Background.
Like many medium to big American cities, Washington, D.C., i.e.
the State of Confusion, is governed by Democrats who have actually stopped working every city they govern in terms of criminal activity and heinous crimes.For example, Chicago, Americas Second City , has Lori Lightfoot as mayor.
She is a Democrat.
Throughout the arson attacks and insurrections in 2020, she withdrew the cops from the most violence-plagued locations of the town.
She then surrounded herself with them-- for protection .
The burden of Chicagos weapon carnage is still felt most in Chicagos Black and Hispanic communities on the South and West sides.
(City-wide deaths in 2020 amounted to almost 800 people.)According to the Washington Post of January 25, 2023, there are an approximated 400 million firearms in the U.S.-- more than the nations overall population.
So the concern is not the threat of individual weapons, rather the problem is of political leaders failing to impose existing laws.Look at Washington, D.C.While D.C.
has constantly had limiting guns laws, it went off the deep end about 1976, soon after Home Rule was approved by Congress in 1973.
(The citys government had formerly consisted of three Commissioners appointed by the President along with having Congressional oversight and control of numerous aspects of the citys management.) In 1976, the new mayor-city council kind of administration banned people from having pistols.
This abuse of the Bill of Rights eventually wound up in federal court-- numerous times.
Ultimately, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled versus D.C.Only Criminals Have Rights.
However, Democrats being Democrats, the city immediately enforced various restrictions on its residents looking for to exercise their Constitutional rights.
· Licenses were still needed for pistols and long arms · The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is the licensing/registering authority · Some firearms are prohibited, generally ugly ones, albeit in typical qualities, such semi-automatic attack weapons · Magazines are restricted to 10 rounds capacity · Background checks by a Federal Firearms Licensee are needed for private transfers of weapons · A 10-day waiting duration is required in between the purchase and ownership of a gun · Registrants should have a psychological and criminal background check · Its illegal to possess ammunition unless the gun utilizing it is registered with the authorities · Blind people may not use to own a weapon (!!!)At one point, there was talk that the police were required to test fire each weapon and maintain the spent cartridge.
In case it were used in a crime, the owner could be quickly traced.
The validity of this procedure seems to have actually vanished.
Discussions with the representative for the MPD, Maketha Watson, and the National Rifle Association did not clarify the matter.
Amazing! However, Mrs.
Watson did keep in mind in an e-mail that the city kept no records on legal or prohibited guns being utilized in criminal activity!Whats truly amazing about this story is that the Washington Post practically daily has articles quickly explaining shootings and/or killings with firearms.
Nevertheless, each of these small pieces leaves out the most significant point: was the weapon utilized legal or illegal?(The Post, like the majority of U.S.
mainstream media, strongly opposes the belongings of weapons by anybody other than the police and the militaries.
Weve all seen how that works-- authorities all over are damned for their extreme usage of force and U.S.
soldiers are or have just recently been engaged in wars in Europe, North Africa, in addition to South and Southwest Asia-- besides Korea, Panama, and Vietnam.)However, the most amazing part of the story about the City versus the Citizen seems to have appeared and after that disappeared.Lookit, This! The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (a Berkeley, California non-profit) released a study in December 2021 noting, inter alia, that just a couple of, readily-identifiable individuals was accountable for violent criminal offense in Washington, D.C., And that the courts and police understood who they were!The report noted: · The victims and suspects of homicides and nonfatal shootings in the District of Columbia are primarily male in between the ages of 18-34.
Nearly 92 percent of victims and suspects in murders and 88 percent of victims and suspects in nonfatal shootings were male.
· Approximately 86 percent of homicide victims and suspects were understood to the criminal justice system prior to the incident.
Among all victims and suspects, about 46 percent had actually been formerly incarcerated ...
· At least 23.3 percent of all murder victims and suspects were under active supervision (i.e., CSOSA, PSA, or DYRS-- acronym explanation follows).
A minimum of 64 percent of all victims and suspects had actually been under ...
prior or active supervision and a minimum of 76% of homicide suspects had active or previous guidance.
[CSOSA: Court Services - & Offender Supervision Agency-- a federal agency with the definitely local objective of supervising grownups on probation, parole, and supervised release.
PSA: Pre-Trial Services Agency-- the federal company accountable for collecting info about newly arrested defendants and preparing the suggestions thought about by the Court in choosing release choices.
DYRS: Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.] · Overall, many victims and suspects with prior criminal offenses had actually been jailed about 11 times for about 13 various offenses by the time of the homicide.
This count only refers to adult arrests and juvenile arrests were not included.Cause.
In the analysis, there were no mysteries regarding the cause of the violence.
It tended to result from individual disagreements, group disputes, illegal drugs, break-in, and retaliation.
Most violence happened east of Rock Creek Park (a wooded area in the center of town), particularly Anacostia (a location southeast of the Anacostia River).
Oddly enough, the paper notes All of this is made possible and intensified by the large accessibility of firearms and the culture of resolving conflicts through violence.
The latter point is clear.
Nevertheless, given D.C.s overly rigorous control of weapons, claiming that the large availability of firearms being one of the causes of violence is as much shocking as it is stupid.Strangely, the Institute didnt recommend more gun control as an option to the problem.
Instead, it said, The District should establish a clear citywide method that focuses intentional, structured and extensive intervention efforts on those people identified as being at extremely high threat of being associated with weapon violence.
So what do we do? Eliminate Muriel Bowsers federal government, replacing it with the old three Commissioners kind of guideline? Or, merely abolish the citys hazardous, unconstitutional, and totally unworkable system of weapon control ? The latter point appears to be the most reasonable and efficient method of handling the matter.