Senator Gary Carter and City Council President JP Morrell Will Charge YOU With A Crime If Your Gun, Stolen From You, Is Used By A Criminal To Commit Another Crime
While disincentivizing the reporting of a stolen firearm. What could go wrong?
State Senator Gary Carter and Council President JP Morrell are blaming the victim. Why? Because that’s what Democrats do.
Carter “is excited” to do this to you and Morrell considers it “common sense” to go after victims of theft.
At what point do law-abiding citizens need to anticipate the intentions of criminals? And if the citizen guesses wrong about how far a criminal will go, is there a line crossed where the citizen is now partnering with the criminal, and thus shares in the blame for a crime, and is himself criminal, too?
Remember when the Left told us “Fences don’t work”? Now they’re telling us, “You didn’t erect your fence high enough! The interior of your car isn’t behind a high-enough fence! The door is not locked! So YOU share in the criminality of anyone who presumes to ‘climb over the low fence’ of your unlocked car door.”
If I accidentally fall asleep tonight and I don’t lock the downstairs door, and this very night, unluckily, my home gets robbed by an invader, am I to blame for the home invasion? Among the items stolen is a hammer. Tomorrow, the home invader uses that hammer, covered with my fingerprints, to bludgeon someone to death. Do I share in the blame of that murder? Was I complicit in crime by simply falling asleep without locking my downstairs door?
Carter and Morrell must answer “Yes, you are a hammer-wielding murderer.”
By definition, Carter and Morrell consider victims of crime as partners in crime.
Criminals in this state, particularly in Orleans Parish, know that they won’t endure consequences for their crimes. They know they aren’t likely to get caught, and even if they are arrested, they’ll suffer no real punishment under our District Attorney and Sheriff and their “criminal justice reform” efforts that make all of us less safe.
Criminals KNOW this. They can count on it!
Regardless, JP Morrell is out on social media encouraging the passage of a thoroughly stupid law. (I’m loathe to the word “stupid” but there’s no glossing over this one.)
Can JP Morrell assure the people of New Orleans that ALL CURRENT GUN LAWS are being FULLY enforced? He cannot, but that’s of no matter to him.
Until the current laws are enforced, don't write new laws, JP.
And legally speaking, a gun sitting in a car might as well be leftover fried chicken… it’s merely property at that point. It’s just a hunk of metal, but it’s an owned hunk of metal; it’s private property even if left behind an unlocked door. The status of the door doesn’t matter.
You cannot presume anything about the gun, or how it might be used in an unknowable future scenario.
But let’s imagine it: Your car gets robbed, the gun included. You report the serial number of the gun. Later, a criminal is arrested and the gun he used is linked to you. Why did you report the theft at all? And what did you have to do with the crime later committed with the gun? And how would you be liable? And would this expose you to civil litigation from a criminal’s victim? How will this nurture responsible gun ownership exactly?
Could any of this survive a court challenge? We hope not.
Let’s see the law itself:
People who are concerned about safety to the point of carrying will likely not leave their car doors unlocked with the gun in the car. So what’s really the point of this law anyway?
But let’s imagine a realistic scenario:
You’ve gone into the city and because you are concerned about being robbed or car jacked or otherwise victimized by rampant criminality, you bring your firearm. You look down and notice you’re low on gasoline and as you go into the convenience store to pay for your gas, a criminal studies the interior of your car, sees your gun, and steals it. He then later goes out and shoots someone with your gun. The state of Louisiana will now hold you liable. Never mind that if the city were a safe place to visit, you’d feel no need to carry… Nope! Never mind you never suggested to the criminal that he take your gun. Never mind that your car is your space, no one else’s, and you shouldn’t be blamed for somebody going into it against your will.
Why isn’t the interior of your car considered your private space, whether you lock the car door or not? Someone intentionally steals from you, and you’ll pay the price for their later criminal use of the gun stolen from you! An unlocked door is not an invitation to a malicious stranger to search your vehicle! I’m certain Mr Carter and Mr Morrell have left their car door sometimes accidentally unlocked. We all have.
Here’s how Morrell and Carter would respond:
Criminals routinely walk the streets, especially at night, pulling car handles. When they find an open car, they search through it looking for valuables, especially guns.
Okay… but this reaches a point of criminality for the car/gun owner? Come on…
Why on Earth would you report this gun as now stolen if there’s a chance you’ll be liable for other people criminally using it?
How will this law “encourage responsible gun ownership”? It must result in more illegal guns on the streets, in the hands of criminals, because the reporting of the theft of the firearm was disincentivized by this law.
And let’s be honest about something else: Many criminals are stealing the guns of other felons! Our streets are already unsafe!
Democrats work harder to blame law-abiding citizens than they work to blame criminals.
It’s undeniable.
Responses coming in to Morrell include this one:
All for responsible gun ownership, but something’s off (besides victim blaming). It CURRENTLY states “UNLOCKED vehicles”. How many auto burglaries of UNLOCKED cars had a gun stolen? … Guessing not many. What about cars unlocked by thieves who mimic keyfob signal?
And still more pushback from citizens on social media:
