From the Times-Dispatch

[VBshooter]

An article about the recent MAIG (Mayors Against Illegal Guns) scam that M Bloomberg and his storm troopers would love to pull off,actually has the Times coming out in favor of gun owners and gun rights,,,,Unbeleivable


Guns: The Mayors' Plaint
By Staff Reports | Times-Dispatch
Published: October 01, 2010

Virginians are supposed to feel just terrible, we take it, that guns bought here sometimes are used in crimes in other states. According to a gun-control group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the commonwealth ranks near the top of the list of states exporting criminally employed guns.

In 2009, for instance, about 2,500 guns recovered during criminal investigations were traced back to Virginia. Were it not for Virginia's one-gun-a-month law -- a law that aimed to prevent gun-running, and one this newspaper supported -- the figure probably would be higher. The mayors' group suggests strong gun-control laws could bring the number down even further.

This might be the case, just as it might be the case that allowing federal officials to snoop around people's e-mail messages -- as the Obama administration has proposed -- in the hopes of discovering a terrorist plot could help prevent an attack. From the preventive internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII to the Bush administration's use of warrantless wiretaps, the noble cause of preventing violence has been used to justify all sorts of infringements on Americans' civil rights.

State and federal authorities could reduce gun violence even more by conducting house-to-house searches for illicit firearms. But that would constitute an unacceptable infringement on the liberty of law-abiding citizens. So, too, would some of the proposals advanced by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, such as requiring a permit to own a handgun. Americans do not need the government's permission to exercise their First Amendment rights, and they should not need the government's permission to exercise their Second Amendment rights, either.

[wylde007]

Americans do not need the government's permission to exercise their First Amendment rights, and they should not need the government's permission to exercise their Second Amendment rights, either.

I had to do a double-take.

Did that actually get printed in the RTD?

[VBshooter]

Stunned the &^%& out of me to!!

[gunderwood]

Politics makes strange bedfellows I guess.

[VBshooter]

They'll probably terminate that reporter for actually writing a good article that has some of its content based in facts and is supported by common sense thinking

[arkypete]

When I read the article by our illustrious mayor, my first question was 'How many of the direarms were stolen'?' My second question was 'What the racial mix of the people using the firearms and those smuggling the firearms?'

Jim

[VBshooter]

My guess is the Mayor and his cronies don;t have a clue...All of the crap they purport to be gospel is so slanted it would be hard to quantify any of it as accurate... Bloomberg is spoiled little man with too much money that thinks his status as rich buttole entitles him to screw with peoples rights cause he hcan pay for it,Sad really that an Zealot like him is blessed with fortune and he misuses it to his own selfish agenda with no regard for country or fellow citizen.. $@%$ EM!!

[gunderwood]

When I read the article by our illustrious mayor, my first question was 'How many of the direarms were stolen'?' My second question was 'What the racial mix of the people using the firearms and those smuggling the firearms?'

Jim

It depends on what the definition of traceable is. If this source is correct, only 1 in 7 traced guns is actually related to a violent crime. Also, since 1/2 are related to possession, it seems likely that not all of those are actual criminal possession. I had a friend who was pulled over for legally OCing. They harassed him and I'm sure they ran his gun. No charges were ever filed because no crime was ever committed, but he was "detained" for 3+ hours because a couple of LEO a$$hats had nothing better to do.

1998 Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University; David B. Kopel
Violent crimes account for only one-seventh of BATF traces. [25] At least half of BATF traces are for possession offenses. [26] To the extent that any generalizations can be drawn from BATF trace data, these generalizations are about gun owners whose gun possession violated some kind of ordinance or statute, but who did not use their gun for illegal violence.

...

To advocates of restrictive gun laws, BATF traces are like psychoanalyst's inkblots: the viewer always finds in them exactly what he wants to see. Thus, BATF traces are used to create allegedly "scientific" data to promote the banning of small and inexpensive guns, [65] to demonize certain large handguns, [66] to prove that the Brady Act is working, [67] to prove that the federal assault weapons ban is working, [68] to prove that more controls are needed on "assault weapons," [69] to make the case for eliminating firearms dealer licenses for persons who operate small businesses from their home, [70] and to prove that gun rationing laws work. [71]

http://www.davekopel.com/2A/LawRev/Clue ... racing.htm

[skeeterss0]

The mayors' group suggests strong gun-control laws could bring the number down even further.

