Creative solutions to nonexistent problems
This weeks WoMag has an excellent bit on a rather ridiculous plan being hatched by local crazy person and full time activist Billy Breault and his accomplice in lack of accomplishment District 4 City Councilor Barbara Haller. A plan to track and map the travels of stolen firearms, they’re calling it “Track & Map”, inspired naming indeed. So the plan, devised by our two aspiring underpants gnomes apparently goes something like this:
1. gun gets stolen, Billy maps where it was stolen from
2. gun turns up, Billy maps where it turned up
3. ???
4. profit!
What’s not made clear in this amazing business plan is where the actual usefulness comes into play. Maybe part of the grieving process for those who have lost loved ones by way of the gun, is knowing where the point of origin was. But Billy gives an odd example of his plans “urgency”
“Several years back (1999) we learned that a Worcester gun manufacturer, Saeilo Inc., had at least 15 cases of guns stolen.” He adds the company did not initially inform the Worcester police of the missing weapons because it was not legally required to do so.
On Friday, Dec. 8, a Worcester man, Derrick Gary, was arraigned in U.S. District Court on firearm theft and possession. He was charged with stealing guns from Saeilo Inc., trade name Kahr Arms, at 130 Goddard Memorial Dr. Among the weapons confiscated were a .45-caliber rifle, a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle, a Romarm/Cugir 7.62-caliber rifle and a Kahr Arms M1 carbine. Gary pleaded not guilty.
When I toss around terms like ‘urgency’ it tends to be related to things which are, well, urgent. Like ‘oh my god! I’m on fire! It’s urgent that you extinguish me!’, not 7 year old gun thefts from a company owned by the fucking Moonies. Those 15 (possibly up to 50 according to the ATF) guns are just as likely to be in Tijuana as Worcester, with the obvious exception of the one used to shoot Danny Guzman back in ‘99. The problem here is no valuable data can possibly come from this exercise. Even if every firearm, including legally owned firearms, were to be tracked with the greatest diligence one could not possibly expect murder to end; just a particular flavor of murder with a particular flavor of weapon. As one would expect the Brady Center has offered to entertain Billys idea, unfortunately the Brady Center has accomplished nothing beyond further regulation of the guns not used by criminals. Don’t tell them that though, if asked they’ll happily claim to have cured cancer as a result of all their hard work.
If Barbara and Billy were truly interested in making/keeping their neighborhood safe they would be working closely with Chief Gemme, on whose watch the cities murder rate has all but vanished, in identifying the real cause of violence in Worcester. There is a reason for that decline and it has nothing to do with any of the buybacks or relatively new state laws on the books. But since Worcester is starting to look like a model for extinguishing premeditated violence, we should be working our collective asses off to find out a. why that is and b. how to keep it that way. Those of us who pay attention to this sort of sociological shift have already watched once celebrated theories like broken windows get dismantled by the likes of the Freakonomics crew. Making today the perfect time, after two pretty rocky decades, to nail down what really works. Not just throw money and time at some hair brained, exercise in ego masturbation of a tracking program with no real value to either the scientific or law enforcement communities beyond some warm fuzzy feelings and a B- for effort.
On a totally, absolutely and 100% unrelated note. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby may be the best movie since, well since ever. With Sacha Baron Cohen easily pulling off the greatest evil Frenchman since the Taunting French Guard in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The movie has nothing to do with gun control, but is more grounded in reality than 99% of what Billy and Barbara have to offer the planet.
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6 Responses to “Creative solutions to nonexistent problems”
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But look at all he’s done to keep needle exchanges and medicinal marijuana off our streets.
Thank you for writing stuff like this. I have no idea how you know or learn all of this stuff. But, it’s impressive. Someone should hire you to research and write all day.
If hire is the operative word, I agree. You sir are a genius.
“I have no idea how you know or learn all of this stuff.”
Well, Peter, he makes it all up, you see.
Just kidding. Nice post.
I think it would be even cooler if Billy found a way to animate the path the gun took from point A to point B….you know, sorta like a Family Circus cartoon?
Maybe even throw in a couple two frame animate gifs that show a little McBurglar criminal face running the gun?