Posted on 07/07/2007 9:59:19 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
ANOTHER DAY, another homicide, another handgun-reduction initiative in Philadelphia. And the state Legislature? Still shooting blanks when it comes to meaningful handgun control.
Last week, District Attorney Lynne Abraham and Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson announced the Philadelphia Gun Removal Program, in which adult residents can give cops permission to search their home for illegal handguns.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
???Why would any sane person consent to a warrentless search of their house?Have any of these twits ever heard of the Fourth Amendment?Also,if you as the homeowner don’t know what’s in your house,you’ve got some bigger problems than just some guns lying about.
Why if somebody has an illegal gun, would they let police search their home?
This is the same non-logic politicians use to assume criminals will abide by gun-control laws. In this case, the cops may use someone’s refusal to give permission for a warrentless search as grounds to obtain a search warrant from a pliant judge. The cops already do this with cars.
Just like a breathalyzer or field sobriety test - you have the right to refuse.
There are consequences, though...
Its the drugs, not the guns.
Detox everyone for starters, but of course people have to want to be detoxed.
State and some local governments (Rudy Giuliani) got tough on crime back in the 80’s and 90’s but now “racial profiling” rules and a court system drifting away from the death penalty are moving us in another direction.
Sounds to me that it is a policy aimed at parents afraid of their kids, perhaps even held hostage by them. If that is the case, it will backfire, no pun intended. Better for the parent to drop a dime on their little angel and let him be arrested than to make junior replace his arsenal but now be po’ed at mommy. Typical liberal focus, though - the gun is bad, not its owner.
COPS just goes to show how stupid some people are:
Cop: Can I search your car?
Idiot: Sure
Cop: What's this?
Idiot: That's not my kilo of heroin!
People can have all the rights in the world, but if they're too stupid to exercise them no amount of law can protect them.
The NRA should actually jump on this like a duck on a June bug. They should start an “armed and safe” program that targets the minority community, helping them set up block watches, gives them all sorts of advice on crime reduction techniques, even free classes.
The psychology of such a program would have to be very carefully tailored to work on several levels, but creates all sorts of opportunities, and makes a great soft-sell for gun ownership and rights.
Because people in general are STUPID!!!!
I’m not clear on the concept.
You volunteer to let the cops search your home for illegal firearms? Why would you do that?
Is this some kind of macabre scavenger hunt illegal gunowners would put on for the police?
This is an incremental approach. Today they ask a few people to let them search their homes. tomorrow they claim “everyone” lets them so what does a person who says no have to hide and they get a warrant based on it.
Why do they need a law for this? If a cop comes up to you and says “Can I search your house for illegal guns” and you don’t know or don’t care about your Fourth Amendment rights, or about weakening them for your neighbors, couldn’t you already say “Sure. And can I get you a cold drink while you’re at it?”
The problem with this is that minorities are now shunning "snitches". It's disgusting that these communities allow criminals to operate freely in their neighborhoods just to "stick it to the man". They end up "sticking" themselves.
Are there any demotards lurking about that can define what an “illegal handgun” is for me?
The Knoxville (Tennessee) Police Department tried to do this back in 1999, with underwhelming results.
You have to enter a situation like that with the *assumption* of a severe lack of trust of the authorities, both imagined and real.
To start with, in areas with leftist rule in government, you will find tremendous disdain for minorities, masked as empathy (”I feel your pain”). Often there is a complete lack of real support, while at the same time great hand wringing and deploring of the circumstances for those same people.
So it is not a tremendous shock when minorities look at government as the enemy.
But it also means that people who are *all* substance, like in this case the NRA, have to be very prepared to prove that they mean it, and are not like the leftist crap slingers.
When such a minority community *is* convinced that somebody is treating them fairly, and actually doing something, not just yammering and promising things, they embrace them fully.
The NRA would have to be doubly careful, because with the first sign of success, the leftist politicians would be right there, hoping for advantage from parasiting and neutralizing the program. This is because, in truth, the leftists do not want minorities to improve their lives, because then they would be less dependent.
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