Jurisdiction? We Don’t Need No Steenkin’ Jurisdiction

I know, I know. I shouldn’t make ad hominem attacks since they usually indicate that I have nothing substantive to back up my arguments. But Jeez Louise, what is there to say about the mayor of the largest city in the U.S. who thinks the Constitution, state and federal laws don’t apply to him and his minions? We know from his “gun show stings” that sending his Geheime Staatspolizei agents across state lines to commit felonies in support of his anti-Second Amendment agenda is old hat to Hizzoner; so why would anyone believe that he’d respect any sort of jurisdictional boundaries when it comes to sending out his agents to violate the first and fourth amendment rights of New Jerseyites?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg this morning defended the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims in New Jersey from criticism by Governor Chris Christie and Newark mayor Cory Booker.

Now it could be argued that it’s reasonable for the NYPD to monitor the online activities of Muslims (and note he doesn’t even try to call them suspected terrorists) outside of New York City for plans that potentially threaten Gotham. But for the city to send its agents out of the city to upstate New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut in order to monitor mosques and student groups is beyond the pale.

The antis have been known to accuse us of extremism and paranoia when we point out that a complete disregard of, and disrespect for, the second amendment often indicates a similar attitude for the rest of the Bill of Rights. And Mayor Mike’s actions don’t do much to allay our concerns.

Worse, he’s completely unrepentant for violating the natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and Constitutional rights[1] to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom from warrantless searches of these people. I must admit that this fact is not terribly surprising to those of us who have been the target of his bigotry in the past, but it appears to be a rude awakening for his fellow mayors and a few governors as well.

As Hizzoner said in his regular Friday morning fireside chat:

“And also, in the case of I think its Newark, they’ve assigned one of their police officers to work with the NYPD. So, we’ve certainly been keeping them informed … You gotta remember, John, a lot of the World Trade Center terrorists that killed 3,000 people went back and forth to New Jersey, and trained, I think, some of the training was in New Jersey, certainly some of the planning was in Newark, as a matter of fact. And so to say that the NYPD should stop at the border is a bit ridiculous.”

Did you catch that Newark? Send just one officer to work with the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg believes that gives him carte blanche to violate your sovereignty and the rights of your citizens.

“[T]o say that the NYPD should stop at the border” is not ridiculous Mr. Mayor, it is the law. Remember when Hurricane Katrina hit and Gov. Pataki sent 100 State Troopers to help out? They all had to be sworn in as LSP Special Officers in order to make arrests, use deadly force, enjoy qualified immunity, etc. because they were operating outside their jurisdiction.

Are you familiar with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Mr. Mayor? How about the Department of Homeland Security? They have jurisdiction throughout the country (whether or not that is a good idea is a different rant for a different day); so when you have probable cause or a reasonable articulable suspicion or, hell, even a hunch that there might be a threat that originates from outside your jurisdiction they’re the ones you call.

Okay, I think I’ve jumped on Mayor Bloomberg enough on that particular subject, let’s see what shrieking hysteria comes next in his idiotic, ignorant blather statement:

Christie was not the only governor Bloomberg took issue with.

Governor Robert McDonnell of Virginia signed a repeal this week of a longstanding gun law that forbids an individual from buying more than one handgun a month

I have written a couple of times on the stupidity that is one-gun-a-month, but a quick recap:

1) It was supposed to end or severely restrict trafficking. It didn’t.

B] It was passed 20 years ago, before NICS (again, another rant for another day) and before computerized tracking. Technology has changed, time to change the law.

iii} Much as you’d like, you can’t have it both ways Mr. Mayor. Federal law requires reporting of multiple handgun sales, something which can’t happen with a OGAM law, but something you were all in favor of when it applied to semi-auto rifles in Southwest border states. What was it you said? Oh yeah:

The new program will give law enforcement officers an important new tool to detect and fight illegal trafficking of guns.

So which is it? Do you support giving LEOs the tools they need to detect and fight gun trafficking or not. Or . . . maybe . . . maybe (just spitballin’ here) you don’t really give a $h!t what laws are passed as long as they further restrict rights of people to acquire, keep and bear the most effective self-defense tool in existence.

