“A man who killed two New York City police officers Saturday had a long criminal history in the metro Atlanta area,” wsbtv.com reports. “Brinsley had active warrants out of Cobb County. Police sources told Channel 2 Action News Brinsley had warrants for probation violation related to theft, firearm possession and criminal property damage charges. Fulton County Jail records show Brinsley was booked into the jail nine times between 2004 and 2010. The offenses include . . .

simple battery, disorderly conduct, theft by shoplifting, criminal trespass, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a knife during the commission of a felony, possession of marijuana, simple battery, and terroristic threats.

Surprised? I didn’t think so. As always, the question is not whether or not “gun control” could have prevented a firearms-related killing. The question is why a man like Brinsley was walking the streets.

Not that the antis understand or acknowledge the point. They’re continuing to focus on the fact that the gun used in the heinous crime was purchased – legally – at a pawn shop before somehow making its way into Brinsley’s hands. If only we could have stopped him from getting a gun!

If only we could stop people from focusing their attention on an inanimate object and onto a criminal justice system that puts hardened criminals through a revolving door.

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48 COMMENTS

  1. The fact is this if this psycho had a prison built on top of him on one of his previous arrests as apposed to being out and about he would not have gotten this far. I’m quite certain the gun wouldn’t have gotten on the bus all by itself.

    • It’s almost like they (cops, government) want to keep people like this on the street to keep people afraid and thus justify their existence and constant lust for more power.

      • I’m pretty sure the cops are the last people who want guys like this on the street. From what I’ve heard from cops, they’re some of the harshest critics of the revolving-door justice system in existence.

    • Via takemefishing.org: The benefits of proper catch and release have proved vital to the future of a number of important fisheries around the country as it is a means of preserving and enhancing fish populations. It is yet another way that anglers contribute to fishing’s long-standing commitment to conservation and preservation of our natural resources.

      Replace fish with criminals and anglers with politicians and you pretty much have you have the New York state criminal justice system mission statement.

    • “Nine times caught and released. Nice program you got there.”

      Yeah, real nice. This has been a problem going on for decades. The vast majority of tax-paying, law abiding blacks and latinos are randomly harassed and profiled; meanwhile the most violent hardened and incorporable felons go through the prison revolving door so fast that they could power the grid.

      Oppression *and* mayhem. Seems to be exactly what The Man wants. What a deal.

    • This is exactly the kind of person that should locked up for life. I don’t care whether individual offences that he committed are not enough to justify that, but when it’s clear that he insists on being a menace to society no matter how many chances he’s given, society has a right to deal with that threat for good.

  3. Brinsley was a crook, a bum, possibly a member of an extremely violent prison gang and ultimately a murderer.

    So much for “if you can’t be trusted with a gun, you can’t be trusted without a keeper.” Had Brinsley served real time on those GA priors, would anybody in his right mind truly expect that he would have come out a better man? What utter nonsense.

      • Boy have you got Ralph wrong. He is of the group that believes if a criinal can’t be trusted out of prison he should not be released.

  4. Ralph, I may have misunderstood your comment, but this case specifically points out that if you can’t be trusted with a firearm, you should not be without a keeper.

    As to the first part, you are right on. We need to close the penal system loop hole, I mean revolving door and leave law abiding citizen’s rights alone.

    • @Frank, there are those among us who believe that convicted felons should have their gun rights restored, presumably so the bad guys can buy their guns in a nice store rather than having to steal them or buy them in a back alley.

      The rallying cry of these 2A absurdists is “if you can’t trust someone with a gun, you can’t trust them without a keeper.” I agree — you can’t trust them without a keeper. Brinsley is yet another case in point.

      • Ralph-Please try to tone down the disdain towards We Americans who believe in the outdated principle of liberty and equal justice for all by restoring non-violent felons constitutional guaranteed right to armed defense. Once you do your time your debt to society is paid in full and it is important for a moral society to forgive lesser acts of evil, and to swiftly carry out harsh punishments for thieves,chomos, rapists, and murderers. Exile or execute is more in line with the spirit of justice than caging a man up to be preyed upon by fellow inmates or corrupt guards, which is torture and further continuation of the evil that landed them in prison to begin with. Prisons are made for profit and most moral men know that prison walls are not built out of fear for the harm criminals will do us, but to keep us from harming them in the name of justice and for a tax break. Example-be in a court room when a murderer taunts the victims family and notice how the deputies protect the vile scum instead of allowing the relative grief counseling by contact. Forced labor would be a better criminal deterrent and worth the expenses for tax payers than the current DOC, which is gangs based on race who churn out hardened predators after their training in the gladiator schools that specialize in business, mortal combat, and forced invasive massage therapy.
        A drunk driver doesn’t deserve to be banned from armed self-defense just like a parent behind on child support shouldn’t be denied.

