Virginia – -(Ammoland.com)- A drugs-for-guns scheme involving New York, Virginia, and DC criminals has been broken up by law enforcement.
Laws were broken. Hopefully those laws will be enforced with appropriate penalties to take the bad guys off the streets for a long time.
Since the prosecutions are happening in New York, I wouldn’t bet on it, though.
And, of course, the gun-controllers are dancing inanely around the room, thinking they have another excuse to restrict guns in Virginia.
As one would expect, based on the last 4 years, the dancers include Governor McAuliffe and Attorney General Herring, calling for Universal Background Checks and One Handgun a Month, respectively.
Here are some facts to consider:
1. Since straw purchasers were used to get the guns, no background check system, including Universal Background Checks, would stop them. Sorry, Governor. Straw purchasers, by definition, have clean backgrounds.
2. In a wiretap, the criminals bragged about being able to buy as many guns as they want from Virginia dealers, but what the criminals didn’t understand was that when someone purchases 2 or more handguns from a dealer within 5 days, the dealer has to report those transactions to BATFE! (If the criminals did indeed make such large purchases, that was probably a key thing what triggered their downfall.) Heck, criminals can buy as much cocaine as they want, too, and yet the cocaine is totally illegal. Laws do not stop determined criminals.
3. Virginia already had One Handgun a Month for 20 years and all we heard during that time from New York was that Virginia was a gun running state. Clearly New York viewed our One Handgun a Month law as totally ineffective. The General Assembly agreed and we repealed it. Other states have also repealed their One Handgun a Month laws for the same reason. Sorry, Mr. Attorney General.
4. The price of guns on the streets of New York is at least THREE TIMES their normal price. With such huge profits, criminals will always find guns to sell – which they will obtain using straw purchases, theft, or smuggling from other countries. They can simply smuggle in guns along with the illegal drugs. Laws couldn’t stop alcohol consumption during Prohibition and they can’t stop crack cocaine now. They will NEVER be able to stop the flow of guns.
5. Virginia’s gun laws are being called “weak” by New York, but if that is true, where is all the violent crime in Virginia, especially with all the guns in the hands of Virginians? Per CDC’s data from 1999-2014, Virginia’s murder rate (per 100,000) is 5.2, Illinois is 7.1, Maryland is 8.9,and DC is 25.9! New York and Virginia have virtually the same murder rate (5.1 and 5.2, respectively). New Hampshire, Maine, North Dakota, and Vermont all have murder rates less than 2! Restricting gun rights does not make good people safer. ( See “A Real Look at Murder and Suicide Numbers” here: http://vcdl.org/page-18124 ).
MEDIA COVERAGE
I was interviewed in this story by the local ABC affiliate in Richmond today. THERE IS A POLL YOU CAN TAKE, TOO:
- Brooklyn bust reignites debate over Virginia gun laws
- 22 in VA arrested in largest gun bust in Brooklyn, NY history
- http://www.richmond.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/from-richmond-area-indicted-as-nyc-police-bust-virginia-gun/article_e0d9760b-803d-5a4e-8190-97ad2f11729e.html
About Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL):
Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
For more information, visit: www.vcdl.org.