This is the statement that caught my attention. The logic just doesn't compute for me. His city has high crime rate and strict gun control laws but it's our lack of gun control laws that cause the crime? With that logic VA should have a hell of a lot more crime than NY. Maybe the high crime rate is because of the strict gun control laws and the thugs know the law abiding citizens are unarmed.

[Diomed]

The TD has a long editorial history of opposition to gun control. I still have an editorial they ran over fifteen years ago denouncing the Brady Act.

They'll probably terminate that reporter for actually writing a good article that has some of its content based in facts and is supported by common sense thinking

It was an editorial piece, not a reporting piece. While they're in the same paper, they have no impact on each other, as reading any of the crap the reporters write on gun issues will demonstrate.

[Reverenddel]

Hominy-hominy-hominy..>HUH<!?!

Hey! I'll take any ally in a foxhole! RTD has a bigger forum than myself!

[Runcible]

Media General, the Times Dispatch's owner, has been gradually coming around to the view that it should reflect the various worldviews of its subscribers rather than ridicule them. The survival instinct tends to clarify things a bit.

In pursuit of giving the people what hey want, the company is publishing a new newspaper - "Gotcha!" - which is composed almost entirely of mugshots from recent arrests in the Richmond area, accompanied by sarcastic observations. It rocks.

[gunderwood]

Media General, the Times Dispatch's owner, has been gradually coming around to the view that it should reflect the various worldviews of its subscribers rather than ridicule them. The survival instinct tends to clarify things a bit.

In pursuit of giving the people what hey want, the company is publishing a new newspaper - "Gotcha!" - which is composed almost entirely of mugshots from recent arrests in the Richmond area, accompanied by sarcastic observations. It rocks.

So you're telling me that the Times Dispatch won't need any of the media bailout money? (You know it is coming...)

[VBshooter]

So innocent until proven guilty doesn;t work for them? Seems bit unfair to publish some poor SOB's pic that might be innocent,

[chfaunce]

First, I'm amused that people still think the media cares about what's "fair".

Second, old ideas are old. But as The Smoking Gun has showed us time and time again, people love laughing at others' misfortune!

[VBshooter]

Granted the media has no conception or cares what is Fair, are sleazy SOB's and nowadays will do anything to keep afloat, But in comparison gun owners hit the ceiling when the Roanoke TImes published just the names of permit holders in VA, IMHO the people who had the misfortune should at least be allowed the courtesy in that the publishing of a name is Public Record and is legal.... But adding a mug shot and comments is just stooping to Low Life Journalism to get sales, As for the people who love laughing at others misfortune its poetic justice when the spectre of bad luck comes their way and it;s their turn in the limelight.

[vasportsmen]

With the exception of their claim that were it not for Virginia's handgun rationing law "One gun-a-month" the numbers might be higher, this is a good response to the Mayor's Op/Ed from earlier in the week.

[chfaunce]

Granted the media has no conception or cares what is Fair, are sleazy SOB's and nowadays will do anything to keep afloat, But in comparison gun owners hit the ceiling when the Roanoke TImes published just the names of permit holders in VA, IMHO the people who had the misfortune should at least be allowed the courtesy in that the publishing of a name is Public Record and is legal.... But adding a mug shot and comments is just stooping to Low Life Journalism to get sales, As for the people who love laughing at others misfortune its poetic justice when the spectre of bad luck comes their way and it;s their turn in the limelight.

Well, yeah, but it sells, and we buy it!! Who are we blaming again? How many days have we seen Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan on the front pages??? America, having addressed all of it's other problems, now seems to care more what some socialite is hiding in her snooch....

[Diomed]

Media General, the Times Dispatch's owner, has been gradually coming around to the view that it should reflect the various worldviews of its subscribers rather than ridicule them. The survival instinct tends to clarify things a bit.

I dunno, the Goochland Gazette is a MG publication and it's become damn near communist in the last few years, going very much against the grain of the county it purports to serve.

[Tweaker]

I just can't hear the word snooch enough, and to read it...well that's just mo' betta!

That is all I have to say about tha'at.