“The signing came after McDonnell met Saturday with families of people killed or injured in the April 2007 shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history,” reported the Washington Post. “The families had hoped to persuade him to veto the bill, although they knew it was a long shot.”

Okay I can’t blame the mayor for that statement because, well, he didn’t say it; but I just can’t let it pass. One more time boys and girls: The VA Tech shooter (whose name I refuse to mention, let him rot in obscurity) fully complied with Virginia’s One Gun A Month law. So the only thing that Tech victims had to offer besides their irrelevance was their victimhood. Oh and complicity in every shooting since VA Tech and any future shootings that take place in a Criminal Empowerment Zone which they are pushing for.

Getting back to the mayor now:

Gambling asked the mayor, who’s made gun control one of his signature issues, his thoughts on McDonnell’s decision.

“In New York City, we find an enormous number of the guns used to shoot and kill people, and shoot and, sadly, every once in a while, kill a cop, have come from Virginia,” said Bloomberg. “And so, you know we have a very big vested interest.

Okay, back the truck up. Hizzoner is saying that Virginia’s OGAM law was so effective that an “enormous” number of crime guns come from . . . Virginia? Hunh? Well, we can straighten this out; the ATF keeps records of that sort of thing, so if we go to their reports page we find out that in 2010, the #1 supplier of “crime guns” to New York state was . . . New York state.

But I thought their laws worked! And what’s this on page 7? The average “time-to-crime” for a gun recovered in New York was . . . that can’t be right, almost 25% higher than the national average? No, 2010 must have been a statistical anomaly; let’s look at 2009. In 2009, New York was again the #1 supplier of crime guns to itself and its gun time-to-crime was 18.5% higher than the national average. Maybe I’d better just do a table:

Well cut my legs off and call me Shorty! Over those 5 years, on average New York state provided itself with 3.5 times as many “crime guns” as Virginia provided.

But getting back to shot cops; the mayor makes the claim that Officer Figoski was shot and killed with a “Virginia gun.” What the mayor conveniently leaves out, however, is that the shooter (you know, the one who actually pulled the trigger and committed the murder) was wanted on a North Carolina warrant (for shooting someone) and had been arrested twice by  the NYPD, the second time in possession of 10 bags of crack and pot. And, despite being told there was an outstanding warrant for him, the judge released him on his own recognizance 37 days before he shot Officer Figoski.

Tell me one more time it was the gun’s fault. But lying by omission and misdirection aren’t the mayor’s only fibs, in the very next line he pulls out a whopper:

Every state I really do believe has the right to have their own gun laws.

Riiiiight! Which is why you support a federal “assault weapons” ban, a federal law requiring a NICS check for every transfer[3], a federal law to close the not-convicted of a damned thing but still a suspected “terrorist loophole”, a federal law requiring a background check on every sales employee (regardless of whether they sell firearms) at any store that sells guns.

And then the mayor finishes up with not just some lies but a complete divorce from reality:

“Virginia’s one of the states where the dealers really do sell more to people without background checks and a lot of those guns wind up on the streets. … But we’ve had four shootings, I think two of the four guns came from Virginia, all four were illegal guns, and one of them killed a police officer, Officer Figoski. He had four daughters he left behind. You know, their father’s never coming home, and it’s time for us to stop this senselessness.”

No, dealers do not sell without background checks. If they did, they’d wind up in prison and on the whole those guns sold by dealers don’t “wind up on the streets”; according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report, the primary sources of guns used by criminals are friends or family (39.6%) or street/illegal source (39.2%). Only about 12% purchased the weapon from a FFL and less than 2% got them from a gun show or flea market.

And no, the gun didn’t kill Officer Figoski, a multiple criminal offender with an outstanding warrant from another state who was released by YOUR judicial system killed him.

And yes it is time and past time to end the senselessness of blaming inanimate objects for causing crime and killing people, time and past time to end the senseless revolving courtroom door for violent criminals, and past time to end the senseless denial of the natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and Constitutional right to own and carry the weapon of your choice.[4]

We’ve tried your way Mr. Mayor and it doesn’t work.