Today's award goes to Mayor Mike McGinn of Seattle and the people responsible for that city's recently-announced gun turn-in program.
The Mayor announced that when a gun is turned in, "No photos will be taken, no questions will be asked." I understand that firearms turned in to the program will be destroyed.
That's just peachy. Does he realize that he's basically inviting criminals to commit crimes with a gun, then safely get rid of the evidence? I mean . . . take a gun. Shoot someone. Clean the gun, wash your hands, change your clothes. Hand it in the following day (or get a friend to do so for you), and collect a gift card for your trouble. The primary evidence of your crime has just gone into the crusher or the smelter, with no questions asked. What more could an enterprising criminal ask for?
Peter
6 comments:
Why would anyone expect any politician to be capable of thinking beyond first effects? For that matter, to be capable of cognition about anything other than re-election?
In any event, as Thomas Sowell pointed out in "The Vision of the Anointed", people like this are only interested in how smug their policies make themselves feel. Results are inconsequential.
I'm a current resident of Seattle, and I don't think Mayor McGinn is as dumb as he seems. He's being crafty, but you misunderstand what he's after. Just as with his doomed-from-the-start park gun ban (WA has state preemption), he's not trying to change things, he's trying to APPEAR to be changing things. McGinn doesn't win when guns are turned in. He wins when Capitol Hill hippies read about the gun buyback in the weeklies.
He's not being stupid about gun crime, he's being smart about pandering to his base.
This is what politics is all about - perception. Oh, yes, and pork, of course. Sorry, almost forgot.
Probably being overly paranoid, but it's not like those Amazon cards can't be traced back to the user accounts that use them to pay for goods they have shipped to confirmed addresses. Instant list of people who have owned a gun, can't imagine that they didn't write down which card went with which weapon was turned in. No questions have to be asked
Really a 'mistake'? Consider the Party in charge there, and their historical connection to crime in general. Consider New York's 'Sullivan' law, blatantly designed to disarm citizens so the crime gangs working for the political bosses would suffer fewer casualties.
Go to your pawn shop.
Buy a Saturday-night-special for $50.
Double your money in one day.
Post a Comment