Four northeast Democratic governors recently announced they will start sharing gun crime data to begin a new cooperative effort to combat “gun violence.” The video press conference drew less than 190 live viewers, but media coverage afterwards was predictably fawning and gave the governors exactly what they wanted – a quick and fleeting splash.
The governors involved are all staunch gun control proponents who prefer restricting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans to imposing justice on the criminals perpetrating crimes committed with firearms. The announcement was yet another example of all show, no action policies. The agreement is a resounding dud.
New Window Dressing
Democratic Governors Kathy Hochul of New York, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania and Ned Lamont of Connecticut have more than a dozen years of executive experience between them, yet three of their states are among the worst in the nation for crimes committed with a firearm and all four have some of the strictest existing gun control laws in the nation. They got together for the major announcement to try to remedy their problem.
The four states will begin sharing gun crime data to increase enforcement of gun control measures and “catch illegal gun sellers and users.” To do so, the governors pledged that law enforcement agencies from each state will share the “eTrace” reports they receive from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The agreement says each state can maintain its own data, can choose which data to share or withhold, choose how often or not to share data and that they’ll let each other know if individual sensitive data is hacked, leaked or misused.
Newly-minted New York Governor Hochul praised the agreement. “This memorandum is transformative,” she said. “I believe this is going to give us and our law enforcement entities in each of our states the tools we need to be able to trace guns that are coming from other states, to understand when a crime has been committed.”
They’ve spent more energy restricting gun rights of law-abiding gun owners than actually locking up criminals.
Connecticut Governor Lamont added, “Despite our best gun safety laws, we have more damn guns on the street than we ever had before.” The irony shouldn’t be lost on the governors. They’ve spent more energy restricting gun rights of law-abiding gun owners than actually locking up criminals.
Already Available
The governors’ announcement did the job. Home state editorials praised the agreement, wondering, “…with more victims of gun violence, the new four-state cooperation pact on the sharing of gun data seems like one of those ‘What took you so long?’ moments.”
The press are baffled because they don’t understand their own state’s gun laws or that ATF already provides gun crime trace data to states and that any state can share data with any other state. The ATF website includes a page titled, “Crime Gun Tracing and Information Sharing” to help state law enforcement agencies do this.
The four-state memorandum also notes that information may only be used for sharing among legitimate law enforcement purposes related to the investigations of criminal activity. That provision, to remain in compliance with the Tiahrt Amendment, secures sensitive tracing information which would jeopardize ongoing criminal investigations and put the lives of law enforcement officers, cooperating retailers and witnesses at risk if shared.
Facing Reality
Governor Lamont chimed in during the video press conference to add, “Right now, we’re all putting more police on the street; we’re community policing more folks.” Really? He must have missed it last year when New Haven slashed its police department budget by $4 million despite having the state’s second-highest crime rate. Hartford did the same, cutting $1 million from police.
The reality is the four governors all prefer defunding law enforcement while then restricting the rights of their citizens to bear arms for their own self-protection. They’ll now answer to voters in the coming months with Governor Murphy facing reelection in just three weeks.
The public is already voting with their wallets when it comes to gun rights. This year’s firearm sales are keeping a blistering pace and public polling continues to show Americans’ preference for enforcing laws and holding criminals to account for their crimes rather than imposing more gun control on them.
The governors’ announcement was more window-dressing than a serious proposal to ensure criminals are caught, prosecuted and held responsible for their crimes. Meanwhile, the firearm industry is working to provide Real Solutions.
Those include ensuring all disqualifying information is submitted to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), preventing illegal “straw” purchases of firearms in partnership with the ATF, voluntarily increasing security at firearm retailers through Operation Secure Store, also an ATF partner program, partnering with 15,000 law enforcement agencies to distribute over 40 million free firearm safety kits including locking devices and partnering with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to have a brave conversation and prevent suicides.
The firearm industry is working to make a real difference. The governors are hoping voters won’t know the difference.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Tyrants gotta tyrant!
