Gangs don't understand gun control or laws
My Goal For This Hub
My goal is to shed some light on a area of violent crimes that is going unnoticed during the media coverage on gun control. That light should shine on the gangs and gang members operating their illegal businesses in the United States and across its borders. They use guns and violence in protecting and conducting these illegal businesses which are in the multiple billions of dollars a year.
- The statements shown in this hub can be verified as factual by going to the FBI website, and other government websites.
Banning Gun Shows Isn't Going To Stop The Private Sale of Guns
The NRA is no more trying to support the criminal use of guns, than the AAA is supporting the criminal use of driving under the influence. Some people than want to BAN guns because deaths have occurred at the hands of guns. But no one suggests Banning Cars even though deaths have occurred at the hands of cars.
Some people have suggested that the solution for guns is to control them and to prohibit guns shows. Controlling guns for gun safety makes sense, but prohibiting gun sales, specifically at gun shows isn't the answer.
Private sales will continue to sell guns, and the gun prices might escalate, and the gun buyers may be even more sinister than those at the gun shows.
Most importantly, it is not going to even slow the arming of the gangs or their violent crimes. The root cause of violent crimes goes far deeper than the red herring of gun control.
The Criminal Law Needs Some Perspective
While the people and the congress in the United States are debating, and commenting on Gun Control, there is no talk about how absurd is the criminal laws.
Case in point:
A Georgia Man has been sentenced to four years in prison followed by six years probation for his crime.
- The crime handcuffing a fellow worker, an act of false imprisonment..
- The purpose of the handcuffing to get that female coworker to try and convince her to go on a date with him.
- The criminal is 25 years old, and the victim is 18 years old.
With the overcrowding in the prisons today, it seems kind of absurd to put this man in prison. There were no other details in the news on this story, but it hardly seems to warrant this kind of prison term. Especially if this was his only encounter with the law. His intent was not really criminal, it was maybe a misguided attempt at love.
In order for the law to be useful and effective, it has to make sense. Four years in prison seems very harsh for this act. I am sure that heinous crimes have been plea bargained for much less prison time, and maybe just put on probation.
Shouldn't criminal justice system prioritize their punishment based on the scale of the criminal intent, and the damages resulting from the crime?
In California, the courts are forcing the prisons to early release felons due to overcrowding. Now shouldn't we reserve the prisons for the most dangerous felons?
Gun control is not the answer to stopping violent crimes in the US
The Colorado shooting in the movie theater during the showing of the new Batman movie, and then recently the Newtown shooting in the elementary school have stirred the people in the US to demand that congress find a solution.
- Many people blame the NRA, and the legalization of some assault weapons, some some just blame gun ownership. It is understandable that people want a solution, but the emotional hysteria, and the not so neutral coverage by the media has focused on blaming the gun laws as not being strict enough as the cause of these two incidents and others like them.
There is no real protection against the random acts of violence such as these two tragedies. Taking or restricting guns from law abiding citizens is not the answer to this grave problem. This is not the root cause of the problem which is violent and deadly crimes committed with guns and rifles.
If we want to protect our children, then there is more to the problem than guns.
The root goes to the criminal activity of the gangs in this country that sell drugs, and other outlawed things. There are over one million four hundred thousand gang members in the US today. They make money by selling products that are illegal, and they protect their territories and business using violence and deadly weapons
This is the underlying virus in the US that needs to be stopped. Illegal drugs are just one of the problems that need to be solved. These drugs hurt children everyday without firing a gun. These drugs are not forced upon the children, but the children want them. So do the young adults, and a whole slice of the community.
If we could stop the gang activity, then the source of the illegal drugs would be significantly reduced. This would be more effective than a stricter gun control. Remember, these gangs deal in anything that is illegal, or prohibited by the government.
So going after the gang affects the roots, and it is their business that will die instead of innocent people. Will this stop the random acts of violence like the ones in Colorado and Connecticut, the answer is no. But it will make the country safer.
The real problem with illegal drugs is the same as with tobacco the people using them really want them. The gangs just provide the means for them to get them. So the other root problem to be solved is how to get these people and children from wanting to use these drugs.
