80 percent of crime is committed by gangs--must be 'the gun lobby's' fault

February 2, 3:13 AMSt. Louis Gun Rights ExaminerKurt Hofmann

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According to the FBI, a staggering 80% of U.S. crime is committed by gangs. 

Criminal gangs in the USA have swelled to an estimated 1 million members responsible for up to 80% of crimes in communities across the nation, according to a gang threat assessment compiled by federal officials.

Have you ever heard the "1% of the gun dealers in America sold approximately 57% of the crime guns* " statistic quoted by citizen disarmament advocates (pdf file)?  Even if we buy those numbers, they look rather puny, compared to 80% of crimes being committed by less than 0.33% of the population (and although I don't have the numbers, I would be willing to wager that if you filtered for violent crime, the disparity would be even greater--perhaps dramatically so).

What are we offered as solutions for this crime problem?  Why, more gun laws, of course, under the . . . interesting strategy of attempting to use laws to restrain the behavior of the lawless.  So, we're told that so-called "assault weapons" must be banned, despite the fact that more murders are committed by beatings and stranglings than through use of these politically incorrect firearms.  Chicago residents (and until recently, Washington DC residents) are told that they cannot have handguns, despite the fact that they live in one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S.

Expecting gangs to be thwarted by such prohibitions is especially irrational, because as drug trafficking enterprises, their forte is control of illicit supply and distribution channels.  Gun bans don't disarm them, they simply provide another black market for them to exploit, thus increasing their wealth and power even further.  That, of course, is before one considers what to do about what Fordham University Law School Professor Nicholas J. Johnson refers to as the "remainder problem" (pdf file) of nearly 300 million privately owned guns already in circulation--guns that will not be affected by bans.

 In short, restrictive gun laws have exactly zero likelihood of disarming criminal gangs, and instead serve only to impede those who scrupulously obey laws from obtaining the best means of defending themselves from the huge--and growing--threat of these gangs.  Whose side are the gun prohibitionists on, anyway?

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Growing family

I would like to introduce two more Gun Rights Examiners: please welcome Mike Stollenwerk, of the DC Gun Rights Examiner, and Candace Dainty, of the Milwaukee Gun Rights Examiner.  It's almost starting to look as if a great many Americans believe that their Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms is important, or something.

*  See Charlotte Gun Rights Examiner Paul Valone's "'Gun trafficking' bill for NC?  Part 3: Traced guns are not 'crime guns'" for a look at the sleight of hand behind the citizen disarmament lobby's use of the term "crime guns."  

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