King County prosecutors will likely today charge a 16-year-old as an adult in the shooting of his younger brother, who, according to this morning's on-line Seattle Post-Intelligencer, remains in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center.
Predictably, a reader has blamed this shooting on the National Rifle Association, which is more lame than blaming the current economy and rising gasoline prices on George Bush. The NRA teaches firearms safety, not juvenile misconduct, regardless what some hoplophobic gun prohibitionists insist from beneath their tinfoil hats.
According to booking documents, the youth bought the 9mm Ruger semiautomatic pistol in December from an 18-year-old member of the Crossroads Locos gang – yes, Bellevue has a gang presence – and he kept this handgun hidden under the mattress of his bed. On one occasion, he told police, he even carried the pistol loaded to Interlake High School.
For the record, it is, a) already illegal for a 16-year-old to buy a handgun, b) illegal for a 16-year-old to carry a concealed handgun anywhere, including a public school, and, c) illegal for a 16-year-old to shoot his 12-year-old brother in the face.
"gun under the mattress," I believe that's the NRA Gun-nut recommended storage method.—‘Testerman,’ SeattlePi.com
Adding another gun law is not going to undo this crime, nor will it prevent such crimes from happening in the future. How much are you willing to bet that gun turns out to have been stolen?
As has been reported by both the Seattle P-I and Seattle Times, the suspect told police that he is a member of the Vato Locos, a Surenos gang.
The father of both boys, according to the Post-Intelligencer, seems to be in a state of denial. Granted, the teen has no prior criminal record, but neither did Henry McCarty, before he became better known as William Bonney, a.k.a. “Billy the Kid.” The father said his son attends church regularly. Alas, that hasn’t stopped other people from committing crimes.
Some people cannot resist blaming the NRA for this kind of thing. Because the NRA and other gun rights groups, including the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and Second Amendment Foundation, resist what they believe are ineffective, unjust and unconstitutional gun laws, the gun prohibition lobby considers them a manifestation of the anti-Christ. If they could figure out a way to blame the NRA for 9/11, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the Lusitania, they would probably do it.
MEANWHILE, there is quite a dust-up about New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent gun show “sting” operation in Arizona, and suffice to say Hizzoner sent his “undercover investigators” to the wrong side of the Mississippi River to be pulling that stunt.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer unloaded on Bloomberg during a chat with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Tuesday evening, and legendary Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has weighed in with his usual flair, hinting that maybe he should send undercover Arizona deputies to snoop into New York City criminal activity (didn’t Clint Eastwood already do that in Coogan’s Bluff?).
Bloomberg's goal ostensibly is to have background checks mandated for all firearms transactions at gun shows, but let us be candid. In reality, this dapper New York politician and his anti-gun soul mates would be happy if gun shows were wiped off the map.
Background checks do not stop bad guys from getting guns. Instead, the Brady Act background checks for gun purchases, in place since 1994, are a problem for law-abiding citizens. Hardly ever do background checks deny guns to criminals. Over 99.9 percent of purchases initially flagged as being illegal under the law were later determined to be misidentified.
Take the numbers for 2008, the latest year with data available. The 78,906 initial denials resulted in only 147 cases involving banned individuals trying to purchase guns. Of those 147 cases, prosecutors thought the evidence was strong enough to prosecute only 105, and they won convictions in just 43. But few of these 43 cases involved career criminals or those who posed real threats. The typical case was someone who had a misdemeanor conviction for an offense he didn't realize prevented him from buying a gun.—John Lott, author More Guns = Less Crime
This column mentioned Bloomberg’s publicity stunt here, as part of a discussion of a much bigger potential scandal involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Project Gunrunner.” Bloomy’s operatives, which Fox contributor John Lott says cost the Big Apple $100,000 in taxpayers’ money – evidently they are rolling in dough; perhaps they’d like to send some to Olympia where the cupboard is bare – did capture a couple of people on video willing to sell guns to people who audibly state they “probably couldn’t pass a background check.”
That begs the question: How many other gun sellers told these operatives to take a hike? How much video was wasted on attempted purchases that were nixed by savvy table-holders? That’s the film nobody ever sees because it does not advance Bloomberg’s anti-gun agenda.
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Comments
There you go with facts and figures again.
What Hizooner wants is for people to "feel" unsafe so that he can make them "feel" safe. That does make him "unfeeling" doesn't it?
@mike: If you're going to spam blogs the least you could do is spam with good grammar...
Took care of him, Buck. Thanks for jumping that clown, and thanks for reading.
Dave Workman, Bloomberg's goal is to have all "illegal guns" in the USA wiped off the map, not just gun shows. Of course, he decides what is an "illegal gun". We already know that he says "illegal guns" are those not in the hands of the police and military.
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