McClaughry: ‘Ghost guns’ and murderers

By John McClaughry

One of my favorite writers on current affairs is Kevin Williamson, who posts a piece every Tuesday at Nationalreview.com. Last week he did an illuminating piece on President Biden’s current concern about “ghost guns,” unserialized and untraceable firearms that can be bought online and assembled at home.

It concluded with these interesting facts about gun crimes in general: “About 90 percent of murder suspects in cities such as New York and Chicago have prior arrest histories; in Charlotte, half of the murder suspects have had prior gun charges dismissed, which is a genuine scandal; …  the No. 1 thing people being convicted of violent felonies have in common is a prior arrest for a violent felony, which is the case for two-thirds of violent felons.”

“(For context, be aware that the majority of murder victims are criminal offenders, too, a finding that has held true in the big cities for half a century. A 2012 survey of New York murder victims found that 20 percent of them were on probation or parole or had an active arrest warrant, 10 percent were confirmed gang members, 71 percent had prior arrests, etc. Only one in five male murder victims in New York did not have a prior arrest.)”

“If prior offenders make up 90 percent of our murderers, and ‘ghost guns’ are involved in less than 1 percent of our murders, why are we concentrating on the ‘ghost guns’ rather than on the murderers?”

The tripartite answer, Williamson concludes, is “politics, theater, and cowardice.”

Good point, Kevin. Let’s ask our anti-gun legislators to give us a coherent answer to that.

John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute. Reprinted with permission from the Ethan Allen Institute Blog.

Image courtesy of Public domain

6 thoughts on “McClaughry: ‘Ghost guns’ and murderers

  1. The ghost guns are not the problem. The object of wanting to ban them is one more step towards identifying every gun and who has them. That makes them easy to go collect in order to complete the communist take over of America.

  2. It’s all about making it scary sounding like “Assault” rifle or “3D” printer gun or
    “Automatic” when it’s really a semi all used by the gun illiterate leftist gun grabbers.

    As the article states it’s criminals or gang banger’s getting shot in the big numbers
    not average citizens. Most of the “mass” shootings have been by known to the
    fbi, which does nothing to prevent them carrying out their evil deeds. The biggest
    hype they use is the shootings are highest in the world when in fact if you take
    out just 5 of the high shooting democrat controlled cities which also have the strictest gun laws the nations shootings drop to like 120th on the list. The problem
    isn’t guns, it’s democrats who don’t enforce the laws, but take the citizens rights away. This is why states who are allowing concealed carry without a permit are some of the safest nation. Criminals won’t take a chance if they think someone
    will shoot back.
    Another fable the potato head is pushing is you don’t need a 30 round mag for
    hunting, when in fact if your protecting yourself from attack a 30 round mag may not be enough. I say no more Secret service protection or police for political hacks
    who want to take our self protection away or limit it.

  3. “Politics, theatre and cowardice” is a witches brew as it emanates from our legislature who claim to be representing the citizens of Vermont. I wrote to my local reps recently, and stated the futility of my continuing to establish dialogue. One had blocked me in recent weeks which prompted my response. My county prosecutor recently took my call and then condescendingly told me nothing unlawful is going on under his watch. I had sent him the “Fauci Dossier” via constitutionallawgroup.us which clearly states harms to the citizenry of Vermont and includes conflicts of interest in regards to patents. What is truly unnerving is that I am taking the time to research on my own dime, because I desire the truth over what our supposed ‘experts’ and/or mainstream media are purporting. Small business owners like myself are often independent thinkers and wish to conduct ourselves based on what is practical and enterprising. In my estimation, the fear-mongering in regards to a supposed ‘virus’ has mushroomed into a childish ploy led by special interests and mealy-mouthed lackeys. With that said, I approach life with renewed interest and am longing for a future that is representative of We the People. My news may not jive with theirs, but it’s deserving of a fair shake and certainly a chance to be heard. Let’s hope that time arrives soon…and very soon.

    • You’re hardly alone – our Rep in Enosburg/Montgomery no longer answers her phone, provides no updates via website or newspaper and is following her own agenda after most of her supporters abandoned her.

      She talked a big game to get elected, then fell apart.

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