Research paper (parts)

Disclaimer: This is a machine generated PDF of selected content from our databases. This functionality is provided solely for your convenience and is in no way intended to replace original scanned PDF. Neither Cengage Learning nor its licensors make any representations or warranties with respect to the machine generated PDF. The PDF is automatically generated "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" and are not retained in our systems. CENGAGE LEARNING AND ITS LICENSORS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES FOR AVAILABILITY, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, NON- INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Your use of the machine generated PDF is subject to all use restrictions contained in The Cengage Learning Subscription and License Agreement and/or the Gale Virtual Reference Library Terms and Conditions and by using the machine generated PDF functionality you agree to forgo any and all claims against Cengage Learning or its licensors for your use of the machine generated PDF functionality and any output derived therefrom.

Banning Guns Will Increase Gang-Related Violence Organized Crime. 2014. COPYRIGHT 2014 Greenhaven Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning Full Text:

Article Commentary

Michael Geer, "Gang Violence and Gun Control," American Thinker, January 28, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by American Thinker. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.

"Ban guns?... We will then have gang wars only Hollywood [special effects] departments can envision."

In the following viewpoint, Michael Geer argues that gun violence should be blamed not on legal gun owners but on gangs, because most violent crime in the United States is perpetrated by gang members, not by legal gun owners. Further, he asserts that if gun ownership is made illegal in the United States in an attempt to halt this violence, gang members will still acquire guns illegally, but the average person will have no way of defending themselves against criminals. Michael Geer is a blogger, author, publisher, and a contributor to American Thinker.

As you read, consider the following questions:

According to the statistics cited by Geer, what percentage of cities with a population greater than 250,000 reported gang activity in 2001?1. What does Geer blame for creating "an industry with such disregard for the law to be staggering in depth and breadth"?2. What does the author claim would happen if the United States banned guns?3.

Guns and gangs. Haven't read anything from the Left about that. Certainly nothing from Congress. But with FBI statistics showing more than 1,500,000 members of recognized gangs across the nation and something like 33,000 recognized gangs in the FBI's stats, you'd think Gun Control advocates would list these as a major target of their efforts, especially since gang activity is responsible for at least 48% of criminal and violent activity throughout the US.

You'd be wrong.

Stats:

100% of cities with populations greater than or equal to 250,000 reported gang activity in 2001 85% of cities with populations between 100,000 and 229,999 reported gang activity in 2001 65% of cities with populations between 50,000 and 99,999 reported gang activity in 2001 44% of cities with populations between 25,000 and 49,999 reported gang activity in 2001 20% of cities with populations between 2,500 and 24,999 reported gang activity in 2001 35% of suburban counties reported gang activity in 2001 11% of rural counties reported gang activity in 2001 95% of the jurisdictions reporting gang activity in 2001 had also reported gang activity in previous survey years 3,000 jurisdictions across the US are estimated to have had gang activity in 2001 56% of cities with populations greater than or equal to 100,000 reported an increase or no significant change in the number of gang members in 2001 42% of cities with a population of at least 25,000 reported an increase in the number of gang members 45% of cities with a population of at least 25,000 reported an increase in the number of gangs from the previous two years 69% of cities with populations of at least 100,000 reported having gang-related homicides in 2001 37% of cities with populations between 50,000 and 99,999 reported having gang-related homicides in 2001 59% of all homicides in 2001 in Los Angeles and 53% in Chicago were gang related; there was a total of 698 gang-related homicides in these two cities combined, whereas 130 other cities with populations of at least 100,000 with gang problems reported having a total of 637 homicides among them

Reports about you and me and our AR-15s and AKs [assault rifles]? All over the front page. Gangs with rocket launchers and grenades in the gun control newspeak? Bupkus [nothing]. You and I and our Glocks [handguns]? Terrified reporters breathless with passion for gun control. Gangs with Glocks? Nada [nothing]. You and I, presuming you may be religious, a veteran of armed service or a defender of the Second Amendment, are now listed with Homeland Security as a threat to National Security, a potential terrorist. Lumped in there with the likes of [militant Islamist group] Hamas, [Peruvian Communist rebels] Shining Path, [Salvadoran gang] MS-13 and [biker gang] the Hells Angels. But right now we're not hearing anything about trying to take guns away from the Mongols. No. You're not hearing some rip-and-read talking head demanding MS-13 be disarmed.

