Philadelphia/United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- The recent shooting of at least six police officers in Philadelphia is being used as a call for gun control. However, revelations that the shooter in question had a lengthy rap sheet is likely to cause this shooting to fade from the news. Second Amendment supporters should not let that happen.
Here’s the deal, like the Parkland and Sutherland Springs mass shooter, this was a person who could have been dealt with long ago by cops. Very early on, he was caught with a gun that had an altered serial number. That violation of 18 USC 922(k) should land someone five years in federal prison.
The Philadelphia shooter was busted numerous other times, including a 55-month sentence on gun charges in 2010 for two guns. That really should have been closer to 20 years, not roughly four and a half. It also does not include the numerous charges that were dropped or which didn’t result in convictions.
This is something anti-Second Amendment extremists will try to move on from. The Parkland shooter and the activists from there are an afterthought – largely due to the fact that the bumbling cowards of Broward County and the fumbles of the Federal Bureau of Investigation got out there. Sutherland Springs sputtered out because the fact that the killer there had a disqualifying conviction that was not in NICS became known.
When we talk about helping to alleviate concerns from the suburban voters that have been far too receptive to the siren song of Bloomberg’s gun-ban agenda, addressing things like NICS shortcomings and law enforcement failures are things that can do just that. This is especially important when anti-Second Amendment extremists try to push unjust infringements on our rights in response to a preventable tragedy.
Project Exile can do the same thing as those other items, and actually, serve as a pro-Second Amendment double play. When you look at cities like Chicago, Baltimore, and other cities with high rates of violent crime, Project Exile could be crucial to reaching out to these people, whose interest in the Second Amendment is far different than those of someone in rural Iowa or West Virginia. The provisions of 18 USC 922(d), 18 USC 922(g), 18 USC 922(i), 18 USC 922(j), and 18 USC 922(u) combined with sentencing enhancements from 18 USC 924 play a big role in this.
The benefits of supporting a revived Project Exile are obvious: We show suburban voters that we treat the misuse of Second Amendment rights seriously. Those in the crime-ridden urban areas, though, will see the worst of the worst get put away for a long time – after the express advocacy of Second Amendment supporters.
The shooter in Philadelphia is a classic example of the type of person Project Exile could take out of circulation before they got into a multi-hour shootout with cops (or cause some other tragedy). This guy’s rap sheet means that he could have been eligible for the armed career criminal enhancement provided by 18 USC 924(e) – a 15-year mandatory minimum.
Not many people know about these provisions. Tell a soccer mom that with proper action, potential shooters could be stopped with existing laws on the books that just aren’t used by the same folks demanding new laws, and have the proof with these laws being used to put other bad guys away, and we get a chance to convince them that at the very least they should not support new restrictions.
But to do that, we must have credibility, and to have that requires not falling for hoaxes that sound good, being aware of how our support for the Second Amendment comes across to others, and not making stupid mistakes that help Bloomberg discredit us and our arguments. Supporting a revival of Project Exile can build that credibility up.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
This is the typical liberal ran Metropolitan Police Department… They allowed one man, with limited ammunition, put an entire police department on its knees in front of the public and the world.. They should have quickly killed this man and drug his body out in front of the crowd, on his way to forensics….They should have sprayed the violent crowds with OC spray and tear gas ..They shouldve showed them this shit won’t happen anymore.. But instead they drug it out and empowered more copycat thugs to try this.. They want the disdain for police officers Nationwide to grow to… Read more »
So, all the gun control laws on the books didnt stop this dirtbag, but more laws will surely do it this time, right….. pffft, F’ing tyrants!
Racist is anything a dumb ass liberal does not like especially telling truth about Black Privilege.
Most of us know the liberal leftists aka “NSDAP” only have one agenda, to rid this great nation of it’s firearms. It’s the only way to control the people and have supreme power by the government. It’s pure propaganda! This is straight out of Joseph Goebbels book, the “Propaganda Minister” of the Third Reich. A master of the media. Now known as the MSM! We realize this here, but look at the foolish sheep that are about to be devoured by the wolves. It’s almost time to throw the tea overboard. We can only pray DJT has his eyes open… Read more »
Harold, I do not give a tinker’s damn about “how” my support for the Second Amendment “comes across” to others. It is time for sane, patriotic, gun-owners to put a stop to the liberal BS. Every adult American citizen has the absolute and inarguable right to self-defense. That right, which has been recognized by English common law for over 1,000 years, is natural, and God-given. Here in the US that right is Constitutionally protected. [That right is NOT a privilege that is “granted” by the government, nor is it revocable by the government.] The choice to (or not to) exercise… Read more »
Wrote a letter to Toomey suggesting Project Exile, completely ignored. Just went on about his great plan for background checks.
There is no one in DC interested in anything that works. Only more oppression.
The dumb ass liberals will not mention this instance, as they refuse to mention the shooting at a Walmart a few days before the San Antonio Walmart murders, because of the shooters’ Black Privilege.
he was identified all right…. a Jihadi Muslim, and now this story will die very fast as the media simply does not want America knowing….
Will, you are right, the media will let this story fade because it does not fit their agenda.
@Harold, “Project Exile could be crucial to reaching out to these people, whose interest in the Second Amendment is far different than those of someone in rural Iowa or West Virginia.” ??? WTF is all THIS dribble? Are you wanting to be a Community Organizer or a Social Engineer? Either way there’s a whole bunch of people running on the Democrat ticket for President that probably have all the connections to help you out in all those directions? You want everybody to stop what they’re doing and do a regional socio-economical study of various peoples, “interest” in the Second Amendment… Read more »