A Tale of Two Shootings

Are some shooting deaths more important than others?

Sep 23, 2024

So comes word now that in Birmingham, Alabama, a gunman reportedly targeting a single individual managed to kill four and wound over 20.

Is it dominating all news reports? Is it breaking news, with ongoing press conferences and updates? Are you hearing about it everywhere?

Didn’t think so.

The double-standard here is telling. Consider that, according to the Pew Research Center’s most recent numbers, a whopping 3% of U.S. gun murders are from long guns — including so-called “assault weapons.”

Yup. Just 3%.

While the numbers are fuzzy on the rest, nearly all are almost certainly handguns — meaning, illegal handguns in urban areas.

The truth of the matter, so conveniently ignored, is that stranger murder in America is vanishingly rare. The vast, vast majority of murders in America are either perp-on-perp or domestics. Either way, both killer and victim are known to each other.

So when an awful event like the recent Georgia school shooting occurs — resulting in four dead there as well — the fact that an AK-47 or AR-15-type assault weapon was used becomes a convenient media trope for the need for “gun control” and for some means to isolate a populace that is, in Obama’s words, “clinging to their God and their guns.”

Now, of course a school shooting shocks the conscience. It should.

But so should what just occurred in Birmingham.

Consider that this Birmingham shooting appears to have involved the use of handguns with a “Glock switch” — that is, a cheap plastic device that converts a handgun into a mini-machine gun.

These are becoming more common. Lucky us.

So sure, you can advocate for restrictions on the Second Amendment — that is your right. The Brady Bill survived any constitutional challenge. And programs like red-flag laws have indeed shown some success.

But what you cannot ignore is that, for the illegal handguns used in the overwhelming majority of America’s gun killings, the laws needed to interdict them are already on the books.

But blue city city mayors and prosecutors, as well as blue governors like Illinois Governor Pritzker, New York’s Kathy Hochul, and California’s Gavin Newsom, are far too invested in the idea that criminal justice in America is “systemically racist” to take on our real “gun epidemic.”

And so, our cities — the jewels in America’s crown — descend into disarray and decrepitude, as people vote with their feet.

And who dies? Mostly, young men-of-color. Men whose lives vanish in an instant of idiotic judgment because of easy access to handguns and our officials’ refusal to enforce against these weapons for fear of being cast out from the liberal elite.

The victims in Birmingham and other inner-cities are America’s kids — no less than the victims of any school shooting.

But only one of these gets hysterical, full-on coverage for days, as our media’s talking haircuts cling to the myth that assault weapons are not just the bigger problem — they’re the only problem.

It’s a myth written in blood.

Our New Feature….

So this week we debut a new video feature, The Ops Desk Report, putting into perspective the major safety, security, and intelligence issues facing the nation today.

As Donald Trump dodges the Dems, the media, and alas, bullets… is all of this really new? Is Trump being forced to relive a history we should all recognize?

Here’s a sample…!

So join us for the sort of context we’re not getting elsewhere, over at The Report. (Click HERE, but caution: Paywall. Because we wouldn’t do that to you!).

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So Did Crime Rise Under Trump — And Fall Under Biden?

Um, how about no?

But don’t take my word for it — here’s The Crime Research Center, an outfit that has one job: crime stats.

The vagaries in crime stats nationwide would take a book to reconcile. Here in New York, for instance, the NYPD violent crime statistics, which always tracked the federal stats, suddenly began to diverge two years ago — with the NYPD stats showing far more violent crime than the fed numbers do.

Further, while the Biden/Harris administration loves to cite drops in crime from 2023, when compared to Biden’s crime numbers in the previous years, this is akin to saying you’re better off falling from the 20th floor than the 25th.

Consider, too, that major blue cities, like New York and Los Angeles, don’t even report their crime numbers to the feds.

And then there’s this: an enormous number of crimes are not even reported to the police. Only about 40% of violent crimes are likely reported, and less than one-third of property crimes.

Therefore, a far more accurate metric can be achieved by a large-sample polling of the general population, to ascertain if citizens were in fact the victims of crime.

That methodology — carried out each year by a federal agency, the Bureau of Justice Statistics — produces these results:

Further: Under Biden, law enforcement has been so demoralized, arrests for violent crime in cities larger than one million have dropped by half.

You read that right: half.

Overlay that with 20 million illegal aliens, a percentage of which are undeniably criminals, and you have start to gain some understanding of what’s happening to our cities.

For Those Who Want To Keep The Players Straight….

Not since the Roaring 20’s and the notorious Jimmy Walker has a NYC mayor verged on such widespread scandal. It seems like every day, a new controversy emerges from New York’s City Hall.

(Jimmy Walker — who left the NYC mayoralty to hide out in Europe)

For instance, just over a week ago, NYPD Police Commissioner Edward Caban stunned the city by resigning following revelations of a federal investigation into not only him but his brother, regarding an alleged shakedown scheme in the city’s nightlife industry.

This followed allegations of a member of Caban’s inner-circle being linked to the Chinese Communist Party — and revelations that Adams himself has taken mysterious trips to China, at least one of which was partially funded by the Chinese Communist Party.

Then this past Friday, the replacement Police Commissioner, Thomas Donlon, has also had his home searched by the feds — due to allegations of his improper retention of classified documents.

Meanwhile, there is almost no top official around Mayor Adams who has not been subpoenaed, had his or her home searched, or been called into the grand jury.

It’s such a mess, that an NYC-based website known as HellgateNYC has published a helpful scorecard to help us keep the players straight (replete with disembodied heads — always a plus!).

(click the above for the Hellsgate scorecard — we need one of these for every blue city)

The rumors here in NYC are swirling, but the smart money is betting on indictments before year’s end. The feds don’t do this much work just to walk away.

Sure, Adams has had what can only be called an inconsequential mayoralty. But then again, he’s on the verge of making history a different way: for corruption.

All while telling us that New York is a city that’s “humming” — as storefronts continue to board up, crazies take over our public spaces, and migrants and homeless now occupy 20% of New York’s hotels.

Ayyyye… love New Yooooooork…!

Not much anymore.