On Wednesday President Biden outlined his five-point plan to address the spike in violent crime that has taken over many areas — especially urban areas — of the United States during the last year.
His mumbling, out-of-touch, at times incoherent address was difficult to follow.
But the White House website (www.whitehouse.gov) helpfully listed them as:
- Stem the flow of firearms used to commit violence, including by holding rogue firearms dealers accountable for violating federal laws;
- Support local law enforcement with federal tools and resources to help address summer violent crime;
- Invest in evidence-based community violence interventions;
- Expanding summer programming, employment opportunities, and other services and supports for teenagers and young adults; and
- Help formerly incarcerated individuals successfully reenter their communities.
With the possible exception of the first item, they all amount to throwing more money at the problem, which is convenient for Biden.
If it doesn’t work out, the plan has a built-in excuse — they didn’t throw out enough money.
Notwithstanding his five-point plan, he spent the bulk of his time discussing gun control.
At one point he brushed away the claim that the jurisdictions having the most serious violent crime problems are those with the most stringent gun laws — primarily Democratically-controlled cities.
"Now, the gun lobby wants you to believe that cities that are the toughest gun — have the toughest gun laws still have the highest rates of gun violence, as was pointed out by the group we had today in our roundtable," he said. "They — the violence is so — they argue, 'Why do you need those gun laws if they don’t work in cities that have tough laws?' Don’t believe it."
As Townhall senior editor Katie Pavlich remarked, "Except for it is absolutely true. Chicago. New York. Baltimore. Etc."
And indeed, a year ago almost to the day then-President Trump claimed that the cities with the highest crime rates were all run by Democrats.
"You hear about certain places like Chicago and you hear about what’s going on in Detroit and other cities, all Democrat-run," he said. "Every one of them is Democrat-run. The 20 worst, the 20 most dangerous are Democrat-run."
The Tennessee Star took that as a challenge.
They investigated and found that only 18 of America’s 20 most crime-ridden cities were Democratic-controlled.
The other two, Danville, Ill., which came in at No. 7, and Saginaw, Mich., coming in at No. 8, have nonpartisan elections.
But to be fair, that’s not the point Biden was trying to make.
He borrowed Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s oft-repeated claim — that criminals go out-of-state to purchase guns used in crimes.
But that’s ridiculous.
They don’t go to an out-of-town outdoor recreation merchandiser to buy weapons — they know they’d never pass the background check.
They steal them or buy them on the street.
It also begs the question: why isn’t the crime rate around that out-of-town outdoor recreation merchandiser's spiking also?
The answer is simple: The guns aren’t the problem — the criminals are.
That simple truth was demonstrated this year by two attempted carjackings.
In late March two young girls — aged 15 and 13 — carjacked an UberEats driver in Washington, D.C., a city that has some of the most stringent gun laws in the nation — so they used a taser.
The victim was killed when the girls crashed the car in their attempt to flee.
On Wednesday someone attempted another carjacking — this time in Dallas, Texas, a state that makes every effort to protect Second Amendment rights.
This attempt also failed, but for an altogether different reason.
The car’s owner was a legal gun owner and was carrying at the time. A video, which has since gone viral, depicts the owner with his gun drawn on the would-be carjacker, who’s lying face-down on a parking lot waiting for police to arrive and take over.
The owner can be heard taunting the thief, telling him that his car has a manual transmission. He asks, "can you even drive a stick?"
Probably not — he looks to be all of 18.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had his own interpretation of the president’s proposal that’s probably not far from the truth.
"Biden releases five-point anti-crime plan," Cruz said, and listed them as follows:
1.) take everyone’s guns;
2.) abolish the police;
3.) release violent criminals from jail;
4.) give violent felons stimulus dollars and make them legal voters; and
5.) hide!
Citing a spike in carjackings in Washington, D.C. and neighboring Maryland, authorities announced the formation of a joint carjacking task force last month. D.C. alone recorded 129 carjackings as of May 19.
They recorded 52 for the same period in 2020.
Maybe they should take the chains off the Second Amendment, rather than strangle it.
That seems to work just fine in the Lone Star State.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. Read Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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