Guest Post by Arthur Sido
If you regularly read any stories about mass shootings or the various murders that happen by the thousands each year you will have noticed that the phrase of the day is “gun violence”**. The way it is written you would think that gun violence is a sentient, malevolent force that goes around in urban areas causing guns to spontaneously open fire on unsuspecting and of course invariably innocent people. Gun violence is like lightning or tsunamis, a force of nature.
Given how many “news” stories I read that deal with shootings, I see phrases like “rising gun violence” or “the scourge of gun violence” it seems dozens of times each day. Politicians and “community activist” types are endlessly rending their garments and moaning about how we need to Do Something
about gun violence.
The “we” that needs to do something about gun violence means people like you and me, people that don’t commit any crimes but that doesn’t stop us from being punished for the actions of those that do in ways ranging from inconveniences to violations of our fundamental rights not to mention of course paying through the nose for the misdeeds of others.
The “something” is always some combination of disarming law abiding people and/or funding bullshit programs like “violence interrupters” or midnight basketball leagues, invariably programs operated by well connected community activists or clergy who definitely don’t pocket a big chunk of the funds.
What is apparent to anyone paying attention is that none of the people, without exception as far as I can tell, that are flapping their traps about gun violence really seem terribly interested in actually reducing gun violence. Case in point….
When I saw the headline I had to read the story because it is so drearily indicative of the state of the gun violence debate.
Here is a guy in Chicongo, the poster child for gun violence exacerbated by a dysfunctional state government, led by the corpulent J.B. “Jabba” Pritzker and an even worse local government in Chicago overseen by Mayor “Let’s Go” Brandon, who was offering for sale multiple rifles and he didn’t even get the metaphorical slap on the wrist.
This mestizo gun runner even admitted to being a seller of firearms….
This isn’t a guy just selling his grand-pappy’s single shot shotgun, he is bragging about being someone running guns that end up on the street, and they released him because he had been held until trial. He was offering rifles chambered in 5.56 and 7.62 so while it is possible they were bolt action rifles like the Ruger American, most likely they were an AR and/or AK variant, those evil “assault rifles” we are told cause such mayhem in America despite rarely being used in actual crimes.
Now if you or I rolled into Chiraq and offered to sell an undercover cop a bolt action deer rifle without the proper paperwork, they would toss you into Joliet*** without blinking an eye.
Again, Chicago has a serious problem with violent crime and especially gun violence. According to Hey Jackass! over 1,000 people have already been shot this year in Chicongo and a someone is shot about once every 4 1/2 hours with more than one person murdered per 24 hour period.
Given that gun violence is such a huge problem in Chicongo and that we are endlessly being lectured about guns being too readily available despite draconian gun laws in Illinois, doesn’t it seem odd that an illegal alien, a member of the violent Tren de Aragua gang, who very clearly was acting as an illicit gun dealer selling firearms that almost certainly included “assault rifles” was allowed to avoid any Federal charges and instead simply pled guilty to a single charge of “delivering a firearm without a license” while avoiding the charge of “aggravated possession of a weapon”, a Class 4 felony?
Jose Vasquez Hernandez received only an 18 month sentence, and thanks to the insane Illinois laws that automatically cut sentences in half he was declared to have met his required incarceration and never spent another day in jail after his guilty plea. This is part of something we have discussed before, such as the ridiculously named “The SAFE-T Act (Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act)” that went into effect in Illinois in 2021 and other laws that do nothing to make life actually safer for Illinoisians and instead put a heavy thumb on the scales of “justice” in favor of criminals.
While it doesn’t apply to murder and is not as generous in violent felonies like rape, the automatic slashing of sentences under the Illinois Unified Code of Corrections means that if sentencing guidelines call for a 24 month prison term and that is what the judge sentences the criminal to serve, it is immediately cut in half so they will only serve 12 months which is further reduced by time spent in prison waiting for a trial which leads to a lot of these situations where a convicted felon essentially serves no time after being sentenced. Instead of sentencing being the beginning of their incarceration it is the end.
What this tells us is that despite all the frothing at the mouth about the need to Do Something
about gun violence from all of the Usual Suspects, they don’t really care about actually reducing gun violence. It is all just empty rhetoric that exposes the real motivation which is to talk about “guns” but really focus on the “control” part.
We don’t need new laws to restrict firearms ownership for law abiding Americans. We simply need to do what we understood was common sense for most of our history, locking up violent felons or better yet publicly executing them. Solving the gun violence problem doesn’t require tossing virgins into volcanoes to appease angry deities, it just requires locking up or hanging criminals.
Committing crimes should lead to arrests and those arrests should lead to quick trials and convictions followed by either a swift execution or a lengthy prison sentence in as unpleasant a setting as possible. This isn’t a complicated formula and better yet it works.
The reality is that we don’t do this and the decision to not do this is made by people who, at least a significant percentage of them, have the basic intelligence to understand this.
Making it more difficult for people like you to purchase a firearm does absolutely nothing to reduce violent crime and yet that is the go-to “solution” endlessly offered up by the gun violence “experts”.
The refusal of elected leaders to enact policies and laws that do what works and instead the passing of laws that actually make it harder to lock up criminals simply proves that these people in fact desire chaos and violence.
Why they want this is the topic for an upcoming post but suffice it to say that if the Powers That Be actually wanted to reduce violent crime it would be pretty simple but they don’t, so they don’t.
