Playing Catch-Up

Expect light blogging over the next few days as we start gearing up for Christmas. I've got a lot of loose ends to tie up at work before the end of the year. Regardless, here are a couple of the local items in the news I meant to get to earlier.

First up, the U.S. Attorney for New Hampshire tells Mayor Menino and company to get bent.

NH returns fire on 'myth' about Mass. gun violence

The U.S. attorney for New Hampshire is firing back against charges that lax gun control laws in northern New England are partly responsible for an increase in gun crimes in Boston.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Colantuono told Foster's Sunday Citizen that's an "urban myth" that doesn't stand up to the facts.

RTWT

And the Boston Herald has this great "companion piece" to that Union Leader article today - a classic example of what passes for getting tough on gun crime in the Bay State.


‘Strict’ Mass. gun laws misfire

Last week state police busted a trio of alleged drug dealers from Dorchester. Victor M. Alvarado, 21, John Davis, 35, and Reggie Bragg, 35, were allegedly carrying two kilograms of cocaine and $29,000 in green stuffed into a red Christmas gift bag.

Lucky for the cops, and for the community, the men were allegedly carrying enough drugs to send them to jail for a long, long time. Lucky because the AK-47 machine gun Alvarado allegedly stashed under his bed at 44 Allegheny St. in Roxbury would not guarantee him much jail time, despite the two loaded clips tucked neatly beside the machine gun.

Nor would the loaded .22-caliber Beretta cops say was hidden next to the assault rifle.

Because the guns were in Alvarado’s home, rather than on his person, the state’s mandatory one year for gun possession does not apply and the charge is a misdemeanor for not having a firearms identification card.

The state’s dirty secret behind what is touted as the nation’s toughest gun laws falls under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 269: Section 10H. It essentially states that if someone secrets a gun in their home, rather than stuff it in the back of his pants, the penalty is imprisonment for not more than two years, or by a fine of not more than $500.

Damn you, Kerry Healey!

Consider these cases:

Joseph Valentine Vasquez was locked up in August allegedly with a .9 mm Beretta and a silver .357 both fully loaded. The weapons were found under a mattress at his Dorchester home, next to a Latin Kings manual and some vials of crack cocaine, according to police. However, Vasquez, 21, was not charged with illegal gun possession.

I blame the CIA.

Gregory King was busted at his father’s Roxbury home with a .9 mm Jennings handgun, loaded with 12 rounds, along with crack cocaine, a drug scale and some marijuana, say cops. The 23-year-old was out on bail on another gun case when he was busted in February. He would make bail again, only to allegedly sell drugs to an undercover cop.

I blame Vermont.

But perhaps the most egregious example happened in October when an armed alleged drug dealer, Kevin L. Sanchez, 20, brandished a weapon at a Boston cop, according to police. However, the gun charge was a misdemeanor because Sanchez did not cross the threshold of his Dorchester home when he allegedly pointed the .38 caliber at the officer.

Gee, if the legislature spent one-third the time and energy working to close the "Violent Criminal Scumbags Walk Loophole" as they do trying to close the so-called "Gun Show Loophole", we might actually start to see criminals getting charged, prosecuted, and incarcerated for violating some of our most basic "commmon sense" gun laws.

Wouldn't that be refreshing?