Chief Johnson Think Before You Speak On Gun Control

Before I begin my blog on this tempestuous subject, I too was in favor of gun control until I saw the mess “we the people” made of it. 

 It wasn’t long ago when Baltimore County Police Department Chief James Johnson was touting from a podium on the issues of crime and its decline.  It wasn’t one photo-op but a series of statements on how safe we were in Baltimore County. 

So my question is, why is the chief in Washington testifying on gun control when his own jurisdiction has not faced or is dealing with such a problem?  At the hearing Chief Johnson testified that, “I’ve seen an explosion of firepower since the assault weapons ban expired." And yet if you check the police department’s website, you will know that the use of a firearm in a crime has declined over the years.  I also found this on an article featured in the Sun which does not even mention any kind of gun crime.  The chief has a habit of using hyperbole when addressing certain issues.  In the last 12 years there has not been one homicide involving an assault weapon in the county.

This entire subject if full of oxymorons that if you look closely at them and go back to my opening statement of “we the people," made a mess of this whole issue. Let’s take a look at the number of laws on the books concerning gun control.  There are 20,000 laws on the books concerning this issue.  That’s right, I said 20,000 laws.  Now keep in mind those laws apply to one issue - GUNS!

Remember when the debate on illegal immigrants at times focused on rounding up 11 million illegals and deporting them?  The response? It was ludicrous to even think this could be done.  Now consider this: there are 310 million nonmilitary type weapons in this country.  With that many weapons available to the public, how can more laws impact gun crime and even more importantly, who do you disarm or prohibit one from ownersip?

Now here is an interesting fact concerning those gun laws.  According to ABC News “More than half of the firearms traced in crimes come from just 1 percent of the nation's licensed gun stores, but federal agents rarely check to make sure these stores are complying with gun laws, a new study finds.” 

You think there might be a problem there and it does not concern guns but rather the LAW!   Now, if you enforced those laws how much gun crime do you think you would reduce considering “56% of violent felons are repeat offenders and 61% of all felons are repeat offenders.”

Another sad fact concerns our brave fighting men and women overseas.  Guns are not even mentioned in the leading cause of death to our troops.  At the top of list include IEDs, car bombs, RPGs and helicopters.

Another oxymoron that comes to mind is that the chief himself is armed.  Governor O’Malley, the county executive and the mayor of Baltimore all have armed body guards. It is interesting that the president’s children are protected by armed Secret Service Agents.  It is also interesting that Secret Service agents who surrounded Presidents Kennedy, Ford and Regan were also armed. 

The question begs: were the guns more dangerous than the persons who pulled the trigger and could anyone have stopped that?

Good ol' Congress and its ban on assault weapons—did it work?  Well, not exactly, according to the Washington Post.

Take a look at Chicago, a city with some of the toughest gun laws on the books in the country and their homicide rate it is over 500 and rising and still a young teen is killed.  What would you like to bet it was by a violent repeat offender?

Our own city stats bear out the facts.  The repeat offender rate in these homicides is almost 80%.  It’s not hard to see who uses the guns and it sure ain’t the good guys.

With over 310 million guns on the streets and 20,000 laws currently on the books, a broken mental health system and ineffective enforcement of current laws, for me the chief should have stayed in Baltimore County where he is safe, according to his photo-ops.