.
Those are among the 52,915 guns used in crimes that law enforcement in New York State recovered from 2010 to 2015. Of those guns seized, 34,344 — or about three-quarters of the firearms that could be traced to their purchase site — were originally bought outside New York, according to a report to be released on Tuesday by the state attorney general’s office.
Almost 90 percent of the handguns used in crimes that were recovered largely came from six states along Interstate 95 . . . The six states are Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia.
According to the NY AG, the lack of New York-style gun control in surrounding states is responsible for criminals tooling up in The Empire State. In other words, it wazzunt me!
The attorney general’s report portrays the state as a victim of inadequate gun laws at both the state and federal level.
“The federal government’s inaction on sensible national gun laws, coupled with the lax laws of other states, makes states like New York a target of trafficking,” the report says.
The state has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, and the regulations in New York City are even stricter. The state requires residents to register handguns and obtain permits to buy and carry handguns. It also requires handgun owners to be licensed. The city extends those restrictions to rifles and shotguns.
The report offers several recommendations to strengthen gun laws at the federal level, including closing a loophole that allows people to buy firearms at gun shows, requiring universal background checks, making gun trafficking a federal crime and loosening federal restrictions on tracing guns. Additionally, the report suggests that states require licenses for all handgun owners.
So New York’s gun control cabal wants to eliminate gun shows, register and tax every gun in America, give yet more power to the Fast and Furious folks at the ATF, and “loosen federal restrictions on tracing guns” (whatever that means). All of which would, he says, prevent illegal gun sales in New York, thereby starving the bad guys of firearms, reducing if not eliminating the state’s firearms-related crime.
The idea that gun control laws can stop criminals, crazies and terrorists from obtaining firearms is beyond delusional. In fact it’s downright dangerous; the laws leave law-abiding Americans defenseless against criminal predation. And, lest we forget, government tyranny.
This push to “sell” federal gun control proves, once again, that gun control advocates won’t be satisfied until they degrade and destroy all Americans’ gun rights. It highlights the fact that ballistic bifurcation — firearms freedom and liberty on one side, gun control and statism on the other — is a thing, with serious implications for the peace and security of the country.
Keep your powder dry my friends. A house divided and all that.