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states, including New York and Wisconsin, require at least some guns to be destroyed, and others, like Washington, have rescinded bans on destroying guns used in crimes.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 ...
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?
I suggest we start a midnight basketball program for disadvantaged Rugers so we can get them off the street and into a program for their own good.
No Ruger is going to out jacking Mercedes or shooting up copper jacketed heroin if he's shooting hoops.
This is obviously a HATE crime (cutting up an inanimate object).
Here's a simpler small government liberarian position:
Add to the punishment for murder a provision that the murder weapon becomes part of the estate of the victim, at the option of the victim's heirs.
Then, the heirs can decide whether to sell or destroy the gun.
The most absurd premise in this and most crimes is that the government (police) somehow gains a property interest in crime evidence.
because it was reliable?
Do they sing "Kumbaya" in the background?
Let's don't stop there. What about cutting up those cars that ran over someone? Don't they deserve the same fate?
The person who dreamed this up is a gun-grabber who only wants to ratchet up the emotions of the people to make his/her next piece of anti-gun legislation that much more palatable. And who, I might add, probably does not give a rats arse about the victims.
So you're right, he/she a jerk, at the very least.
If you are interested in gun issues you should read this book.
You may also want to check this link. The Second Amendment
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