In the past couple of days much has been said about a couple of guns that were sold by the Memphis Police Department that ended up being used in a couple of very high profile crimes. One of the crimes happened on January 4th when a man used a shotgun to kill one officer and wound another at the Las Vegas federal courthouse and another was on March 4th when another person was involved in a shooting at the Pentagon. In each case the MPD followed strict protocols and sold the weapons to legal, federally licensed firearms dealers. Matter of fact one thing that is known is that the weapons were not sold to either of the persons involved in the shootings by any licensed firearms dealers, they were both purchased from private citizens who are not required to do background checks (as the media continually emphasizes).
Now, I’m not trying to (nor will I ever) defend what either of these two particular individuals have done. But so much has been made of these two guns and how they ended up being used. What I want to know is how many weapons has the Memphis Police Department disposed of in such a way and WERE NOT used any in sort of crime. Are these the only two weapons that have been sold by the MPD? You would think so from all the rig-a-ma-row going on in the MSM (Main Stream Media). Or has it been literally thousands of weapons sold? We’ll never know because that’s not the story they want told! Something else I want to know. How many automobiles, that the MPD have impounded and sold at auction, have been used in the commission of a crime? If one or two have been used in the commission of a crime, WHY HAVEN’T THE MEDIA REPORTED ON THAT? Same as my reason stated above, that’s not the story they want told.
Again, I’m not trying to make light of what has been perpetrated by individuals with these weapons. And there is the rub, isn’t it? These guns didn’t do anything by themselves, did they? Neither of the weapons drove to the place where the crime was committed and just jumped up started shooting. An individual had to take that weapon to where they wanted to commit the crime and use that weapon in the commission of that crime. A gun is just a tool. It can be used for good or for bad, but it is an inanimate object, until an individual picks it up and uses it.
That’s another problem with news stories like this, the focus isn’t on the individual, but rather what they used to commit the crime. It’s got nothing to do with the crime or who committed the crime, it’s all about the guns!