So how do we stop:
- The Gangs
- The Illegal Contraband
- The people that want the illegal Contraband.
Laws, prisons, and jails are not the answer because the prisons and the jail have a gang population. These jailed gang members can even operate from behind the bars.
I don't know the answer, but I do know that whatever we are doing to combat them today is not working effectively.
The gangs are here from many countries, and there are gangs in each of the 50 states. It is not like there isn't a police and FBI gang task force, it is just that they are outnumbered and outgunned. These gangs also know how to use the law for their own purposes.
- If you want to stop an ant colony, you have to get at the queens. Without the queen the rest of the colony can't effectively operate. The same is true of the gangs. Stop the gangs and you also stop the users. Stopping the users is like taking out the worker ants.The queen just makes more of them. This is a little crude to use as a comparison with the gangs, and the users but I think it is close enough to make my point. The gangs are the roots, which are like the queen ants.
Why not redirect all of the anger and concern about the NRA and gun owners to the real roots of the violence and deaths?
Data on Gangs
The NDIC collects data through a survey on National Drug Threats, also from the State Correctional Facilities, and Bureau of prisons as well as the NGIC law enforcement partners.
- NGIC is the National Gang Intelligence Center
- NDIC is the National Drug Intelligence Center.
- NGTA is the National Gang Threat Assessment.
- BOP is the US Federal Bureau of Prisons.
It is the NDIC survey that is the source of date to estimate the nationwide number of street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs.
The US Department of Justice uses this data to reduce violent crimes. It covers data from federal, state, local, and even Indian tribal law enforcement as well as correction agencies..This data also is used to discover trends and issues on gangs and their crimes.
This data even includes information about the prison gangs from the US Federal Bureau of Prisons.
NGIC
In 2005 to support law enforcement the NGIC was created by the US Congress. There are a number of federal agencies in the NGIC to become the center of resources for intelligence about gang information.
- FBI, DEA, ATF, BOP,USMS, ICE, DOD, NDIC and the Customs and Border Protection.
These agencies have access to a large gang information base including Signs, Tattoos, and Symbols..There are street gangs, prison gangs, motorcycle gangs, and neighborhood gangs.
There are two kinds of motorcycle gangs:
- Outlaws (OMG)- This is primarily the One Percenters, but it also covers includes motorcycle club members using the club for criminal activities.
- One Percenters - Any motorcycle group banding together using violence to break the law.
OMGs have approximately 44,000 members nationwide in about 3,000 gangs, and this number is increasing every year.
There are five regions across the US gathering this data.
Criminal activities by gangs have increased trends in 2011. New members are being recruited across the country causing an expansion of criminal street gangs. These gangs are mostly involved in illegal drug sales.Gangs pose a continuing and increasing nationwide community threat.
There are many networks of criminal gangs that are sophisticated but use violence to protect their criminal business. The gangs are becoming more intelligent, and they use new technology for their criminal activities.
The United States has more than thirty three thousand gangs with an approximate membership total of one million four hundred thousand members. While the West and Great Lakes have the most gang members, there is significant increases in the South and North East regions. The gangs are active in all fifty states in the US. In 2009 the number of gang members was around one million. So the expansion is significant, and this should alarm you to public.
Now here is the information that ties the conclusion of this hub together.
Violent crimes in most of the jurisdictions are committed by gang members according to the NGIC. They estimate it to be about forty eight percent of the crimes, and higher in some places. As high as ninety percent in states like California, Illinois, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Colorado. The most violent crimes are in my part of California, that is the southern part. Florida and Texas are also the venue of the most violent crimes. These three states also have a large number of gang members.
It should be obvious by the large gang member population in the prisons and jails in these states that gangs are the root cause of most of the violent crimes. These gang roots and not the NRA or the law abiding citizens with gun ownership are the real problem that needs to be solved.
Law enforcement have reported an increase in violent crimes by the gangs over resulting from their drug distribution and trafficking. These violent crimes are being committed along the Southwest border area of the US, they include kidnappings, assaults, robberies and homicides. Drug distribution is a big and lucrative gang business, and many of their crimes are in the course of protecting their business.Their tendency is to become more into large scale drug movement. This covers more area an results in increases in violent crimes.
