Monday, January 28, 2013

NYC Police Commissioner Admits That Assault Weapons are Not the Problem.

Not really but...

Raymond Kelly is NY City's Police Commissioner.  Raymond Kelly wrote an editorial for the New York Post titled "Scourge of NYC’s streets".  Raymond Kelly is rabidly against the possession of firearms by anyone but an individual employed by law enforcement. I found this editorial quite strange, in Commissioner Kelly's rant against guns, he makes all of our points for us.  The editorial begins with a comment that has no bearing on the gun control debate and goes downhill from there.
While assault rifles serve no legitimate hunting purpose, and their ban would be a welcome advance after the Newtown slaughter, illegal handguns remain the weapon of choice for killers and other criminals in New York City.
First he states that assault rifles serve no legitimate hunting purpose.  You and I both know he is not talking about assault rifles, but rifles covered in the new AWB.  We also understand that it does not matter if they serve a hunting purpose or not, gun control is not about hunting.  I could take this opportunity to provide many examples about how AR platform rifles are used for hunting, but it really does not matter to this argument.

What is interesting about the above quote is the admission that "...illegal handguns remain the weapon of choice for killers and other criminals..." 

The commissioner goes on to state:
Ninety percent, or 2,493, of the 2,779 illegal firearms seized from suspects in arrests in the city last year were handguns.


By contrast, a total of 77 assault weapons were seized in arrests in the city, less than 3 percent of the total.

In only three of nearly 1,400 shooting incidents last year were ballistics associated with assault weapons.
There you have it, from the pen (so to speak) of NY City's Police Commissioner himself.  Assault Weapons as defined by Senator Feinstein are not the problem.

3 out of 1400 shooting incidents involved assault weapons.  That is pretty much the definition of statistically negligible.

So tell me again why it is so important to ban these firearms that are not used in shooting incidents?

The commissioner goes on to further demonize handguns and any free states that are close to New York.  He pretty much blames NY City's violence issue on Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida.

Criminals illegally acquire guns in these states, illegally transport them into NYC, illegally sell these guns to other criminals who use them in crimes (which by the way are illegal) and the only way this police commissioner can come up with to address this issue is to write more laws.  Yep, that'll work.

One last thing I found telling in this article:
We’re also focused on violence-prone street crews...
So the ultra violent street gangs who import drugs, run prostitution rings, illegally import firearms and run protection rackets are now "street crews"?

Maybe it is time to stop being so politically correct and start attacking crime at the source.  Leave the rest of us the hell alone.
You should go over and give the editorial a read.  This man is in a position of authority in one of the largest cities in the world, might be helpful to know how these Commissars think.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

From the way he's talking I would have to assume that guns are easily obtained in Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
If thats the case, the crime rate in those states must be horrific.
Paul in Texas

Turk Turon said...

Kelly makes two arguments that contradict each other. On the one hand he argues for universal background checks. And then he also mentions that many guns seized by the NYPD come from out of state. How does he know that? Because of the form 4473 that accompanied the criminal background check! If he were honest, he would admit that every single gun seized by the NYPD was accompanied by a NICS check.