Well, I think I will quit buying guns legally in Pennsylvania just in case. I live about ten miles south in West Virginia that is still a free state.
If they want to help “fix” this problem they should denounce any Soros Elected Prosecutor. Prosecutors represent the people whom have been victimized, criminals have public defenders to represent them. If they are concerned the accused aren’t receiving fair trials beef up the public defender’s office, beef up the groups of people that gather and process evidence but don’t weaken the prosecutors office who is supposed to be an advocate of the people.
idiots.
Blinded by ideology, arrogance, and cognitive dissonance.
Pretending to do something is better than dealing with the negligent/intentional mass murder of old folks (NY)(PA), or unfunded pensions and exponentially increasing debts(CT)(NJ)(NY), fleeing populations (NY)(NJ)(CT).
Like a child being asked to clean your room and just stuff all your shit under the bed and in the closet.
Man, fuck those governors.
PA still has pretty good gun laws, because Wolf can’t get anything passed through the Republican legislature.
“Governor Murphy [is] facing reelection in just three weeks.” And he’ll be reelected easily, because NJ is the home of morons and NYC’s garbage, both of which smell really bad.
“Anti-Gun Governors’ Dog and Pony Show”
The dogs are obvious, but which one of the four pictures is the pony?
quote————–Meanwhile, the firearm industry is working to provide Real Solutions.
Those include ensuring all disqualifying information is submitted to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), preventing illegal “straw” purchases of firearms in partnership with the ATF, voluntarily increasing security at firearm retailers through Operation Secure Store, also an ATF partner program, partnering with 15,000 law enforcement agencies to distribute over 40 million free firearm safety kits including locking devices and partnering with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to have a brave conversation and prevent suicides.
The firearm industry is working to make a real difference. The governors are hoping voters won’t know the difference.————quote
Wrong on all counts and the usual smoke and mirrors that will not work period.
Without new Federal safe storage laws firearms retailers will vote with their pocket books and not install the necessary equipment to prevent burglars from breaking in, nor lock up their firearms after hours either. This has been their former cheap skate practice. If they get robbed they turn in the loss to the insurance companies.
Also without a Federal mandatory safe storage act all the safety kits they brag about will usually not get taken or used by lazy, shiftless gun owners that have in the past left loaded guns laying around the house to be picked up when children are playing to shoot themselves with causing on average 1,300 children’s deaths each year, all of which were avoidable. And smash and grab criminals can swoop into a home and be gone before the cops even get there assuming the people who own the house come home in time to even call the cops.
darcy dodo…you need to stfu and hop on your tricycle and pedal up to any Gun Store USA and blow your smoke right in front of the owners and customers. Don’t be surprised when you get a foot wedgy on your way out the door and in a few days served with a defamation lawsuit.
Once again…Get help…Mental Help.
Dacian, again you make claims you never back up, making yourself look like an idiot. You show you have no idea what you are talking about.
Here’s some data (something you always seem to lack) that disproves your asinine claim:
An expert on crime gun patterns, ATF agent Jay Wachtel says that most guns used in crimes are not stolen out of private gun owners’ homes and cars. “Stolen guns account for only about 10% to 15% of guns used in crimes,” Wachtel said.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/procon/guns.html
How would anyone know whether a crime gun was stolen or not? I suspect these factoids are no more reliable than any other data from ATF. Perhaps they mean “guns reported stolen”, not the same thing. I have a safe full of guns, have no idea of even one serial number and don’t intend to. If any gun I have purchased was used in a crime, well sure, it was stolen a while back, 3, maybe 5 years ago.
LarryinTX, when the theft of a gun is reported to the police, that information including the SERIAL NUMBER are entered into NCIC (National Crime Information Center) data base.
If you don’t maintain your record of the serial numbers on your guns, shame on YOU!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04
Dacian, you are at it again, huh? More Left Wing anti-gun propaganda?