        • No,but a drunk driver who shoots somebody, or late-paying parent who robs/rapes/assaults innocent people with their gun sure as heck is no longer deserving of the right to posses a gun…forever. Personal responsibility for ones actions/misdeeds.

        • @Jjmmyjonga
          If those people are dangerous, why do they get out of prison after an arbitrary number of years?
          If he isn’t trustworthy enough to possess a gun, a convict should stay in his concrete and steel box. If he never reforms, he should stay in prison until he dies.
          Murderous ex-cons have no trouble getting guns illegally, so we should assume they’re going to perform criminal acts as long as they have criminal intent. Prison should be about reforming the prisoner to remove this intent (if possible) and segregating the prisoner from society until he reforms (if ever).

        • Hey Jason,

          You make some interesting points. Unfortunately, this nation really doesn’t believe in second chances or people getting a clean slate after they have paid their dues. States often take away even the right to vote after people do time, which is the most basic of rights

        • Nobody, including the Framers, ever said that serving prison time is always the totality of one’s “debt to society.” We often place lingering, sometimes lifelong, restrictions on many people’s freedom after they’ve served prison time, or sometimes even when they’ve served no prison time.

          I don’t know where this prison sentence = total debt to society myth originated, but neither have I ever met anyone who regards it as a valid principle who can tell me where they got the idea from, either.

        • @Jonathan – Houston
          “Nobody, including the Framers, ever said that serving prison time is always the totality of one’s “debt to society.”” – citation needed.
          Not sure why you think that this is a myth. If one has not paid his debt, then why is he free? If he is out of prison and not free, what is the difference?
          I have yet to see any discussion about what you say in the Federalist papers. I would assume that Framers would have mentioned this important detail related to BOR (“not valid where prohibited”, etc).
          The issue with your approach is that by having people around us that don’t enjoy all their rights, you need a method to differentiate between the ones that have full rights and ones that don’t. And that’s why we have background check. If some are prohibited from exercising their rights, the state must assume that you don’t have rights unless you prove otherwise. So we are all guilty until proven innocent (e.g. by the BC). I hope that you see the implication of what you are talking about.

      • Ralph,

        The root problem is the sham that is our revolving door justice system. This sort of thing is shamefully common. The attacker should have been in prison, not loose on the streets. But the attacker was loose on the streets and didn’t have any trouble finding a way to kill two people.

        Laws did not stop the attacker from acquiring a firearm and killing. And even if laws had magical power to prevent a violent felon from acquiring a firearm, he could have killed the police officers just as easily with a steel pipe, hammer, car, or garrote wire.

        I have two excellent reasons why ex-convicts should have full gun rights. First, people can and do change. A person who did something stupid one time — especially as a very young adult — has every right to defend themselves and their (future) family. Second, innocent people are railroaded all the time. Why shouldn’t they have the right to keep and bear arms once they get out of prison?

        • I have a better reason for allowing ex-cons to have their gun rights. Because if you allow the government to say a group of people are forbidden from possessing arms, then they can say EVERYONE is forbidden from possessing arms.

      • Ralph, I don’t think anyone is hoping murderers, rapists, etc will be buying guns in stores and then using them to commit crimes. And I’m not going to get into the “if they’ve served their time, they’ve paid their debt” argument. There are crimes you can NEVER pay your debt for. However, I am against mandatory background checks. Any and all of them. Because that means the govt is giving me PERMISSION to buy a firearm. And if that is the case, then at any point they can decide I (or you/whoever) am no longer on the “allowed” list. And to keep that from happening, which will hopefully keep govt from continuing to be the number one killer of the people throughout history, there will be people who will have access to guns that most of us would rather not have access.

  6. Recently I wondered, ” what percentage of so-called gun violence, is committed by people who are already prohibited from firearms possession?” The best guess I could determine is 90 to 94 % . Which means with exclusion of suicide we are at 98 % or so, which means all the resources of gun control Inc.are aimed at 2-5 % of what they claim to be against. Hmmm.

  7. Clearly I must be disarmed to prevent this from happening, not plugging the holes that allowed him to walk free.

  8. I’m sure in leftist Candyland its because of racism this cockroach was “oppressed” nine times in Georgia. After all, Georgia is nowhere near Manhattan or Hollywood, therefor its all uncultured racists down there.

  10. “Police sources told Channel 2 Action News Brinsley had warrants for probation violation related to theft, firearm possession and criminal property damage charges.”

