If you listen to politicians and the mainstream media, where do criminals get their guns? The “gun show loophole”? The Internet?
And of course, the way to “stop gun violence” is through more background checks (e.g. “no fly, no buy”), assault weapons bans, etc.. Right?
The truth is of course something completely different.
ABC 13 out of Houston, Texas investigated. (h/t Phil Wong)
To get our data, we sent surveys to every killer who used a gun to murder someone in Harris County since 2014. We wanted to know how they got their gun, what they paid, and how often, if ever, they went through a background check.
It may not be the most scientific of surveys, but it’s a pretty good way to go. I mean, why not actually ask the people who committed the crime what the crime was they committed! Nothing like getting the information direct from the source.
Here’s a relevant finding:
Nearly 90 percent of our survey respondents got their weapons outside the legal regulated gun market. None shopped at a gun show – and most traded for their weapons or got them from a friend for free.
Another finding? The overwhelming majority used handguns.
Basically this means things like expanding background checks (heck, ANY background checks) and assault weapons bans (heck, ANY sort of ban) will stop virtually NOTHING. Well correction: it will stop the law-abiding citizenry, who are the so-called “good people” of society. The criminals? The “bad-people”? the ones that are murdering and killing? It won’t stop them one bit.
You know what will stop them?
In the article is a video of an interview with Cedric Jones, a murderer serving time for his crime.
There ain’t gonna be no law to stop you from carrying a gun. It’s not. There’s been laws, they didn’t stop me from carrying a gun. It’s all about me staying alive. A law ain’t gonna stop me. I ain’t worry about no law. I’m worried about this dude come and shoot me.
Let his words sink in.
He knows about the laws. He doesn’t care about the laws.
What does he care about?
Not getting himself shot and killed.
So you tell me.
What do you think a criminal fears?
What do you think will actually stop a criminal?
You might find the answer repugnant, but Truth isn’t always pretty. That’s why it’s called the Ugly Truth.
Stuff From Hsoi 
The greater take-away is that politicians are not really worried about your safety. They are seeking control. It’s been proven time and again in various studies that criminals will not obey laws. It’s kinda in the job description, right? Yet the politicians trot out the same tired old tropes like making our streets safer by expanding background checks, closing these so-called loopholes. They know it’s baloney.
What we have here is propaganda. Herr Goebbels of the Nazis would be proud of these clowns. Tell a lie often enough and it becomes a fact.
I know of several studies, one even published by the NRA, (https://www.nraila.org/articles/20150904/study-criminals-don-t-get-guns-from-legal-sources) that debunk the notion of these “loopholes”.
I will say this. For a media outlet in a solidly Liberal city like Houston to even publish this story is a nice change of pace and gives me hope things may at some point once again be led along by common sense.
Well, maybe.
I still think there are good people out there that have good intentions and actually do care about things like others, and the safety and security of others. Even in politics I think there are good people. Alas, I also know that most of the good people get run out because they’re good people — and it’s a dirty game.
So to that, I can only think of 2 possible options: that people are truly ignorant about the realities, or they have nefarious intent. If there’s some other options, I’ve yet to discover or be told what it is.
What gets me is that, the more you look at it, it does seem that enough of the “big” politicians have nefarious intent, and precisely use the ignorance of the remainder. That’s mighty dangerous, but like you said — time and time again, it’s pretty much demonstrated throughout history.
The thing is, I do think that ultimately most of the public actually wants safety and security — they just aren’t aware of the truths and harsh realities involved in achieving it. I mean, “we gun folk” want the same thing — we want safety, we want security, we do NOT want senseless deaths, we don’t want killings, we don’t like seeing innocent people losing their lives for senseless reasons. Where we differ is how to achieve that goal. For me, the problem with trotting out solutions like “assault weapons bans” is they have demonstrably no effect on achieving this goal, so WHY are we expending time and energy pursuing useless, failed, ineffective solutions BECAUSE THERE ARE PEOPLE STILL DYING WHILE YOU WASTE TIME CHASING IMPOSSIBLITIES!
Now that said, are background checks totally ineffective? Nope. I mean, there are people caught making straw purchases. I’ve spoken with gun counter guys that have told me of numerous times they’re on the phone with NICS and are told to stall and keep the guy there, because he’s got something that doesn’t just make him ineligible, but he’s got a warrant and they’re dispatching LEO to come pick him up. So does this stuff work? Certainly it can, but NOT in terms of addressing the things that get trotted out in the headlines every week, that account for Chicago’s murder rate, etc..
That said, you know one thing that came from this article that gave me pause? How the one guy on video, which according to the article was voiced by many of those responding to the survey, said if he could have a job it’d all be different — only turned to crime because he saw no other way to provide for his family. The article referenced the “ban the box” effort, which is a thing here in Austin. My initial thought was yes, I want to know if my employees have criminal history because it certainly could be relevant to the job — I’m not sure people would be too hip with a convicted repeat child molester driving a school bus, right? But that said — and I’ve battled with this — if someone has paid their debt to society, if we truly believe in our system, if our system works like it’s supposed to, then shouldn’t we be working to give them a second chance? To get their rights, their lives, etc. back? To be able to get jobs, to be able to provide an honest life for their children?
So yeah, the article gave me something to think about again. It’s a tough topic tho.