As law enforcement catch and jail the older gang criminals, the gangs recruit juveniles to replace them. Juvenile gangs in a number of states account for the majority of crimes in those areas.
Gangs are networking and going national even to some other countries. In California gangs are working with rival gangs to increase their criminal activities. Gangs are getting smarter in an effort to make it tougher for law enforcement by adopting new methods of operations. They even monitor and target law enforcement to keep one step ahead of them.
Gangs are expanding across the ethnic bases of Asian, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, Asian and Eurasian.Gangs are going non traditional using many affiliations which become difficult to track. The difficulty is because they are transient and evolving all the time, including national rather than local symbols. They are also referred to as Hybrid gangs as they have multiple ethnicity, and mixed gender. These gangs are in about twenty five or more states.
Besides drugs, the business of the gangs across the country include human trafficking, prostitution, including child prostitution
Mexican Drug Cartels
Drug Cartels from Mexico connect with Gangs based in the US
Law enforcement officials from around the country are noticing a connection between the cartels and gangs based in the US. Moving through the Southwest border corridor controlled by the drug cartels comes with a fee. So human cargo going through those corridors must pay the cartels a fee, typically twelve hundred to double that if the aliens are from Mexico. It is even higher if they are from other countries.This human trafficking fee totals a billion dollars a year for the cartels.
In the United States about 20,000 people get trafficked in each year.Globally we are looking at over twelve million people forced for labor and prostitution, of that there are over one million children worldwide.
Drug Trafficking Operations
From Mexico most drugs a smuggled across the US-Mexican border. These shipments are protected by using lethal force if necessary. They are referred to a MDTOs for Mexican Drug Trafficking Operations.Drugs that are trafficked include heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine, and cocaine. These MDTOs work regularly with gangs, including street, and prison gangs.
It is believed that the color green or money is overriding the racial color rivalry. Money appears to be stronger than the racial differences to these drug traffickers.The Southwest border of the US that the MDTOs have their smuggling operations are protected by the MDTOs using street and prison gangs.The US citizen gang members are being used to get passed the scrutiny of the law enforcement at the US-Mexico border.
These drug operations use gangs to protect the MTDOs business. These gangs do a variety of criminal activities to support the MDTO business. This includes killing rivals, transporting Weapons.
Drug trafficking operations today are going high tech, and they use Wireless Internet, and Voice over the Internet making them more efficient and better communication between the DTOs and the gangs.
Sanity Check from IB--- Remember that these DTOs and gangs wouldn't have a business without the customer. This is the root of the problem of the violent crimes in the US, if not the world. So while we look at the enablers,and the providers of these criminal products, we have to also look at how to stop or reduce the customers.
- Consider also that these illegal products are TAX Free,
- There is a sophisticated money laundering operation in these operations.
- There is also extortion, and debt collections that use violence to get the job done.
Remember that unlike the 1920s Mafia Era, today there are many heads of the crime waves. The tactics used by the FBI against the Mafia has only a marginal effect on these many different war lord gangsters.
And lets not forget that today we have to deal with extreme terrorists, and they are not interested in financial gain. Their goal is to kill and scare as many people they see as infidels. The product of the drug traffickers operations is making them wealthy, but the product of the terrorists is to take over the United States and get rid of the republic for which it stands.
Prison for Gang Members is just another Problem
So you think the solution for the gang problem is to catch them in their criminal acts and convict them so they go to prison.
The federal and state prisons have about 230,000 gang members in them. The gang members don't become individual prisoners there, they immediately join a prison gang. This gives these gang members protection from the prisoners from the other gangs.
These gangs have enough presence in the prisons and jails to pretty much let them run the facility. Gang wars and rivalry continue behind the prison walls. Business for these gang members can continue even when they are behind bars as they can control and influence the gangs on the street.
The family of these gang prisoners can become involved in gang activity to benefit the gang. Family and other people can provide the communication between the incarcerated gang member and those still free on the streets. The prisoners are even using cell phones and smartphones smuggled from the outside to continue unmonitored communications with their outside gang members.If the gang prisoner wants to have some one on the outside killed, they need only dial their buddies from these contraband phones.
