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Pro-gun article in the Philadelphia Lawyer magazine
Right here. The author, Jonathan Goldstein, notes an experience many of us have had. Straw-man buys are a State felony there. Yet he found that prosecutions on that ground numbered 1-2 per county, per year. He raised that during a debate where police officials were saying straw-man sales were a terrible problem, and they needed more gun laws to deal with them. And got the reply that, well, actually prosecuting those cases is a lot of work.
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Ack... I just realized I forgot to publish post about this. I had a post in the hopper on this article.
Of course, if they prosecuted under existing laws and the "gun violence" problem was alleviated, then there would be no reason to press for more restrictive laws!
Where's the barf smiley when you really need it?
Gary:
You have it backwards, the prosecutors and even the legislators are not interested in solving the problem they are interested in appearing to be solving the problem. The appearance is on going and something they can point to when up for re-election and or fund raising.
Actually solving the problem reduces their fund raising and re-election points.
Every time I hear this sort of garbage from police or prosecutors I know what they're really looking for. What a lot of them would like would be a law that makes it a capital offense to consume oxygen, and the simple fact that you're alive is all the proof required. Of course they'd promise to use the law only where it's really necessary, and it would make their job so much easier. The problem is that they've forgotten that part of their job description that mentions "protect and defend the Constitution ..."
The author states that we have common ground because both sides only want to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill and criminals. This premise ignores the growing fraction of anti-gun people who are so hoplophobic that the mere idea of being in the same room with a firearm drives them into a nervous fit. As this group increases, we move further and further from any ability to reach agreement.
The Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, an agency of the General Assembly, tracks prosecution and conviction data for all crimes committed in Pennsylvania. On its website (http://pcsdata.psu.edu) one can extract the statute by statue prosecution rates and sentencing outcomes on any crime in Pennsylvania, including straw purchases.
Olivia Jane, Editor, Paid to click
Typical double speech. More laws, more laws, more laws, however they do not enforce the existing ones.