Guns on the Streets

Mayor Bloomberg is spending a ton of his constituents dollars attempting to entrap and shut down gun dealers from states other than New York.

Representative Castle of Delaware has H.R. 96, a bill to close the supposed "Gun Show Loophole".

Bloomberg blames the violence done by goblins with guns on out of New York State gun dealers and Castle blames it on gun shows. The fact that neither of these politicians is addressing the fact that goblins are violent creatures, pretty much proves that their anti gun initiatives are just so much political pandering and attempts to be mentioned in the news. Action that might actually work, that would reduce violent crime, would be controversial and require some political balls to accomplish. Blaming the gun is much easier.

Quite a few violent criminals do have guns, many of these goblins are repeat offenders who are not able to legally purchase a firearm. So where do these guns come from? Are they, as Bloomberg states, purchased in bulk by a person who is able to pass a background check and then re-sold on the black market? Or do goblins hang out at gun shows, taking advantage of the mythical gun show loophole? I would have to say NO to both of these theories. Less than 2% of felons owned (not used, just owned) firearms that were purchased at gun shows. Many of these were bought by family members. I have no stats on firearms bought in a straw purchase and resold to a goblin for a profit, but I believe that percentage to be small also. Why do I believe this? Because the price of a black market firearm is a small percentage of retail. Most black market firearms have been on the market for quite awhile. They are sold and re-sold, traded for drugs or favors, and then sold once again. New firearms end up on the black market through theft, and that is where this little bit of commentary is headed. Theft. It seems not a week goes by without a news article such as this:

From the Dallas Morning News:

By Tanya Eiserer

Police: Gun belt stolen from car while officer played basketball

Yep, another firearm stolen from a police officer. This one has a twist.

A Dallas police officer told other officers late Sunday that he'd chased a man and lost his gun belt.

But it turns out that Officer Archie Beason hadn't been in a foot chase and that his gun belt was stolen when he left it in his squad car while he played basketball, authorities said. Officer Beason was on duty at the time.

Let us see how this came to be.

The incident began late Sunday in the 5000 block of Colonial Avenue, records show.

According to police, Officer Beason called dispatch and reported that he was in a foot chase and that his gun belt had come off and been taken. When others officers arrived, they could not find Officer Beason's gun belt or the person he had said he was chasing.

Among the items on his gun belt was his 9 mm gun, an expandable baton, handcuffs, 46 bullets, three pistol magazines and mace.

One more gun on the street. Maybe Bloomberg should be on a nation wide campaign to improve firearm security in our police departments.

Witnesses tipped off authorities that Officer Beason had not been in a chase and that he had been playing basketball. He had left the gun belt on the front seat of his squad car, records show.

So, officer Benson was playing basketball on taxpayers time. While playing basketball, his duty firearm was stolen from the front seat of his squad car. Officer Benson then makes a false report to police dispatch (a violation of law if I am not mistaken), resulting in more officers respond to an emergency call on the tax payer dollar.

The police work for the public, right? If one of my employees is playing ball while on company time, and loses company property, then lies to me about how it all happened, the employee would be fired. No questions.

What is Officer Benson doing these days?

"He's been placed on restricted duty pending an investigation."

I wonder what would happen to me if I made a false 911 call?