More than half of guns on Boston streets from other states :: 07/18/2022

The city of Boston really dominates the politics of Massachusetts. The anti-gun sentiment there permeates every aspect of state politics.

And yet, Boston still has a violent crime problem.

Of course, it seems that the media there is ready to join in the whole “let’s blame other states” for the problem.

The gun violence in the city of Boston is mostly caused by guns from outside the commonwealth, according to the Suffolk County DA.

“Over 60% of the guns that are on the streets of Boston are coming from another state,” Interim DA Kevin Hayden said Sunday.

Hayden was appearing on WCVB’s “On the Record” with Ed Harding when he made the comment.

Hayden is currently seeking the Democratic nomination for the full-term district attorney’s job, an electoral contest that will be effectively decided by that primary, with no Republican running in the race.

In response to the out-of-state guns, he said his office will focus on getting illegal weapons off the streets, which he has said are responsible for too many crimes. That means going after the weapon traffickers, he said.

“One of the important ways to stem the tide that we’re working on, that is innovative and different, is focusing on traffickers, focus on trying to get those guns out of the hands of traffickers before they even hit the streets,” he said.

Except, Massachusetts has strict gun control laws. If those laws work, how are traffickers selling guns illegally to criminals in Boston?

Or, maybe the issue here is that criminals don’t obey laws and that includes gun control laws.

When you try to make it harder for people to acquire things lawfully, you don’t stop the criminals from getting it. You simply create a new industry for other criminals. They’ll venture out, buy guns, then provide them to the criminal underclass in cities like Boston.

What that means is that if you keep focusing on guns, you’re never going to solve the problem. All you’ll do is create an opportunity for more bad guys to make more money.

Instead, you should focus on the demand.

If you undermine the creation of criminals or make it so people leave the criminal life behind, then there’s no market for those illegal guns. It simply won’t matter where guns are coming from because the people you have to worry about won’t be there to buy them anymore.

And you’d think Boston would be the kind of city inclined to take an approach like that. Unfortunately, they’re not.

Instead, they continue to act in such a way that I can’t help but wonder what happened to the wonderful libertarian spirit that launched the American Revolution. The crowd today wouldn’t throw tea in the harbor, they’d support the coercive acts that followed and say, “Well, those radicals practically asked for this.”

It would be great to see Boston start to recognize that where guns come from isn’t the problem, but that some use them to hurt others illegally. I’m just not holding my breath.

https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2022/07/18/guns-boston-streets-n60507