Oh the handwringing is making me ill...
Suppose St. Louis police stop a car late at night in a high-crime neighborhood for a traffic violation. Suppose there's a 21-year-old in the vehicle, along with three 20-year-olds. And suppose officers find four guns on the floor.
Well gosh and geewhillikers...boys I don't know what we're gonna do. This entire article is just Bill Bryan trying to stir the pot. If the chief of police of any city hasn't already got guidance in place, perhaps he should just resign.
If the patrol officers in the city of St Louis can't come up with a way to handle this situation without endagering themselves, the public or the constiitution perhaps they should surf on over to Calibre Press's website and buy some copies of
Tactics for Criminal Patrol. I know that the reporter is trying to scare the sheeple into thinking that the police will now have to let the evil gang bangers drive to the site of their next drive by shooting unmolested by this new law. Well if the guys on patrol in North St Louis aren't savvy enough to make a criminal arrest out of the situation the reporter is trying to scare everyone with, then they shouldn't be on the street there. If I were a St Louis city officer, I'd be pretty upset with the obvious lack of confidence in my ability that the chief just expressed to the people I serve in that article.
Come on Mr. Bryan, where are you coming from here? Do you really think that the situation that you are implying will occur is going to come down just that way. Ok we've got four young gangbanger types in a high crime area armed to the teeth. I suppose they all are squeaky clean, no felonies among them, no other contraband in the car? Come on Mr. Bryan, wake up!! Who do you think is doing the shooting? Read the articles in the archives of your own paper. The people that you are trying to scare the sheeple with were most likely already proscribed from having firearms even before the law was passed. Why because most likely they are already convicted felons and either on probabtion or parole or even bond.
Mokwa's force confiscates about 3,000 guns a year, more than half of them in car stops. The law will surely mean fewer gun seizures, the chief figures, and he hopes it doesn't translate into more crime.
Yep it will surely put a cramp in the style of the Mobile Reserve Unit. They have been charged with seizing guns and drugs without regard to niceties of the 4th and 5th amendment, the job being to get guns and drugs off the street and not worry about court cases. Perhaps Chief Mokwa would like to comment on how many convictions came from the 3000 guns seized?
As for the law in Illinois, it's the law here and I don't understand why anyone would expect the ISP spokesman to say anything different then what he said. It would be nice if LT. Dunn could say we'll honor a Missouri permit, but he can't say that and everyone knows that. I didn't detect any glee in the way he said leave your gun in Missouri or carry it in compliance with Illinois law.
The fact is that things will continue pretty much the way they always did. Despite the best efforts of the Post Dispatch to stampede the sheeple.
Jeff
