LouderVol
Extra and Terrestrial
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- May 19, 2014
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I heard two things this weekend that I really hadn't considered before when it came to gun laws.
1. They are implemented in a way where they don't punish criminals, so its no wonder it doesn't stop them. I didn't post this earlier because I was trying to find some sort of numbers, but it doesn't seem like there is any centralized data-base for charges that get dropped.
The statement was by some police and they were saying weapons charges are some of the first crimes that get dropped in plea deals from violent felons. The DAs have them on violence, drugs, or something else, so in order to get a quickly closed case they offer plea deals where they drop the weapon's charges, which are typically felonies themselves. This makes the plea deals very popular. This also has an added negative of these charges would never get picked up by background checks, and that more charges would likely make any attempted legal purchase much less likely to happen, vs it being dropped. They were saying a good number of criminals actually do try to legally buy guns, so its not like its not a problem.
However, when it comes to charging a civilian with a weapons crime, they were using the California ban on "large capacity magazines" as their example, those charges stick. Because that large capacity magazine is the only "crime" you committed, so they can't drop it. but had you done something else you could easily have it dropped.
This drastically slants the reporting of "large capacity magazines" gun crimes, to make it seem like civilians are much worse than the bad guys. I think the same logic would apply to most weapon's charges. it looks like civilians are far more likely to commit some of these "soft" gun crimes, and thus more dangerous than the bad guys. But its just because the only real metric we have are actual charges/convictions.
2. The cops admitted they had no data for this, but said they believe approx. 10% of violent gun crimes arrests are cases where a good civilian gets arrested because they don't call the cops. The for instance was, someone tries to rob you, you brandish your gun, they run away, you don't call the cops because you defused the situation, impossible to prove it happened, didn't feel safe and wanted to get away, etc etc. After this someone else will call the cops and say someone used a gun to do X, threaten, rob, whatever, and the civilian ends up getting picked up. The cops were saying in most of the "gun nuts" states, these cases get dismissed pretty reliably, but you still spend time in jail days to weeks. But in most of the Anti-2A states, you are pretty much guaranteed you are getting charged, and will spend months in jail, and that the DA won't drop the case because they have you on some bs weapons charge. They were saying if you do get involved in some situation with a defensive use of a gun, ALWAYS call the cops and give your story, so that you are on record first as the victim. Because the system doesn't work under the assumption that you are innocent.
1. They are implemented in a way where they don't punish criminals, so its no wonder it doesn't stop them. I didn't post this earlier because I was trying to find some sort of numbers, but it doesn't seem like there is any centralized data-base for charges that get dropped.
The statement was by some police and they were saying weapons charges are some of the first crimes that get dropped in plea deals from violent felons. The DAs have them on violence, drugs, or something else, so in order to get a quickly closed case they offer plea deals where they drop the weapon's charges, which are typically felonies themselves. This makes the plea deals very popular. This also has an added negative of these charges would never get picked up by background checks, and that more charges would likely make any attempted legal purchase much less likely to happen, vs it being dropped. They were saying a good number of criminals actually do try to legally buy guns, so its not like its not a problem.
However, when it comes to charging a civilian with a weapons crime, they were using the California ban on "large capacity magazines" as their example, those charges stick. Because that large capacity magazine is the only "crime" you committed, so they can't drop it. but had you done something else you could easily have it dropped.
This drastically slants the reporting of "large capacity magazines" gun crimes, to make it seem like civilians are much worse than the bad guys. I think the same logic would apply to most weapon's charges. it looks like civilians are far more likely to commit some of these "soft" gun crimes, and thus more dangerous than the bad guys. But its just because the only real metric we have are actual charges/convictions.
2. The cops admitted they had no data for this, but said they believe approx. 10% of violent gun crimes arrests are cases where a good civilian gets arrested because they don't call the cops. The for instance was, someone tries to rob you, you brandish your gun, they run away, you don't call the cops because you defused the situation, impossible to prove it happened, didn't feel safe and wanted to get away, etc etc. After this someone else will call the cops and say someone used a gun to do X, threaten, rob, whatever, and the civilian ends up getting picked up. The cops were saying in most of the "gun nuts" states, these cases get dismissed pretty reliably, but you still spend time in jail days to weeks. But in most of the Anti-2A states, you are pretty much guaranteed you are getting charged, and will spend months in jail, and that the DA won't drop the case because they have you on some bs weapons charge. They were saying if you do get involved in some situation with a defensive use of a gun, ALWAYS call the cops and give your story, so that you are on record first as the victim. Because the system doesn't work under the assumption that you are innocent.
