Gun control

Tragic story from the Bronx

12-year-old son of cop gunned down outside NYC bodega, 2 men wounded in shooting

The 12-year-old son of a cop was fatally gunned down by random shots fired into a crowd outside a Bronx bodega Saturday — where the youngster was seen on heartbreaking video staggering inside clutching his injured chest before collapsing onto the floor. 

The gunfire erupted after a brawl broke out on Elliot Place near the Grand Concourse at about 5:30 p.m., injuring two people and killing the 12-year-old who was an innocent bystander, police said. 

The young boy had stopped by the Wanda Deli Grocery on Elliot Place to purchase a ball when he was struck by the stray bullet, the United Bodegas of America said. 

I’ll go out on a limb here and predict that the facts will show that the fight was between gang members, not one of whom was permitted by New York’s strict gun control law to be in possession of a gun, and thus subject to that law’s mandatory minimum sentence of 3.5 years, with a maximum of 15 years. I’ll go further, and predict that at least one of the shooters has been arrested for illegal possession of a gun before, and didn’t serve that “minimum” sentence:

“A 2018 analysis of NYC gun cases also showed substantial borough variation in the rate at which defendants were convicted of the top (most serious) gun count — ranging from about 25% in Brooklyn to over 60% in Manhattan” — 75% of Brooklyn gangbangers were allowed to plea bargain their way out from under the so-called-mandatory punishment, if they were ever charged with gun possession at all.

My point is, every time one of these horrible killings occur, politicians and the no-gun crowd screams for more, additional “common sense” gun laws that would disarm the citizenry; except, of course for the criminals. If our judicial system enforced the laws already on the books, they could get these armed thugs off the street and keep law-abiding citizens, including children, safe. There’s neither the will nor the resources to do that, but hot air is free and abundant.