Guns, Guns, Guns

I hate to say this, as I'm not personally a fan of the man, but any gun-slinging Republican during the primaries that trashed Rudy Giuliani for his stances on gun control during his mayoral tenure had clearly never lived in a metropolis like New York City. (Believed cause for never leaving non-Northeastern states: Too busy hunting varmints. But since they're "real men," we'll call those creatures they hunt "deer" to protect some deep-seated masculinity complex that causes a need to carry assault weapons.) Over the past decade, New York City has seen a significant reduction in murder and violent crime, so even though those attention-grabbing headlines tend to dominate the news, trust me, newsrooms are a little bit slower behind the scenes now that the NYPD has cracked down. But we're not out of the woods yet, so to speak, as rates have actually risen in some Brooklyn neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy or Bushwick, and even here on Manhattan wherethere have been a reel of stories about shootings and stabbings everywhere from the Upper East Side down to the Village.

Add to that the 77 guns illegally sold from this shop in Summerville, SC that have been instrumental in New York crimes. Mayor Bloomberg filed a suit in 2006 against Larry Mickalis, who owns a namesake SC pawnshop and is one of fifteen gun dealers that has allowed weapons to be illegal sold, even to felons. Mickalis fired back by saying he has "no control" over what happens to guns when they leave his shop, and the allegations in the suit were "slanderous, fraudulent, and causing emotional distress." Is it slanderous to say that you illegally sold guns if you actually did? I didn't think that's what "slander" was. Is it fraudulent to hold you partially responsible for crimes in the streets of NYC if you provided the weapons to carry them out? Our bad. Is that causing emotional distress? Oh, I feel so sorry for you. Clearly as a man that sells guns, you must be very fragile. Now, I'm not saying it's all his fault--we need some sort of federal gun control, because if the NRA has their way in places outside New York, there's nothing to stop the gun-happy from bringing weapons to our fair city, period. However, I'm thinking if you knowingly sold guns illegally, you can't be completely let off the hook. And we'd like our city to be safe, thank you very much, so maybe you should check that buyers aren't felons before giving them guns, because that's a federal crime.

[Photo via Gotham Gazette]