London’s murder rate tops NYC?

The smoke hadn’t fully cleared from the three mass shootings (Yes, I said “Three.” Chicago also had (yet another) mass shooting during the same weekend as the other two being pounded on in the press) when Democrats went into their usual SOP…bash The President and push for “common-sense gun safety” measures.

First of all, nothing, absolutely nothing short of full confiscation would have prevented any of the three massacres from occurring. With one possible exception, the measures being proposed are pretty much feel-good measures that would accomplish nothing except alienating and putting at risk, law-abiding citizens.

That one exception, some sort of “Red Flag” legislation has some merit as long as two things are non-negotiable: First, these laws must be instituted by the states, severally. The only part the Feds should be involved in is maintaining the Federal database. Second, due process. Nobody gets put into any database precluding firearm ownership/possession without full due process, Judge, Jury and all the other trappings of our judicial system…including the right to confront accusers. But that’s for another time.

Today’s piece comes as a result of the entire Democrat Presidential Field’s declaration that each of them (if there is an exception, I’ll promptly issue a retraction) would, by fair means or foul, prohibit sporting rifles, such as the AR-15 and the semi-automatic knock off of the AK-47. They would also prohibit standard capacity magazines (20-30 round).

Understand folks, Democrats’ ultimate objective is full confiscation. Remember this famous quote by Senator Diane Feinstein?

“If I could have gotten 51 votes for an outright ban, picking up every one of them, ‘Mr. and Mrs. America, turn em all in,’ I would have done it,”

With their objective in mind, I came across an interesting article from USA Today published back in April 2018. From the article

LONDON — When British police launched a murder investigation Tuesday into the shooting death of a 17-year-old girl it pushed the homicide rate in Britain’s capital to a new, troubling milestone: London’s murder rate surpassed New York City’s for the first time.

London tallied 15 murders in February and 22 in March, slightly more than New York City for the same two months, which logged 14 in February and 21 in March, according to murder rate statistics provided to USA TODAY by London’s Metropolitan Police and the New York Police Department.

Overall London has so far in 2018 seen fewer killings than New York City: 47 versus 54. Both cities have similarly sized populations of about 9 million.

Here’s the money quote, emphasis mine

In London, the homicide rate has increased as the British capital experiences a rise in knife-related crime — responsible for 31 deaths this year — while New York City’s murder rate has steadily dropped for almost three decades. Of the 54 murders in New York City this year, 32 people died by a firearm.

Now, two months is not a huge trend and this article is a year old, but there’s an important point to be made here. Great Britain has what could credibly be called, an outright ban on personal gun ownership. The restrictions are so onerous, only wealthy hunters and security workers can afford to bother. By their thinking and that of their Leftist “cousins in the Colonies,” the murder rate in London should have plunged dramatically. Obviously, this is not so.

It’s also equally obvious that killers will always find a way. They will find a way to kill, whether it be one at a time or tens, hundreds, even thousands at a time. My question is, when will the Democrats and their RINO enablers ever realize that it’s not the gun? When will they figure out it’s the killer? When will they ever realize that laws limiting access to firearms by law-abiding Americans will never ever stop, or even slow down, a psychopath who wishes to wreak harm on his fellow citizens? Most importantly, when will they realize that all their proposed legislation does, is legally disarm law-abiding citizens when they most need weapons for defense of themselves and others?

Mike Ford, a retired Infantry Officer, writes on Military, Foreign Affairs and occasionally dabbles in Political and Economic matters.

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