With all the grandstanding and spin surrounding the gun-control debate, it’s nice to see someone asking a fairly obvious question: Why aren’t we prosecuting criminals using guns? Really, a simple and critical question. According to Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), prosecutions have dropped dramatically during the Obama administration.
The Washington Examiner reports:
In 2004, under Bush, there were 10,937 prosecution of weapons matters which has dropped down to about 6,000 cases in 2012.
It’s hard to believe the administration is serious about making gun violence a punishable crime, and ridiculous to think that more laws will have an impact since they aren’t really being enforced.
Well-sort of.
The laws restricting firearms sales are enforced: there are states with laws prohibiting the sale of hicapmags or certain types of guns and you cannot buy them. Stores don’t sell them and manufacturers will not ship those products to the state in question. Those laws are enforced (your business will be shut down and you will go to jail) and the restrictions, in this case, fall on the the law-abiding citizen.
On the other hand, the criminals who engage in the very activity for which the restrictions are designed, are not aggressively punished. Cognitive dissonance.
The net result here is that law-abiding citizens are restricted and criminals are not. Truly a mixed message we are getting from the administration so “passionate” about stopping gun violence.
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