You and me, yes. Insanely violent drug gangs? Shhh. No gun control for them, they might do something.

Gang Members Will Always Have Guns

Very few members of gangs walk our streets minus a gun. From renegade motorcycle gangs to inner city street gangs to international cartel gang members, every one of them is strapped. We don't need footnoted statistics to know the truth of that.

Criminal gangs are already engaging in criminal activity, meaning, they have no problem breaking the Law. Breaking the Law is their way of life. The punitive measures of Law meant to cause prior self-restraint mean nothing to them. Consequences mean almost nothing to them.

Gun Control advocates are terrified of the average Mom and Dad, the average brother or sister possessing the means to defend themselves and those around them. They don't seem at all worried about armed members of gangs. At least they never volunteer to go disarm them.

Gangs don't care about Law. They don't care about the consequences of breaking a Law. But let me tell you what they do care about. You shooting back. Put a couple rounds of 185-grain .45 ACP in them, or past their head, that's a consequence they understand. When you drop a gang aggressor like third period French, that's a consequence they understand.

Law? Not so much.

So, let's say Congress passes enough gun control war-garble that in effect it is impossible to possess and use a firearm. Will gang members remain disarmed as the rest of the sheeple?

(that's me, laughing)

Gangs get guns as a result of criminal activity. Burglaries, theft, selling drugs to buy guns on the street, all manner of illegally obtaining guns. You and me? Federally licensed firearms dealer, background check, traceable funds, paperwork, etc.

The criminal element will always get access because they have no regard for Law. You and I do our best to obey Laws because we dare not entertain the consequences of breaking the Law.

Which brings us to the question of follow the money, always the ultimate driving force.

Prohibition produced the potent opportunity for unthinkable fortunes that funded vast gang networks that exist to this day. People wanted liquor despite the nanny-staters in Congress and people got liquor. Through violent gangs which profited to such an extent they destabilized governments. They blackmailed, killed, murdered, through bribing, extortion, threatening and quite literally waging war on the Law and anyone who stood in their way. Gang wars and gang profits produced enough profit to fuel the violence with serious automatic weapons, explosives and murder for hire.

The rootstock of many of those gangs are still with us. Look at Chicago.

The War on Drugs has produced an industry with such disregard for Law to be staggering in depth and breadth. It isn't just Colombia. It's not just hyper-violent Mexican drug cartels. It's not just Chicago. Think opium fields in Afghanistan and how many of our servicemen and women have died there. Think Beqaa Valley [Lebanon] and perpetual violence. Think drug warlords deep in the Shan Mountains of SE Asia. There is so much money to be made in prohibited drugs there are no words adequate to describe it.

And none of these players obey the Law. Laws in their thousands in every nation, yet the money flows and laws are broken and gangs thrive. Only the law abiding suffer.

Banning Guns Will Worsen the Problem

But, ban guns? Make a new Prohibition in effect negating the Second Amendment? You think we have a gang problem now? You think extant gangs will ignore the eye popping opportunity banning guns and ammunition will represent? We already have a serious nationwide gang problem. Congress will corrupt that minor problem into what could become a destabilizing all out conflagration.

We will then have gang wars only Hollywood [special effects] departments can envision. Not because you and I will go hog wild ignoring the Law. But because Nature abhors a vacuum. And gangs already exist and which already disregard the Law will—go hog wild stepping into the natural Supply and Demand cycle.