For your edification the firearms industry has no control over what gets submitted to NCIC and can’t do anything to stop information from being submitted. However many of the courts who have jurisdiction don’t forward to the dispositions in a large number of cases heard by these courts to the FBI to be placed in NCIC. Further, mental conditions of persons BY LAW (HIPPA) can’t be entered into the system
A “locking system” for a gun which is to be used in self defense in the home is at best foolish and misguided. A good gun safe with quick access (known only to the owner) is the best solution. Not your “locking systems”. Your “locking systems” would not do a darn thing to stop someone from committing suicide.
As to your contention that gun shops don’t have adequate security is a MATTER FOR THE STATE to regulate not the Federal Government as per the US Constitution (see the 10th Amendment). That a child is killed by the child playing with a gun is abominable for sure. However there are laws already on the books which make negligence on the part of the gun owner a crime in and of itself.
Lying dog-face pony soldiers.
Noticing Delaware, Maryland and even Massachusetts are not involved in this waste of taxpayer money on new “consultants”.
Never mind cartoon boys. They don’t matter anyway.
The old guns on the streets fear rant. You’d think guns were as common as cigarette butts in a street gutter. 360,000,000 people and a miniscule of that number are criminals who will misuse anything they can get there hands on. However it is not ever about crime to democRats it is all about control just like it was to their Jim Crow Gun Control bigoted ancestors in the North, South, East and West…What Filth.
“[Governors will] now answer to voters in the coming months …”
Will they?
First of all, most voters have no idea what their Governors are doing. That is partly due to apathy and partly due to various information gatekeepers intentionally suppressing widespread information dissemination. Many (perhaps most?) voters would vote those Governors out if they actually knew what their Governors were doing.
Second of all, it is impossible for voters to vote out their Governors if there is ample voting fraud. Of course, it is hard to know if there is enough voter fraud to change the outcome of an election when investigation and information gatekeepers suppress investigations and dissemination of information voting fraud.
I agree. My first though was that these a.h.s were still going to be re-elected to their offices because even gun owners don’t really care. I recently was amazed at how many negative responses I got on another web site that was supposed to be for folks interested in preparing for wide-spread, large scale emergencies. I put for the proposition that the Second Amendment and the intent of the Founding Fathers in drafting the same was that regular folks could own any type of weapon they wanted and could afford. That if I had the scratch and wanted a 155 mm howitzer, I could buy one and keep it and maybe even drive around with it attached to the back of my duce and a half truck. This many years out of the Marine Corps, I can’t remember if 155s could be towed by a duce and a half or not. I know definitely 105s can be so towed, so maybe I would have to settle for a 105 if I wanted to be able to drag it to cannon shoots.
multiple gun owners raised some of the same b.s. that gun grabbers use. If everybody can own a gun and carry it around the streets will run red with blood. If anybody can buy a machine gun the next thing we will have is somebody showing up with a vehicle mounted .50 caliber machine gun and massacring hundreds. This one confused me: Women will be empowered and so that will defeat the empowerment movement. And some of them were from self-proclaimed gun owners and “hunters”. Reminds me of a friend of my son who starts off his antigun rants with “I’m a hunter.” the truth of the matter is that he has also stated that he hasn’t hunted since lead shot was banned for duck hunting. How long ago was that? If he is a hunter, I am an astronaut.
These four Governors are really the stupidest and ignorant individuals around. Even a simpleton would ask for a cause for the crimes. I do not know of anyone who is asking why individuals commit the crimes or where do they get the weapons from? Knowing that a person must go through an FBI Background Check and be cleared before they can purchase a weapon the criminals must be getting them from somewhere. Maybe these sub-par Governors would realize the weapons used are stolen, purchase on the street, black market, purchased by a straw purchaser. The criminal was a criminal before he/she obtained the weapon or had those characteristics which would not allow him to have a weapon; so instead of going after the criminal, before and after the crime and prosecuting them with harsh sentences these four simpletons go after the legal gun owners and the procedures they all willingly follow while the criminals do not care about the laws.
Four jackasses, so symbolic of their party.
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