**(assume quotes around that phrase going forward)
***(Joliet prison of The Blues Brothers fame is actually closed, replaced by Statesville)
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[ H/T The Burning Platform ]
If you regularly read any stories about mass shootings or the various murders that happen by the thousands each year you will have noticed that the phrase of the day is “gun violence”**. The way it is written you would think that gun violence is a sentient, malevolent force that goes around in urban areas causing guns to spontaneously open fire on unsuspecting and of course invariably innocent people. Gun violence is like lightning or tsunamis, a force of nature.
Given how many “news” stories I read that deal with shootings, I see phrases like “rising gun violence” or “the scourge of gun violence” it seems dozens of times each day. Politicians and “community activist” types are endlessly rending their garments and moaning about how we need to Do Something
The “we” that needs to do something about gun violence means people like you and me, people that don’t commit any crimes but that doesn’t stop us from being punished for the actions of those that do in ways ranging from inconveniences to violations of our fundamental rights not to mention of course paying through the nose for the misdeeds of others.
The “something” is always some combination of disarming law abiding people and/or funding bullshit programs like “violence interrupters” or midnight basketball leagues, invariably programs operated by well connected community activists or clergy who definitely don’t pocket a big chunk of the funds.
What is apparent to anyone paying attention is that none of the people, without exception as far as I can tell, that are flapping their traps about gun violence really seem terribly interested in actually reducing gun violence. Case in point….
Feds prepare to deport alleged Tren de Aragua member after Cook County let him walk for selling rifles to undercover ATF agents
When I saw the headline I had to read the story because it is so drearily indicative of the state of the gun violence debate.
Here is a guy in Chicongo, the poster child for gun violence exacerbated by a dysfunctional state government, led by the corpulent J.B. “Jabba” Pritzker and an even worse local government in Chicago overseen by Mayor “Let’s Go” Brandon, who was offering for sale multiple rifles and he didn’t even get the metaphorical slap on the wrist.
This mestizo gun runner even admitted to being a seller of firearms….
This isn’t a guy just selling his grand-pappy’s single shot shotgun, he is bragging about being someone running guns that end up on the street, and they released him because he had been held until trial. He was offering rifles chambered in 5.56 and 7.62 so while it is possible they were bolt action rifles like the Ruger American, most likely they were an AR and/or AK variant, those evil “assault rifles” we are told cause such mayhem in America despite rarely being used in actual crimes.
Now if you or I rolled into Chiraq and offered to sell an undercover cop a bolt action deer rifle without the proper paperwork, they would toss you into Joliet*** without blinking an eye.
Again, Chicago has a serious problem with violent crime and especially gun violence. According to Hey Jackass! over 1,000 people have already been shot this year in Chicongo and a someone is shot about once every 4 1/2 hours with more than one person murdered per 24 hour period.
Given that gun violence is such a huge problem in Chicongo and that we are endlessly being lectured about guns being too readily available despite draconian gun laws in Illinois, doesn’t it seem odd that an illegal alien, a member of the violent Tren de Aragua gang, who very clearly was acting as an illicit gun dealer selling firearms that almost certainly included “assault rifles” was allowed to avoid any Federal charges and instead simply pled guilty to a single charge of “delivering a firearm without a license” while avoiding the charge of “aggravated possession of a weapon”, a Class 4 felony?
Jose Vasquez Hernandez received only an 18 month sentence, and thanks to the insane Illinois laws that automatically cut sentences in half he was declared to have met his required incarceration and never spent another day in jail after his guilty plea. This is part of something we have discussed before, such as the ridiculously named “The SAFE-T Act (Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act)” that went into effect in Illinois in 2021 and other laws that do nothing to make life actually safer for Illinoisians and instead put a heavy thumb on the scales of “justice” in favor of criminals.
While it doesn’t apply to murder and is not as generous in violent felonies like rape, the automatic slashing of sentences under the Illinois Unified Code of Corrections means that if sentencing guidelines call for a 24 month prison term and that is what the judge sentences the criminal to serve, it is immediately cut in half so they will only serve 12 months which is further reduced by time spent in prison waiting for a trial which leads to a lot of these situations where a convicted felon essentially serves no time after being sentenced. Instead of sentencing being the beginning of their incarceration it is the end.
What this tells us is that despite all the frothing at the mouth about the need to Do Something
We don’t need new laws to restrict firearms ownership for law abiding Americans. We simply need to do what we understood was common sense for most of our history, locking up violent felons or better yet publicly executing them. Solving the gun violence problem doesn’t require tossing virgins into volcanoes to appease angry deities, it just requires locking up or hanging criminals.
Committing crimes should lead to arrests and those arrests should lead to quick trials and convictions followed by either a swift execution or a lengthy prison sentence in as unpleasant a setting as possible. This isn’t a complicated formula and better yet it works.
The reality is that we don’t do this and the decision to not do this is made by people who, at least a significant percentage of them, have the basic intelligence to understand this.
Making it more difficult for people like you to purchase a firearm does absolutely nothing to reduce violent crime and yet that is the go-to “solution” endlessly offered up by the gun violence “experts”.
The refusal of elected leaders to enact policies and laws that do what works and instead the passing of laws that actually make it harder to lock up criminals simply proves that these people in fact desire chaos and violence.
Why they want this is the topic for an upcoming post but suffice it to say that if the Powers That Be actually wanted to reduce violent crime it would be pretty simple but they don’t, so they don’t.
**(assume quotes around that phrase going forward)
***(Joliet prison of The Blues Brothers fame is actually closed, replaced by Statesville)
Tweet
Continue reading...
[ H/T The Burning Platform ]
