Gun control laws are terrible at preventing crime, and by their very nature they’re almost impossible to proactively enforce by themselves. If a violent felon is carrying a gun concealed underneath his shirt and jacket, for instance, cops aren’t going to know that unless he gives them a pretext to stop and frisk him.
Or, as another example, when someone is pulled over for a traffic stop.
A 17-year-old was arrested Wednesday after police recovered a loaded ghost gun during a traffic stop, authorities said.
Members of the Holyoke Police Narcotics Unit and the DEA Springfield Task Force were conducting enforcement operations when they received information that a juvenile in a vehicle was armed, Police Chief Brian Keenan said Thursday.
The teen isn’t old enough to lawfully carry a gun in Massachusetts. No one in the state is allowed to possess an unserialized firearm. And driving on a suspended license, which the teen is also accused of, is a no-no as well, as is possessing a gun in a vehicle without a valid license to carry.
By the way, this is yet another example of police using the term “ghost gun” to describe a firearm with a defaced serial number, not a privately-manufactured firearm. An image from WWLP-TV shows the gun is clearly labeled as a Glock 33 Gen 4. When you hear anti-gun officials claim that their police departments have confiscated a growing number of “ghost guns” in recent years, keep in mind that they may very well be talking about guns that were sold at retail and later had their serial numbers defaced, not just guns that were made with the assistance of a 3D printer.
So, police busted a 17-year-old behind the wheel of a car he’s not allowed to be driving and carrying a gun he’s not allowed to possess. In fact, a gun no one is allowed to possess in Massachusetts.
What will happen next? Most likely, not much at all.
If the 17-year-old is charged as a juvenile, he’ll probably be subject to nothing more than a probationary term. If prosecutors charge him as a “youthful offender,” that probation might last until he turns 21, but it could also conclude once he turns 18. And depending on the prosecutor, the teen could enter into a plea bargain that sees the gun crimes dropped entirely in favor of an admission for driving on a suspended license.
Massachusetts has some of the most draconian gun laws in the country, but violent felons like the one who randomly shot at cars until he was stopped by a state trooper and an armed citizen can somehow get their hands on guns that aren’t allowed to be sold in the state. A 17-year-old can obtain a gun with a defaced serial number (and a “large capacity” magazine to boot).
A legal gun owner who wants to lawfully purchase the most popular rifle in the U.S.? No way to do, at least without violating the law. A New Hampshire resident with a permit to carry issued by his home state? Not allowed to do so. Building your own gun without serializing it and reporting yourself to the state police? Sure, if you’re looking to decorate the inside of a prison cell as your next DIY project.
And what do these laws do? Massachusetts has a higher violent crime rate than any other New England state. Maine, good ol’ permitless carry Maine, has the lowest.
Massachusetts residents have been sold a lie about the state’s gun laws. They’re not about public safety. They’re not about stopping criminals. They’re mean to inhibit (and in many cases, prohibit) the exercise of a fundamental right, because the party in power hates the idea of an armed citizenry even more than it hates the idea of putting violent criminals behind bars for a prolonged period of time.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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