    Well what are we waiting for? This shows us it is time to eliminate our Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures and enable police to screen everyone, everywhere, any time and for any or no reason. In fact we should demand that police screen everyone … via checkpoints at ever road intersection. That would have caught this guy and taken him off the streets and saved us. Am I right?
    /end_sarcasm

  11. I’m absolutely not siding with the guy, but each of his prior crimes are very benign. Let’s look at them individually…

    Simple battery…a fist fight is in this arena. I’m guilty of this too.
    Disorderly conduct…very vague charge, could mean just about anything and may have been in addition to the battery charge.
    Shoplifting…anything from a pack of gum to a pair of shoes.
    Criminal trespass…again, a very vague charge and may have been in addition to the shoplifting.
    Carrying a concealed weapon…Constitutional carry?
    Possession of marijuana…so what!?!
    Possession of a knife during the commission of a felony…What felony, marijuana possession?
    Terroristic threats…almost every person who follows TTAG is likely guilty of that.

    Now, ask yourself this, is it possible, just possible, that this guy could have just finally reached his breaking point after all these potentially BS charges? What he finally did has absolutely no justification whatsoever, and I offer no absolution for his crime, but we owe it to ourselves to be open-minded and not immediately rush to judgement. Given that hemp was a popular crop during colonial times, it is likely many of our Founding Fathers had rap sheets just like this guy. Just some food for thought.

    • “Now, ask yourself this, is it possible, just possible, that this guy could have just finally reached his breaking point after all these potentially BS charges?”

      It sounds to me like a guy who didn’t have enough sense leave “The Life” alone. The rest of your argument is a stretch. Sorry, no sale.

    • And ask yourself this, “is it possible, just possible, that this guy was a thug who didn’t care about anyone or anything?” He was arrested many times in Ohio as well. Society must have been oppressive toward him there too. Or maybe, just maybe, he was just a bad dude.
      I doubt that this guy had much in common with our Founding Fathers.

    • Setting aside all of your apologia, what if the only thing this guy were guilty of was showing up at someone’s home and, with a stolen handgun, shooting that person’s car, then fleeing from the police when they arrived?

      What would you say about this poor soul who’s otherwise perpetually in the wrong place at the wrong time and constantly being pinched on “B.S.” charges?
      What if only that one event were what he was guilty of? Then what? Deserves prison, or still more chances to turn it around?

      You see, while you making excuses for this filthy, vicious beast who should have been put down years ago, some of us were reading the original article and learning more about this animal’s activities.

      Your thinking, shared by the bleeding heart judge who let this murderous psycho out on probation, is what opened the door to the murders and unconscionable violence he committed. Everybody demands their rights…….but nobody wants to hear a word about responsibilities.

  12. But….but…this senseless act underscores the need for sensible gun-control laws. So says the NAACP.

    Can anyone tell me why, every time somebody calls for “sensible gun-control laws,” no reporter ever asks the really obvious follow-up question “Such as….?”

    I’m so curious, it hurts.

  13. I am confused as to how this guy got a gun. Did he buy it from the pawnshop, or from someone else who bought it from the pawnshop?

  15. …and convicted pedaphiles/child rapers, once serving their punishment, should be restored full Right of Assembly….with your kids and grand children. “Hey, you did your time, you get all your rights back” – not. (I am good with chemical castration for any male that rapes a child/woman, so take that one away too)

      • Sorry, left that class out…let’s just call it rapests and those who use guns for violent crimes as those who should lose certain rights for life.

  17. It is a travesty that this man was not prisoned or deported long ago but that is our Justice System in the US!!
    On the other side of this is the protesting, Arson, Assaults, Robberies, Murders, RaceBaiting and Now the Assassination of Two Officers of The Law!
    Those higher up in these protests were making demands and baiting for The Murders of LEO’s and now some low life thug has did there bidding!
    Now We as Americans that have a True Sense of Heart and Mind for Right and Wrong and stand for Justice.
    Now We Must make a stand and demand action in this and an accounting of those whom took part and called for The Blood and Lives of Law Enforcement Officers Along with Whites whom were Also Targeted. As Americans who watched this unfold as our Government Did the Unthinkable first call meetings and to speak about baiting and working these Thugs into a Frenzy calling and demanding change. This Blood of These Officers and Others Killed threw out these months is on your Hands First and Foremost.
    Then these Idiots like Sharpton and that special class of Idiots that Actually made profits and Financial Gains. We The People must demand that these people are brought swiftly to JUSTICE.
    We must also ask for and demand deep changes on how these protests ( if you can call them that )
    Were allowed to reach this level of mess for this length of time, someone must answer for these Atrocities Against our People, Towns and Nation. This is my thoughts and opinion and I welcome any subjective help, but I just feel that there is no better place than this forum to put this out to People of Integrity To Begin A Call To Action as I Feel This is a Issue Where We Must Make A Stand!!
    Thank You for allowing me to Share!

  20. That “revolving door” is a clear reason why the natural right to self defense includes firearms possession. 9 bookings in 6 years is the stuff of an Inspector Clouseau skit.

  21. Too bad the cops don’t profile people based on sheer fugliness. This less-than-photogenic mofo would probably still be locked up somewhere.

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