PA Bill Number: HB335

Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.

Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...

Last Action: Removed from table

Last Action Date: May 1, 2024

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Everytown exploits NY cop slaying by ignoring 'inconvenient truth' :: 05/08/2015

Yesterday’s New York Daily News reported that the anti-gun Everytown for Gun Safety “carped” that the gun used to murder New York Police officer Brian Moore was “an illegal gun from Georgia” but the Michael Bloomberg-funded gun prohibition lobbying group ignored an inconvenient truth.

“Once again,” the newspaper quoted Everytown, “a police officer has been killed with an illegal gun from Georgia — a state that last year did the NRA’s bidding and weakened its already lax gun laws.”

That gun had been stolen in 2011, which was not the fault of a “loose” gun law. Nor can anyone credibly argue that a “universal background check” law might have prevented the Taurus revolver from apparently falling into the hands of the alleged cop killer, Demetrius Blackwell. The New York Times coverage of the so-called “iron pipeline” from Georgia to New York noted incidents of gun shop burglaries in Georgia, a problem that no strict gun control law can solve, and everybody knows it.

Well, perhaps not everyone; remarks from some people at Everytown’s Facebook page where this story appeared yesterday suggest a cluelessness beyond correction. Some gun owners noted that stolen guns can’t be stopped by more gun control, or even lawsuits against Georgia by New York authorities.

Another gun from Georgia, the Taurus 9mm used by convicted felon Ismaaiyl Brinsley to murder two Big Apple cops late last year was legally purchased several years ago and re-sold two years later. After that, the trail went cold, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Nobody knows how Brinsley got the gun, though he did spend time in Georgia, where he had a criminal record that included felony shoplifting and shooting a car with a stolen gun, the newspaper reported.

Earlier this week, a man identified as Jonathan Renfro – described in reports as having a “long criminal record” and being on probation – was arrested for gunning down Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Greg Moore (no known relation to New York officer Moore), taking his pistol and spare magazines. Nobody dares try to explain how a background check might have kept Moore’s sidearm out of Renfro’s hands.

Renfro had a gun illegally. It hasn’t been explained yet where he got that pistol. It was in his pocket, reports say, and he apparently told detectives he was afraid that Moore would find it in a search.

Everytown and other gun prohibition lobbying groups have pushed for “universal background check” laws since Sandy Hook in December 2012. All of these campaigns have been conducted with some sense of denial or factual disconnect, as they point to crimes that would not have been prevented by such laws, either because the guns are stolen, or because the perpetrators obtained firearms legally and passed background checks – often multiple times – in the process.

Second Amendment activists in Oregon are engaged in what is probably a hopeless effort to convince Gov. Kate Brown to veto SB 941, which she had earlier indicated she would sign. That measure is Oregon’s legislative version of Washington’s Initiative 594, passed last year with heavy financial support from Everytown.

Trying to prevent a criminal from illegally obtaining a firearm by passing laws that inconvenience law-abiding citizens is viewed by activist gun owners as nothing more than a continuing effort to feel good rather than do good. Criminals, by the very nature of their lifestyle, ignore laws all the way up to armed robbery and murder. Anti-gunners tout how many sales have been blocked by such checks, but they are rather evasive when quizzed about how many of those denials resulted in both an arrest and prosecution, or were followed by an illegal gun acquisition.

Those are questions that would be inconvenient to answer. Gun rights advocates can thus argue that this has never been about preventing crimes, but about control, and discouraging the lawful exercise of a constitutionally-protected civil right by erecting as many roadblocks as possible.

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