Pirate's Cove

A random act of journalism from the Washington Post

Back in the crack-infused 1980s, young men with guns and drugs ruled the single block of Hanover Place NW. People who lived in the two-story rowhouses one mile north of the Capitol fell asleep year round to the sounds of the Fourth of July, a pop-pop-pop that they hoped was firecrackers. It rarely was.

But after two decades of consistent and dramatic declines in homicides and gun violence in Washington and many other major cities, Hanover Place is mostly quiet these days. Complaints to the police tend to be more about kids shooting craps on the sidewalk than about drug dealers shooting at rival street crews. On a block where houses were unloaded for as little as $30,000 in the 1990s, the most recent sales have ranged from $278,000 to $425,000.

As welcome as such changes have been, explanations for the nation’s plummeting homicide rate remain elusive, stymieing economists, criminologists, police, politicians and demographers. Have new police strategies made a difference, or have demographic shifts and population migrations steered the change? Could the reasons be as simple as putting more bad guys behind bars, or does credit go to changes made a generation ago, such as taking the lead out of gasoline or legalizing abortion?

Despite a big jump in the US population, violent crimes have gone way down. And crime from those scary looking assault rifles has gone down, and is actually rather low. This is a good thing. I’ll suggest that one of the reasons for reduced violent crime is the expansion of privately owned guns, especially among women. Instead of being victims, citizens can now fight back.

Yet, elected Democrats want to disarm law abiding citizens, not continue to work to stop criminals. Colorado is close to passing draconian laws, much like New York did, and are even considering banning concealed carry on college campuses. Let’s not forget, forcible sex crimes dropped heavily when people were allowed concealed carry on college campuses.

(Seattle PI) Senators (in Colorado) are also taking up two gun-control measures for the first time. One is a controversial measure by Democratic Senate President John Morse to hold gun sellers and owners liable for potential misuse, such as the commission of a crime.

The other new gun-safety measure up for debate is a Democratic proposal to tighten education standards for people seeking permits to carry concealed firearms.

As more and more of these laws are drafted and possibly passed we see that liberals are not interested in protecting citizens 2nd Amendment rights, as their talking points say, but taking them away. A little cut here, a bigger cut there, and those rights disappear. Meanwhile, criminals would love these laws, since they won’t follow them. Just look at how these draconian laws and regulations work in Chicago.