Quote of the Day
When we seize drugs in our city, we don’t put those drugs back on the street and give them to a different drug dealer. We destroy them. Why don’t we do the same thing with guns? I want our city to do our part and permanently destroy illegal guns that have been used to commit crimes once in our city. Once is too many.
Craig Greenberg
Mayor of Louisville Kentucky
February 16, 2023
To Sidestep Law, Louisville To Disable Confiscated Guns Before Giving Them To State Police For Auction
You can almost make sense of the quote above. But reading the article you get more context and you realize the guy is nuts:
In an effort to sidestep a state law that mandates guns seized by law enforcement be auctioned off by the Kentucky State Police, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Thursday that the city would now disable firearms before turning them over to the state police force.
Going forward, he said, the Louisville Metro Police Department will render seized firearms inoperable by removing their firing pins before giving them to the Kentucky State Police.
…
Louisville will also place “warning stickers” on disabled guns turned over to the Kentucky State Police stating that the firearm may have been used in a homicide.
Think about this. Dumping used guns on the market will drive down the demand and price of guns. Destroying the guns means the market demand for new guns and prices will increase. The “evil gun manufacturers” will make more money and the local police will have less money. I can see, in a twisted sort of way, they want the police to have less resources. This will increase the crime problem and “justify” more gun control.
I can make the case they are really clever to help defund the police in a roundabout way. But my favorite hypothesis, which seems to fit all the data, is they are incapable of rational thought.
Does he really think the gun will commit a crime on its own if the firing pin is not removed? Or warning stickers will cause people to watch them extra careful to avoid further crimes?
And/or perhaps they believe that once a gun has committed a crime it is more likely to commit another and should be destroyed.
Delusions such this are is not as unusual as you might think. See, for example, Guns in Hell. And, as pointed out by Neal Knox, things like this go back over a thousand years. But, reading the history of deodands, the original purpose actually makes more sense than these modern day nutcases.
Not to mention the initial analogy with drugs is flawed. Assuming the seized guns are sold by an FFL and a NICS check conducted, this is more akin to giving seized drugs to a pharmacy or hospital for resale or use. (Or, in the case of marijuana, a dispensary.)
That aside, for several reasons I’d be much more willing to buy a seized/resold gun than seized/resold drugs. But that’s a different discussion.
I’m curious about this notion of “destroying” a gun by removing the firing pin. Doesn’t that just mean the next owner has to buy a new firing pin for a few dollars and install that?
It is not even that difficult! They ship the firing pin with the gun to the state police.
Their behavior is consistent with a belief that the gun may commit a crime on its own if not disabled.
To take that theory to the logical conclusion, a rifle with the firing pin removed is not a firearm because it is not a device capable of expelling a projective by means of a explosive.
Since it contains the receiver of a firearm, it still must be initially sold through a FFL with all the background checks, as per usual.
But just like buying a parts kit and a stripped AR lower, and a separate completed upper receiver, it is not a complete and functional firearm, so you don’t have to pay the excise tax on firearm sales, thus saving you some cash.
“It is not even that difficult! They ship the firing pin with the gun to the state police.”
Excuse my French; WTAF?
This is some absolutely nutzo combination of virtue signaling and medieval superstition. Except for some revolvers that the firing pins are a pill to work on without the proper tools, this accomplishes not one thing
Correct. As near as I can tell, they are out of touch with reality and/or actual think the majority of people are that stupid. I cannot get my mind around someone who is actually that dysfunctional and is still able to do simple mechanical tasks like open doors, put on their own clothes and successfully use a toilet. Then, again, perhaps they cannot do those things.
No mention of returning stolen property?
Police: Well Mr Jones, the good news we found your stolen Corvette undamaged.
The bad news we will be removing the transmission and selling it at auction
Read the article… if the legal owner of stolen property is known, the gun is returned.
Not if the mayor had his way.
Yes, sometimes the stolen property is returned.
Then again, the one time it happened to me, it wasn’t. About 40 years ago my rental home was burgled and various things, in particular my stereo, carried away. A week or two later the cops told me that they had caught the guy and were holding my property for evidence. And that’s the last I heard. I never got my stereo back, nor any followup call.
I had two radios stolen from a van I owned. Insurance covered the thefts. When the thieves were caught and the radios recovered, the radios belonged to the insurance company.
Maybe the police gave your stuff to the wrong party? Or were they lazy about returning it?
To support social justice, those guns should actually be distributed in the hood to those who can’t afford to buy a black-market gun or is perhaps too disabled to steal one.
Of course! they have to fight White Supremacy however it is defined this week, and there shouldn’t be any people in the hood “acting white” by not stealing raping and murdering. Distributing the guns back in the ‘Hood makes eminent sense to Leftists.
Well, he is an American communist after all. Which means you don’t actually have to accomplish anything. Just sound like you do to a few idiot friends.
That and make sure the right people get their share of the stolen decadence.
Were also compelled to remember insanity is never far away from power. (Congressman Hank Johnson thinking Guam would capsize after Marine build-up comes to mind.)
The real problem is that the goofy mid-wits are actually pulling off the destroy America part.
If I were the mayor, I would be more worried about the railroad tracks that run thru my city than guns.
Truly amazing.
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