Posted on 01/03/2006 11:03:06 PM PST by neverdem
SOUTH PORTLAND, Me. - Kelly DeCambra made her way through a seven-inches-an-hour snowstorm to a dingy Maine State Police garage where, among the brake parts, transmissions and a flat-bed tow truck, she hoped to find a fragment of solace.
It would come in the form of a Ruger .44 Magnum Super Blackhawk revolver, caked with blood and the memory of Ms. DeCambra's son, 21-year-old Lionel St. Hilaire, who was shot to death with it last year.
The mother had come to watch the gun that was used to kill her son be sawed into pieces in an acrid plume of white-hot sparks.
Ms. DeCambra's act of witness was made possible by a law Maine enacted in 2001 that requires handguns used in homicides to be destroyed when they are no longer needed for evidence. Before that, guns were often sold or auctioned by police departments to raise money for other equipment.
Gun control advocates, gun rights supporters, and law enforcement officials say they believe that Maine is the only state where the police allow victims' relatives to watch a gun's destruction, and the acts of witness are arranged informally by the police, not spelled out in the law.
Supporters of the law, including the Maine Chiefs of Police Association, acknowledge that in a state like Maine, which in the last decade averaged about 20 homicides a year, destroying such weapons takes only a few guns out of circulation. But the requirement that crime guns be destroyed reflects a trend among police departments nationwide.
A few states, including New York and Wisconsin, require at least some guns to be destroyed, and others, like Washington, have rescinded bans on destroying guns used in crimes.
Several municipalities have passed ordinances to prevent crime guns from being sold, and the International Association of Chiefs...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They should give those guilty guns a lethal injection.
Anything more would be inhumane.
Wow, is that stupid.
Silly. Equally silly are "victim impact statements" in what are supposed to be the places where we objectively and without emotion decide court cases.
Agreed.
There are poor families in our inner cities that need guns to defend themselves against their thuggish neighbors.
Why don't liberals support gun vouchers, or maybe gun stamps? Seems like the type of redistribution scheme that they love if it involves food, housing, cash :)
Stupid is right.
Now on the other side, if my daughter were raped, I'd like to see the rapist, aka, Clinton gelded; then I'd empty the magazine.
You made that up out of thin air. No mention was made of the serial numbers being filed off in the article.
END CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR GUNS!!
GUNS CAN BE REHABILITATED!!
This gun should be given life without parole. Anything more is dreadfully uncivilized. Few people know this, but I've heard of guns that wrote childrens' books while they were awaiting rehabilitation. As a society, we need to build gun prisons where those guns that have been engaged in henious crimes can spend the rest of their years repenting for the damage they have done.
This is sick.
~Sigmund Freud, "General Introduction to Psychoanalysis"
This encouragement by the police departments, to crime victim relatives, that they should place blame on an inanimate chunk of metal (or plastic) for a violent criminal act committed by a live person, seems a bit perverted and sick to me. Should we now have ceremonies to watch cars crushed, if they were involved in DWI deaths?
But it's rich in symbolism!
And really. Isn't that the most important thing? < /derision >
Why are the authorities cutting up RUGERS in disproportionate numbers?
Are Rugers made in a unenriched urban environments?
If we subsidized the working function of their lathes, would guns made at Ruger, Inc. prove less apt to cause crimes than if they were fabricated with other means?
Do people HATE Rugers? Why is there so much intolerance of Ruger handguns?
Let's say the federal gov't subsidized midnight cowboy action shooting games --mighn't we see a much higher level of Ruger handguns go on to become Gatling guns and Vulcan canons?
I cannot believe you people haven't given this more thought...
I am quite certain that seeing the sob's executed would give more solace and perhaps even some closure.
As paperweights, for example. Or doorknockers.
We need to think about the WHOLE environment surrounding Ruger handguns, and not the narrow circumstances in which they are handled in the manner cited above.
The authorities do not need to resort to torching them and cutting them up --that's a sign of an unforgiving society.
typical libs....what if symbolism over substance
Oh brother!
Well yeah, for the relatives, but what about the press?