Gangs and Guns. I really would like to see [gun control advocates Senator] Dianne Feinstein and [political commentator] Ed Schultz go to addresses in the Pico-Union area of Los Angeles and forcibly insist MS-13 members hand over their guns.

I really would.

Gangs are a huge problem Congress ignores. And I have to ask the question: if I follow the money, will I discover why? Because no decent law abiding self-respecting power center would allow gangs like these to exist in their body except that there were a reason to tolerate their presence. If we follow the money will we uncover why violent gangs are allowed to coexist side by side with decent law abiding citizens?

Feinstein ignores gangs and focuses on you. Think it through.

Books

Jay S. Albanese Organized Crime in Our Times. 6th ed. Burlington, MA: Anderson, 2011. Jay S. Albanese Transnational Crime and the 21st Century: Criminal Enterprise, Corruption, and Opportunity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Jack M. Balkin, et al, eds. Cybercrime: Digital Cops in a Networked Environment. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Alan A. Block and Constance A. Weaver All Is Clouded by Desire: Global Banking, Money Laundering, and International Organized Crime. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. Susan W. Brenner Cybercrime: Criminal Threats from Cyberspace. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Ted Galen Carpenter The Fire Next Door: Mexico's Drug Violence and the Danger to America. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2012. Misha Glenny DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia. New York: Vintage, 2012. Misha Glenny McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld. New York: Vintage, 2009. John M. Hagedorn A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. Jennifer L. Hesterman The Terrorist-Criminal Nexus: An Alliance of International Drug Cartels, Organized Crime, and Terror Groups. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 2013. Peter Lilley Dirty Dealing: The Untold Truth About Global Money Laundering, International Crime and Terrorism. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Kogan Page, 2006. Robert M. Lombardo Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond the Mafia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013. Moisés Naím Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy. New York: Anchor, 2006. R.T. Naylor Wages of Crime: Black Markets, Illegal Finance, and the Underworld Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. Carolyn Nordstrom Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Selwyn Raab Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2006. Mitchel P. Roth Organized Crime. New York: Prentice-Hall, 2009. Louise Shelley Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Greg B. Smith Nothing but Money: How the Mob Infiltrated Wall Street. New York: Berkley, 2009. Kimberley L. Thachuk, ed. Transnational Threats: Smuggling and Trafficking in Arms, Drugs, and Human Life. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. Federico Varese Mafias on the Move: How Organized Crime Conquers New Territories. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011. David S. Wall Cybercrime: The Transformation of Crime in the Information Age. Malden, MA: Polity, 2007.

Periodicals

Tania Arroyo "Drug War: Faster and More Furious," Foreign Policy in Focus, September 27, 2011. Lawrence Delevinge "The Unsmokables," New York, June 16, 2008. Shachar Eldar "Holding Organized Crime Leaders Accountable for the Crimes of Their Subordinates," Criminal Law and Philosophy, June 2012. Douglas M. Fraser and Renee P. Novakoff "Getting It Right to Forestall a New National Security Threat," Joint Force Quarterly, April 2013. Joshua Hammer "Defying the Godfather," Smithsonian, October 2010. Alex Kinsbury "War on Gangs," U.S. News & World Report, December 15, 2008. Robert M. Lombardo "Fighting Organized Crime: A History of Law Enforcement Efforts in Chicago," Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, May 2013. Joseph Wheatley "The Flexibility of RICO and Its Use on Street Gangs Engaging in Organized Crime in the United States," Policing: Journal of Policy and Practice, 2008. Claire Yorke and Benôit Gomis "Changing the Prescription," World Today, August/September 2012.

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition) Geer, Michael. "Banning Guns Will Increase Gang-Related Violence." Organized Crime, edited by David Haugen, et al., Greenhaven Press, 2014.

Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010915219/OVIC?u=txshracd2500&sid=OVIC&xid=74eee1e4. Accessed 19 Sept. 2018. Originally published as "Gang Violence and Gun Control," American Thinker, 2013.

Gale Document Number: GALE|EJ3010915219