Gang members in prison are given great respect by the want to be gang members on the outside. These members are like recruiting icons for getting new members into the gang.
- Gang members inside prisons may even become members of radical religious groups, including those who are into terrorism.
Gang members have even infiltrated correctional facilities and law enforcement. This creates multiple problems for the law enforcement. These infiltrators can commit crimes and help the gangs while being above suspicion and without being monitored. Gang members then have an inside view of what law enforcement is doing and they can use that information to assist the gangs by compromising or corrupting the judicial, correctional staff, or law enforcement.
.Even the Native Indians have gangs, and they are increasing in numbers not only on the reservations, but in the prison system. Some of the Indian Reservations are close the US - Mexican Border and that makes it easier to get the drugs across the border.The activities of these Native Indians is not confined to their Indian Reservations.Marijuana is a very lucrative product for these Native Indian gains, and they form partnerships without other non Indian gangs.
Can This Gun Be Controlled?
The United States Military and Gangs
You would think that the United States Military would do a great job of checking out their personnel, but the fact is there are gang member infiltrations into domestic and international military installations. Active military personnel are being targeted by the gangs for recruitment into their gangs.
These gang infiltrations pose a security threat to the military, and any military training on combat and military weapons can be used by the gangs. The military has gangs in all its branches, with most of them with the US Army and National Guard. While gang signs and tattoos are easy to spot, there are those gang members that are young enough not to have them. They even make sure not to get them or anything that might hint that they are gang members.
These gang infiltrations of the military are not on radar of the people or even the news media. Maybe if the people that were in the arguments about gun control were aware of the gangs, and the gang members activities they might have a better understanding of the problem of violent crime in the United States.
The Southwestern US Border
The US Border on the South
There are four states on the northern border of Mexico:
- California
- Arizona
- New Mexico
- Texas
This is the border that gets most of its attention about Illegal Aliens and how they get into the US across this border. Not to many people pay attention to the Illegal Alien problem in this country as the liberals support this infiltration of the country. They even support giving the rights and status of US citizenship. In Los Angeles California the local government is even issuing the illegal aliens driver licenses. These illegal aliens can even vote in our US elections because their are no validations of those voting in the elections.
The real threat to the US Southwestern Border is not the Illegal Alien but the criminal activities of the gangs. Yet, the red herring of illegal aliens is all that is discussed by the media and the politicians. It is interesting that no even 911 gave much concern about protecting our borders from the terrorists. Again, it was over shadowed by the illegal alien issue.
Slowly, but I am not sure on how quickly the 2000 miles US Southwestern Border is being walled up. It is interesting that Mexico has a very strict gun control policy, yet the Mexican cartels run a lot of Mexico, especially the area by the US Border. These cartel gangs outnumber and outgun the US Border Patrol. The cartels use the latest military grade automatic weapons while the US Border Patrol doesn't have these kinds of weapons issued to them..
So the cartels pretty much use the US Southwestern Border as their crime highway. It is difficult for the Department of Justice to get really accurate numbers for the number of gangs and gang members in any one jurisdiction, but they know they have presence there.In addition, they also know that the drug activity in many areas are increasing each year.The Southwest Border Region of the US has also seen increased violence and gang activity.
The United States Canda Border is not without is Gang Crossings
The East and the Pacific US Canada border areas are used by the gangs to transport their illegal products. These illegal products include firearms, and of course drugs, aliens and even cigarettes. Money made in the US by the gangs illegal enterprises are trafficked into Canada.
You don't hear much about the Canadian Border and any law enforcement problems because the spotlight in the news is the Mexican Border. The fact is that both borders are being used by multinational gangs for an assortment of illegal activity.
In my opinion, it is the ultimate customer of these illegal products that is the root cause of the problem. That problem is crime, and especially violent crimes. Billions of dollars a year are going into the gangs and it is certainly not being divulged on any ones income tax filing. The feds got Al Capone on tax invasion, but today we have a more global gang with more savvy then the single Mafia organization. By the way, the feds didn't stop the Capone industry they stopped Capone. And not for his crimes of doing illegal business, but for not reporting his illegal gains.
