Posted on 05/20/2008 11:52:29 AM PDT by PROCON
Officials want state to keep closer watch on violent parolees who may buy weapons
As outraged politicians called for an investigation Monday into how a violent parolee got his hands on a semiautomatic rifle and shot three people at a Granada Hills church festival, frustrated law enforcement officials admitted what has become painfully clear - if criminals want guns, they'll find them. Despite some of the country's toughest gun laws, California's violent ex-cons, like Fernando Diaz Jr., 33, have no problem arming themselves.
"Unless you assign police with him every day, there was no way to know this guy had a gun," said Capt. Steve Ruiz of the LAPD's Devonshire Division. "There is no record of the gun being registered or stolen. We don't know where it came from."
Diaz, a parolee and former North Hollywood Boyz gang member, has a violent history stretching back 10 years.
With a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle, on Saturday Diaz shot his girlfriend, Carolina Mendoza - who is also the mother of his child - and two others as they prepared for a festival at St. John Baptist de la Salle Catholic Church, police say.
His weapon was one of thousands of guns sold and traded in the city's booming black market - with pistols, revolvers and other firearms regularly changing hands, officials say
(Excerpt) Read more at dailynews.com ...
Perhaps they should pontificate over why violent offenders get parole in the first place.
He's a gang member. Did these rocket scientists consider that another member of the gang might have provided him with access to a firearm? If he can't be trusted to behave properly in public, he needs to remain incarcerated.
Let’s see: a criminal breaks any number of existing laws in committing this shooting. How long before the moronic legislators demand more laws to prevent this kind of thing from happening again? Stupid is as stupid does.
Kali gonna ban Ruger 10/22s now?
This article is just BS. Criminals have to go through a background check, with finger prints, the same as a law abiding citizen. In CA we still have the 10 day state waiting period even though the federal check is instantaneous. This idiot in the article got his weapon on the black market, which cannot be controlled or tracked by the government. Any additional laws will not be applied to criminals but to law abiding citizens.
Ding, ding, ding...you get the 1st Common Sense Award!!
Spend your prize money wisely! :-)
The criminals aren't making their purchases at legitimate gun shops operated by an FFL with record keeping. Big surprise! Gun laws only put limits on legitimate buyers who intend to operate within the scope of the law. Criminals ignore the law.
This traffic is already illegal, so the "logic" goes, let's further harass lawful gun owners.
“Kali gonna ban Ruger 10/22s now? “
Nah, just anything that functions as a magazine.
You mean there’s a whole gun market that isn’t affected by gun laws?
I’m shocked!
It just kills me how they always write this BS like these incidences even remotely have anything to do with gun laws.
Obviously, the solution is to take all guns away from law-abiding citizens.
The knowledge that Captain obvious is out there waiting to bring these things to our attention gives me great comfort.
His motto is: “Faster than the speed of Stupid”, isn’t it.
And when ALL guns are outlawed, ONLY outlaws will have guns.
No matter how draconian the Gummint becomes, simply MAKING a workable (and very accurate) muzzle-loading firearm takes no more than blacksmiths tools, some steel, and a modicum of skill. The Appalachian smiths demonstrated that over 200 years ago. With today’s tools and available material, the task is far easier and quicker. You think crooks can’t figure this out? It’s a hobby that thousands already pursue, making replicas of old guns.
As for ammunition, you can’t ban that out of existence either. Making good old-fashioned black powder takes only charcoal, sulphur, and saltpeter. The only hard work is in getting the saltpeter - in olden times it was extracted from animal dung, preferably bat dung mined from caves, but horse manure will do. The process requires no technology beyond fire and an iron pot, and is well known. Anybody who can make cocaine, crack, or heroin can make gunpowder.
When no citizen has any gun, then an outlaw needs nothing more than a black-powder zip-gun. And he will have one.
So the endless pontificating in the newspapers about how to make restrictive gun laws work is utterly useless. The ONLY answer is to end the restrictions altogether, and let us defend ourselves.
Might improve some people’s manners, too.
Drug gangs will always have guns. If all else fails, they'll smuggle them into the country disguised as a routine cocaine shipment. Or send some of their people into the armed forces and arrange for a truckload of M16s to get "lost"
With rampant identity theft, what's so hard about buying a gun using ID under somebody else's name? Or even just having your girlfriend buy for you?
If a guy is too dangerous to be allowed to buy a gun, then he's too dangerous to be out on the street
Diaz shot his girlfriend, Carolina Mendoza - who is also the mother of his child - and two others
Hey! Doesn't he know that's illegal. You can't go around shooting people, it's against the law.
Hmmm, maybe we need some 'common sense breaking the law', laws?
Thirty years ago, Afghan rebels were making AK clones using tools inferior to what I can buy this afternoon from Sears Hardware
Warrants repeating. Loudly.
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