New York Post – by Raymond Kelly
While assault rifles serve no legitimate hunting purpose, and their ban would be a welcome advance after the Newtown slaughter, illegal handguns remain the weapon of choice for killers and other criminals in New York City.
Ninety percent, or 2,493, of the 2,779 illegal firearms seized from suspects in arrests in the city last year were handguns.
By contrast, a total of 77 assault weapons were seized in arrests in the city, less than 3 percent of the total.
In only three of nearly 1,400 shooting incidents last year were ballistics associated with assault weapons.
Ninety percent of the guns used in crimes in New York City also originated out of state, with Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida among the most frequent repeat states of origin.
The Ruger 9mm pistol used to shoot and kill Police Officer Peter Figoski in December 2011 was typical.
It was sold by a pawnshop in Colonial Heights, Va., to an individual who later claimed to have lost the gun.
With some guns, we may never learn how they reach the streets of New York. It’s estimated that as much as 40 percent of guns are sold through the so-called gun-show loophole. A national requirement for universal background checks, regardless of how or where the gun is sold, would help with that problem.
Mayor Bloomberg, who on Saturday met again with Vice President Joe Biden on the issue, continues to lead the nation’s mayors to achieve national solutions.
Meanwhile, the NYPD will continue to use its own proactive policing to suppress shootings and murders by flooding with police officers those neighborhood that experience spikes in gun violence and by taking as many illegal guns away as possible, mainly from young men before they can use them against one another.
We’re also focused on violence-prone street crews, monitoring social media in order to intercept their retaliatory shootings. Clergy, grandmothers and others have joined in special efforts that have also produced results.
Last year, New York City experienced the fewest murders in over a half-century and the lowest number of shootings since we began tracking them.
Still, one murder is one too many. One illegal gun is one too many, too, because when someone is murdered in New York City — although that happens much less frequently than in the past — odds are an illegal handgun was used.
Raymond W. Kelly is New York City’s police commissioner.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/scourge_of_nyc_streets_eZuOUMryiS38ewn9UuFlBM#.UQbWBWtY1rw.email
“Still, one murder is one too many. One illegal gun is one too many, too, because when someone is murdered in New York City — although that happens much less frequently than in the past — odds are an illegal handgun was used.”
What are the odds that it was done with a LEGAL handgun, as in the case of an NYPD cop’s handgun?
Oh, wait.
Those are NEVER murders.
They’re ALWAYS justifiable homicides, right?
IDIOT!