The suspect in Sunday’s slaying of a Missouri police officer is in custody and Fox News is reporting what has become something of a non-surprise in terms of today’s crime news stories.
Ian McCarthy, wanted in connection with the slaying of Officer Gary Michael, was “also wanted in New Hampshire, where a warrant was issued in 2013 when he failed to show up for sentencing on a disorderly conduct charge, according to court records in that state.”
Fox News also reported that McCarthy “served about four years in prison there for first-degree assault and a parole violation. He also is wanted on a warrant out of Johnson County in 2015 for unlawful possession of a firearm.”
In Kent, a suburban city south of Seattle, police are investigating the fatal shooting of a suspect by police after the man allegedly dragged a police officer as he was trying to flee from a strip mall in what turned out to be a stolen car.
According to the Seattle P-I.com, “Records show the suspect had three domestic violence order violations in the last two days, including two instances in the past 24 hours. It’s not known whether the suspect had a weapon or not. It was later discovered that the suspect had an active felony warrant for his arrest as well as other misdemeanor warrants, including one for domestic violence.”
By odd coincidence, on Tuesday the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a well-financed gun control group, sent out an email blast declaring that the proposed Concealed Carry Reciprocity bill now before Congress must be stopped. Here’s the message, with bold type where it appears as published:
“Right now, the NRA’s No. 1 priority is forcing Congress to pass concealed carry reciprocity legislation – which would allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines. If this passes, every town in every state will needlessly become more dangerous and vulnerable to acts of gun violence.
“And with Trump in the Oval Office and the GOP controlling both houses of Congress, turning this bill into law could be scarily easy. The NRA’s top lobbyist says: “I go to work every day believing in our chances for success.”
“The stakes are sky-high, Dave, and the NRA appears to be inching toward the finish line here – so we need to know where you stand on this issue before it’s too late”
So, in three paragraphs, this gun prohibition lobbying group did the following: It associated law-abiding gun owners with cross-state felony violence, it asserted that President Donald Trump and Congress are under control of the National Rifle Association (despite the fact that gun reform legislation has languished on Capitol Hill for seven months), and it pandered hysteria.
There are several good reasons why millions of honest, legally-armed citizens want concealed carry reciprocity to become law. Those reasons include alleged cop killers and would-be cop killers on the loose.
So anti-gunners should explain where it says law-abiding citizens, who have gone through background checks and in many cases mandatory or voluntary training, should surrender their self-defense rights against such predators at the border of their home state. That might be an interesting explanation.
