It’s no secret that corrupt politicians are more of a factor in large urban centers than in rural communities and small towns. The same applies to organized crime. Both are associated with urban areas. It’s much harder for significant corruption to exist when the amounts are smaller, the people involved mostly know the politicians personally and there are fewer large public works projects to play favorites with. A significant exception might be planning and zoning, where local elites tend to wield great power, have little accountability, and where significant money is at stake . . .
It’s also clear that corrupt politicians and organized crime figures hate the idea of an armed populace. When you’re stealing, cheating, and extorting people on a daily basis, some of them are bound to take exception to it. Push them far enough, and a few will inevitably decide to push back, even at the cost of their own lives. Do it long enough, and it becomes a virtual certainty.
It is much more difficult for corrupt politicians or organized crime to exist in the midst of an armed citizenry. Need an expert opinion on that? How about Sammy “The Bull” Gravano:
“Gun control? It’s the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I’m a bad guy, I’m always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You pull the trigger with a lock on, and I’ll pull the trigger. We’ll see who wins.”
Gun control in New York was driven by corrupt politicians desire to protect their criminal gangs. Big Tim Sullivan, who pushed through the Sullivan law, didn’t want his gangsters to face armed resistance.
In Arizona, a corrupt politician, Mary Rose Wilcox, was protected by her politician buddies who had the case transferred to a friendly prosecutor, who ultimately dismissed it. This was after two grand juries found sufficient probable cause to indict her. She was shot in the rear end by a homeless citizen who had just been released from jail. She was and is a big proponent of gun control. She is still in office. From the phoenixnewtimes.com:
Did Wilcox the county supervisor deserve to get shot in the ass?
Yes.…..
Among those in the know, Wilcox is noted not for her integrity but her arrogance. South Phoenix is considered by many to be controlled by the Wilcox political machine. Comparisons with old Chicago have been drawn.
Senator Leland Yee was one of the most strident proponents of gun control in California. He was recently charged with bribery and public corruption, including the facilitation of illegal gun trafficking.
Chicago fought to maintain its gun control laws longer and harder than almost any other city in the nation. Is there any other city more notorious for its sleazy politics?
Nevada is generally gun friendly. The only county that requires registration of pistols is Clark County, which includes Las Vegas. The statute was put into effect while Las Vegas still had the reputation of a town run by the mob. Corruption and civilian disarmament, or to use the current preferred euphemism, “gun safety” legislation — go together like organized crime and extortion.
Niccolo Machiavelli noted the problems with politicians disarming people:
When you disarm [the people] you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred against you. – Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince. 1537.
“Progressives” use stale and discredited Marxist concepts to impugn the motives of gun owners. They claim that Second Amendment supporters are being duped by the NRA to prevent “gun safety” legislation in order to increase the profits of “big businesses” that are anxious to trade children’s blood for a few dollars more.
They ignore what happened to gun manufacturers like Smith & Wesson or Ruger when they gave in to political pressure to side with politicians who wanted to gut Second Amendment freedoms. Smith & Wesson almost went bankrupt and is now under new ownership. Ruger suffered for years until it reversed its policies. It is those who wish to disarm the public that have driven gun sales through the roof.
The motivations of corrupt politicians and organized crime, often working in concert, are simple and clear. Just like anyone else, they do not want to get shot.
©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Gun Watch
Although there is no gun control connection, corruption on a massive scale does occur in small towns. to wit, the City of Bell, California, a small blue collar town near LA where the city government officials were paying themselves literally millions in annual salaries, which included the City Manager, the members of the City Council, and the Chief of Police. Trials are on going.
Pretty rounded group.
I could’ve done without the Clampetts, but some gun owners look like that, whatcha gonna do…
A related note: http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasdelbeccaro/2014/04/01/california-and-leland-yee-proof-one-party-rule-corrupts/
Usually the systems designed to take our money work pretty well. IRS has much bigger scale than this and concentrated into tax season.
Customer wants to pay $200 to get a form processed. It is 2014 and IT is not black magic. How bad do you have to eff up to get fired from a gubmint job?
PS – you can throw a lot of hardware at a crap system to little effect, although it sounds like under powered HW is part of the issue.
I started reading in mid-February and come back every day now. Keep up the good work!
Ugh, all this talk of VZ58 these days is killing me. This has been on my short list for a while, but just cash strapped right now.
However, I can’t get one anyway:
“Unfortunately CzechPoint USA seems to be out of stock quite often, so jump on it when they do get them in”
“quite often” should be changed to ALWAYS. I’ve never seen them NOT out of stock.
Can you say “Self-fulfilling prophesy?”
News Flash
Over the Hill Cook Gets Article and Pic in NYT in Bid to Promote New Book/TV Show
I grew up in NYC (b.:1955). In my very tough HS — kids inserted the bullets manually. Adults who carried handguns were cops, gangsters or cop/gangster. I very rarely saw any evidence of long gun ownership or hunting — even in blue-collar households.
Moving to VT exposed me to broad civilian gun ownership – although it took me a long time to figure out that I could actually buy and own guns without knowing someone at City Hall.
My dad used to take us boys to the NRA range & local gun show in Kankakee, Illinois. My dad was also jn the rifle club in high school. Nobody freaked out if they saw a long gun carried. This was late 1950’s-1960’s. Before Illinois sucked so badly.
The amusing part of the “OMG GUNZ EVERYWHERE” headlines is that the new Georgia law legalizes carry in places where many other states already allow carry.
Like it. Didn’t see a single person with booger hook on trigger. 🙂
Unbeknownst to many CT parents, many older high schools built at late as 1975 still have a gun range in the cellar of the school where there were rifle and air rifle teams and they would even travel on school buses with their guns to other schools for matches. Field trips to CT Gun Alley where also common place because of the manufacturing boom of the time. Kids used to wear Colt, Remington, Marlin, etc. shirts, hats or what have you to school because their parents worked at the various factories. Many of the companies had gun lockers for employees, some of those old buildings that have not been torn down still have the lockers you can see.
As we have advanced Technologically, we have regressed in other ways like a society much like cavemen who were probably afraid of fire. The entire discussion of firearms is irrational and emotional — all you have to look at is the many (not all) millenniums who are scared of their own shadow and cannot go to a job interview without their parents being around — this is what we have made of this country– a nation of wimps!
Or maybe allow people to carry their dang personal firearms. This should be the final dang straw to show the insanity of disarming our law abiding citizens.
To those who seem outraged that the military offers very little pistol training, I just want to point out that most military members will never be issued a pistol. Rifles are standard. Pistols, militarily, are an afterthought issued only to those who can’t carry a rifle because of their job description. With some notable exceptions, of course. Your average grunt will not be trained with the pistol, because wars are not won with pistols.