Told you so. From Fox News, the professional reaction to the map that the Journal-News published showing where all the gun owners in New York’s Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam counties live:
“That was the most asinine article I’ve ever seen,” said Walter T. Shaw, 65, a former burglar and jewel thief who the FBI blames for more than 3,000 break-ins that netted some $70 million in the 1960s and 1970s. “Having a list of who has a gun is like gold – why rob that house when you can hit the one next door, where there are no guns?
“What they did was insanity,” added Shaw, author of “License to Steal,” a book about his criminal career.
(H/T: Hot Air Headlines) Apropos of nothing, but A License to Steal: A father’s genius, A son’s revenge, But payback has a price looks like a rather… interesting… sort of book. Has anybody read it?
Moe Lane
PS: I repeat. …Dumb*sses.
If enough people (hint to everyone reading) contacted that rag’s advertisers, this would likely end. I know this because I have seen it, and done it before.
I’m a beat cop in a medium sized (500kish) city. I wanted to add a few things about residential crime. There are three kinds of such crimes: unoccupied burglary, occupied burglary and home invasion robbery. The last two are extraordinarily rare.
Home invasions are difficult to execute, require multiple badguys (read: ratting each other out later), leave witnesses, and most importantly, are investigated & prosecuted much, much more aggressively than property crimes. They are almost entirely aimed at dope houses where the badguys know the dope will be locked up or hidden when the residents are gone.
Occupied burglaries are almost as rare. They require lots of care in entry, have to happen at night when noises like glass breaking are highly suspicious, and carry the possibility of confrontation with a resident which, as above, can turn a property crime into a much, much more serious person crime.
Don’t think of the burglar in moralistic terms (caring or not caring about hurting someone). Think of him in practical terms. Most of them are doing it to feed an addiction, so their goal is to grab valuable, easily pawned property that they can turn into the day’s dope as quickly as possible. Anything that complicates that is getting away from the whole purpose. 99% of burglars are looking for a reasonably nice, unoccupied house with an unsecured window or door. Just about any such house will have something of value in it. He’s not researching who does and doesn’t have guns because he’s already going out of his way to not find anyone home. He’s knocking at the front door with a lame story about looking for a lost pet or something. A vast majority of burgs happen during work hours and dayshift very, very rarely gets called on occupied burgs in progress. They’re good at that part of it.
There are, however, plenty of crooks who are after guns in particular. They’re extremely valuable because they’re in huge demand by people (felons) who can’t get them otherwise. I would think that the greater danger of this map would be providing a list for burglars hoping to break into unoccupied homes and steal handguns. I know of badguys that target the homes or cars of law enforcement for just that reason.
Of course, it ought to go without saying that the main reason this map is objectionable is because it is a blatantly obvious attempt to stigmatize citizens exercising their freedom. They’re trying to associate John Q Citizen with psychopaths and killers.
And, in parting, allow me to provide it from an authoritative source: I am very good at my job, but if someone wants to hurt you, I cannot save you. Only you can do that. I wish every liberal could have a cop explain that to them in detail.
Sorry that was so long.