After reading this stupid article, nine of the ten voices in my head are telling me to clean my guns.
She said she had been unable to see punishment imposed on her son's killer, Zachary Fenderson, who had found his ex-girlfriend with Mr. St. Hilaire one night, because Mr. Fenderson immediately shot and killed himself.
----Will that gun be "killed" too? I mean, I am sorry her son was killed ( I am not heartless) because I lost a husband and a baby boy to a drunk driver, but seeing the car destoyed that did hit and killed them, would NOT have done a thing but send the wrong message. THE driver/shooter killed them/her son. Not the objects that were used to do it. I have a gun and 2 cars, and I am responsible with all of them.
Oh brother! Indeed, maybe you can work this aspect of liberal craziness into a chapter. Happy New Year!
I'll bet the tenth one is saying "January tenth, January tenth... "
Great shot. Pun intended. I laughed so much that my wife thought I was nuts.
Secondly, you're exactly right. This kind of thing makes about as much sense as destroying a piece of industrial equipment that someone was injured or killed by.
I wonder if at some point they'll be having a day for people to destroy knives used in stabbings, or baseball bats used in clubbings.
Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter if this sort of thing actually accomplishes anything. As long as it makes people feel good, that's all that matters.
L
I think it would be fitting if the perp were executed with that same gun he used to kill his victim.
Kharma.
It's a good circular thing:)
I have two Rugers. One is a 7-1/2" Blackhawk, the other is a 5-1/2" Bisley Vaquero. Both are .357's No somma beech is going to take them away from me. I won't discuss the serious stuff.
It's hard to imagine such an irrational story being given any coverage even 20 years ago except to wonder at its lunacy, but now such swill makes it to a "paper of record" as straight news.
I assume that when the neighbors start building airplanes from coconuts and straw that the New York Times will be johnny-on-the-spot to report on their efficacy at producing cargo.
Aren't the police breaking the law in that photograph by not having a trigger lock on the firearm? Notice how it was being stored in a plain cardboard box, where a child could have grabbed it?
Well, how's about it New York Times?
Blame the gun, blame the gun, blame the gun.
In addition, if the gun was stolen, the poor slob who owned it will never get it back. What horsesh!t.
It would be much better to watch the killer sawn into pieces. One could have a chunk of the carcase, perhaps the hand or trigger finger, gold plated and set it on the mantle.
So does beating an old pillow with a tennis racket while hopping up and down and shouting at the top of your lungs, but it doesn't bring the victim back and it doesn't neutralize the perp.
So does going to the range and putting several pounds of lead down range into upper body silhouette targets, but it doesn't bring the victim back and it doesn't neutralize the perp.
So does being prepared in the first place so it's the perp, not your loved one, who leaves the scene in a body bag.
Works well either way.
Here in Virginia you have to buy one handgun a month. It's the law
It really does look like a public execution, complete with the black-hooded executioner.
I lib land it's better to hold funeral for a gun rather than use to the peace officer's advantage.
I bet in most cases the killer walks free and the gun is executed. I wonder what solace can be found in that foolishness.
Here in Virginia you have to buy one handgun a month. It's the law
If you have a conceiled carry permit or a 03 FFL you may buy as many as you like. (or in my case have money for)
Sure was a nice piece to be cut up like that...
Do the survivors then get all touchy-feely and feel "closure" when the perpetrator of the crime is released on parole after serving one month of a 30 year sentence?
Nah, it makes some psychological sense. This isn't really a "gun control" issue. It is just a catharsis of sorts. Although it is a stupid thing to destroy an inanimate object, you might have a different opinion if we were talking about flag burning. It is symbolic and therefore its destruction has meaning.
Unfortunately it is the gun control crusaders who probably wanted the law passed. I sure hope they recycle the scrap metal.
its because rugers are built so if you drop them, they don't fall into a million pieces like a high point or a jennings.
that gun seems odd for a murder weapon tho. why would anyone use a huge, single action revolver?
Happy New Year to you to!
Gee, if seeing the guns destroyed helps 'em, what would seein' their loved ones' murderers impaled do for 'em?
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