Biden’s failure to combat gang violence is a deadly disgrace

Four heavily armed gangsters formed a skirmish line outside a nightclub in the popular Five Points South area of ​​Birmingham, Alabama, around 11 p.m. Saturday night, before firing into a large crowd with their illegally modified, fully automatic 9mm pistols.

Four people were killed and 17 were injured — at least four seriously. Police later found more than 100 shell casings on the blood-soaked sidewalk.

Investigators determined it was a “targeted attack.” The shooters were looking for a specific person. The 20 innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire didn’t even qualify. The gangsters, who police say were likely paid for the killing, have not yet been caught.

This isn’t the only time Birmingham has experienced extreme gang violence. In July, four people were shot dead and 10 injured in a shooting outside another nightclub. In February, four people were murdered while standing outside a library.

Officials have offered a $100,000 reward for information about Saturday night’s shooting. Alabama lawmakers have even introduced a bill to ban conversion switches, which turn a legally-used semi-automatic pistol into a machine gun, even though the switches are already heavily regulated by federal law — possession of them is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.

A frustrated Birmingham police officer told CNN that the killings “have more to do with culture than crime. We see far too many arguments that are resolved with bullets.”

Biden’s Non-Response

The Biden-Harris administration deployed the ATF as a weapon soon after taking office. But instead of sending ATF agents after the inner-city gang members responsible for most of the country’s shootings and murders, the ATF was tasked with targeting law-abiding gun dealers and owners. Most of the time, these were simple administrative errors or minor violations of the ATF’s ever-changing rules.

Joe Biden has issued more than 40 anti-gun executive orders since taking office, but not a single executive order does anything to get guns out of the hands of criminal street gang members.

The ATF claims to participate in Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal program designed “to reduce gun violence and other violent crimes and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.” However, most of the ATF’s investigations occur after the fact, after local police officers unafraid to confront gunmen make an arrest and discover an illegal conversion switch or other violation of federal law.

To be clear, most of ATF’s vaunted arrests occur within the comfortable confines of their field offices, not on the streets where it matters – where they should be deployed. After all, possession of stolen firearms, conversion switches, and possession by a convicted felon are federal crimes and the responsibility of ATF.

No Crips or Bloods

Instead of addressing gang violence head-on, the Biden-Harris administration can’t even say gang violence. They talk about groups of youth or teenagers at risk. They demonize the gangsters’ tools, but never the gangsters themselves. To do otherwise, they mistakenly think, would be racist. But forcing law-abiding residents of cities hit by gang violence to live locked in their homes by crime is about as racist as it gets. This kind of attitude is mimicked by the corporate media, which ignores the problem because they don’t want to offend anyone by mentioning the race or gang affiliation of an arrestee.

Today’s gangsters are not the Bloods and Crips or Folk and People law enforcement agencies we saw in the 80s and 90s. While a few still claim traditional gang affiliation, most are drug gangs that come together for the sole purpose of making money, not out of loyalty to a specific gang.

These crews are armed primarily with handguns, not the “assault weapons” the Biden-Harris administration would have you believe. They get their illegal handguns the old-fashioned way — by stealing them or buying them from other criminals. The gangsters don’t buy them from local gun stores, so cracking down on local gun dealers is a waste of resources that could be better spent cracking down on real gang members.

Add to that the weak, George Soros-funded prosecutors responsible for the catch and release we see in most major cities, and you get a revolving door of criminals and skyrocketing crime rates.

Why this is important

Gang violence affects us all. During Prohibition, it led to the National Firearms Act of 1934 and its idiotic $200 stamps.

Gang interdiction isn’t rocket science, but it does require the kind of leadership we haven’t seen at the federal level in some time. There are strategies that have proven effective, including prosecutions under the RICO Act, enhanced sentences for documented gang membership, and mandatory minimum sentences like Florida’s 10-20-Life law.

Every so-called gang expert will tell you that we will never get out of this problem by arresting them, which is partly true. Gangs are a community problem, and any solution must involve the community. But before they can mobilize community resources—like families, teachers, and clergy—the killings must stop or at least slow down. This is where the federal government, with its almost unlimited resources, could play a major role, if gang busting ever becomes a federal priority.

Today, while the Biden-Harris administration no longer recognizes gangs or gangsters, they are quick to cite their bloody handiwork as one of the reasons for their continued infringements on our civil liberties. In other words, the Biden-Harris administration is using gang violence as an excuse to crack down on lawful gun ownership by law-abiding Americans.

This has happened before.

“To prohibit arms because criminals use them is to tell the law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless.” Lysander Spooner, an American abolitionist and essayist, said so. Spooner died in 1887, but his words still ring true.

The next administration must address gang violence. It must become a priority for federal law enforcement. It is time to stop ignoring the killings.

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About Lee Williams

Lee Williams, also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the managing editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. He was also, until recently, an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter for newspapers in three states and one U.S. territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a police officer, Lee served in the Army. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter and three medals of valor as a police officer. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.