One of the recurring themes in our country is that when something bad happens, few want to look at what went wrong and instead focus on what new laws they can create. Most of the time, though, the system broke down somewhere along the way. Someone who shouldn’t have gotten a gun got one despite the laws meant to prevent that. Rather than looking at why that happened, anti-gunners just try to leverage that into new regulations.
We’re not interested.
And, in truth, no one should be, and not just because of the Second Amendment’s “shall not be infringed” thing. Sure, that plays a factor for many of us, but far too many people are unmoved by that.
Well, how about the fact that the laws that are already there, that are generally accepted here and now, aren’t being enforced?
“Tom, they are. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Well, if they’re enforced, why is the NSSF so legitimately upset over this?
The battle against gun control activists who proclaim ad nauseum that more Second Amendment restrictions on law-abiding Americans is the only answer to combatting crime never ceases. This is despite the fact, played out repeatedly in the real world, that criminals don’t follow laws.
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Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence ranks Washington state among the Top 10 states with the “safest” (i.e., most restrictive) gun control laws in the country. It garnered that distinction after recently enacting even more gun control laws and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has never seen a gun control policy he didn’t crave.
Being such a strict gun control state, it is mind boggling what a federal judge did after a recent particularly egregious case involving an illegal “straw purchaser” of guns.
Local media reported Dion Cooper of Kent, Wash., pleaded guilty to multiple federal firearm charges, including trafficking in firearms, making a false statement in connection with the acquisition of firearms and straw purchasing firearms.
But this wasn’t just a one-time straw purchaser who was caught. In fact, Cooper didn’t illegally “straw purchase” a dozen firearms either. Cooper, between the years 2021 and 2023, illegally “straw purchased” 133 firearms and then provided the firearms to convicted felons or juveniles who couldn’t legally purchase nor possess the firearms on their own.
Cooper got just three years in prison for 133 straw purchases.
That’s not enforcement.
Sure, he’ll never be able to make another straw purchase again, but that’s not really the point, now is it? He got the proverbial slap on the wrist for 133 separate instances of buying a gun for people who couldn’t lawfully buy one for themselves. Each count is a felony in and of itself. Each one is an example of the kind of behavior that many anti-gunners seem to want to criticize everyone and their brother over, including the NSSF.
And yet, Washington state, one of the most anti-gun states in the nation, didn’t see it as a big enough problem to treat it accordingly.
What message does this send to others?
While a lot of criminals simply don’t think they’ll ever get caught, at least some accept the possibility it could happen. They won’t cross certain lines because of that. It’s why some commit armed robbery with fake guns. They think they’ll get less time if they get caught. How much time in prison factors into their decisions.
And this just tells them that they can commit all the straw purchases they want to and they won’t get any time to speak of.
Especially knowing that this guy will be out well before that three-year sentence is over.
So don’t come at me about how we need more gun control, how gun manufacturers need to be held accountable for straw purchases, or literally anything else you want to push. This is proof that anti-gunners really don’t care about criminals, they care about disarming us.
Read the full article here