Gang Technology
All of the benefits of the high tech world we have today is at the disposal of the gangs, and I would assume the terrorists as well. Like fire the technology that exists can be used for good or bad. A fire can cook your food, but an arsonist can use it to burn down a building.
Today law enforcement cannot simply tap a phone to find out what the bad guys are doing today. The Internet is the new fire, it can be used for good, or it can be used further criminal activity and make criminal operations more successful.
In the movies we see spies use the technology to avoid being caught, and to accomplish their goal.This is no different than the gangs, as they use the same plan. Cell phones can be tracked and traced, but gangs use prepaid throwaway cell phones.They also use the Internet, and even the social media. They can use it to recruit new members or intimidate others. The Internet can be their discreet global communication method, and it is difficult for law enforcement to track them or trace them. So when you are on Facebook, and Twitter, you are not alone.
Don't forget about Identity theft using the Internet, phising schemes and hacking computers. Even the US Military Computers have been hacked, so how protected are we on the Internet. Many other criminals besides the gangs use the Internet for their criminal goals. But for this hub let us just mention that the gangs can also use it for recruiting new members. When people talk about the violence on TV and the Movies and Video Games they should also think of the gangs creating many of these scenarios to draw in new members.
The point here is that the new fire is high technology, and the show case of the high technology is the Internet.
Cyber presence and cyber crimes are hard to find and harder to stop. In my opinion, the spread of biological disease and viruses were made global by the invention and perfection of the Jet Plane. These disease could be spread in hours or days because of the speed of the jet plane.
Now Cyber Viruses can happen in seconds all around the world. We have been forced to rely on companies specializing in finding and removing cyber viruses, but the battle is in favor of the virus. There is a parallel of the virus and virus fighters in the tank versus the tank killer.
As the tanks become more immune to the tank killers, the tank killers find new ways to kill the tanks. This in turn makes that tank makers find ways to make them immune again. This is a revolving process that has been in play for about one hundred years. The Internet and the high technology is only several decades old.
The problem with the Internet is it was built on ancient technology and it unfortunately took hold before it could be built on a better foundation. It was paralleled with computers that were created using DOS, the ancient Disk Operating System. Windows was built on DOS, and for many generations it was DOS with a pretty shell. The lineage of DOS still exists even in the latest Windows Operating System for allowing old programs to live in the new world.
This of course is an over simplification of the technology history but the Internet is history in motion. While time travel is not possible, the Internet is a form of time travel.
The point is that we need to come up with a better more secure Internet to protect the good, while still being able to stop the bad. This is a concept of the weakest link in the chain. Right now one of the weakest links is the old protocols like TCP/IP. These protocols were created when Modem Speeds were in the very low Kilo bits per second. The biggest protection today is also the biggest problem and that is encryption. However, as computers become super computers at the street level, these encryption schemes can be broken. So those that have the money can get the tools to break the encryption. Gangs and foreign powers have these tools.
This would be the subject of a new hub.
Gangs use Firearms while running their illegal businesses
The gangs use these firearms against:
- members of rival gangs
- of course the innocent bystander
- even members of law enforcement
What types of weapons are possessed and used by the gangs?
- They use military grade weapons and equipment
- These high powered weapons include rifles that are semi automatic.
- They also use AK-47 Russian assault rifles.
- They also use grenades and they have body armor.
How do the Gangs get these Weapons and Equipment?
- Illegal Purchases
- Also using middle men
- Of course there are the thefts ranging from individuals to vehicles, commercial establishments,and residential thefts.
- The gangs also use military personnel to get weapons, including machine guns.
Note: The gun control supporters would use this information to validate taking the guns from law abiding gun owners so they couldn't be stolen from them by the thieves. But using that same logic we would stop selling cars because they are stolen for use in other crimes like robbery. These stolen vehicles cannot be traced to the criminals who are using them in more serious crimes. So it seems to make sense to limit the guns, but then it also makes sense to limit the vehicles. No, it really doesn't make sense.