Mayor Sly James’ Plan to Fix Kansas City Gun Crime, or Mayor Sly James Beats A Straw Man Like a Rented Mule

We’ve already talked about Mayor Sly James’s predicament.

The poor guy just can’t do anything to restrict any Missourian’s right to bear arms.

He wasn’t content venting his frustrations over your limited-but-not-limited-enough Second Amendment rights to KSHB.

He wrote a very lengthy blog post on it.

And strangely enough, one of the first things he said was unbelievably spot on:

Gun Bounty and Buy Back programs haven’t brought down the deadly numbers. No one turns in their real guns anyway – just the old broken ones for which they have no use, or, in some instances, guns that have been used in crimes.

Whenever you see a gun-buy back, know that evidence to a crime is being destroyed and money is being wasted.

After that, the mayor spit some more truth out:

For decades we have spawned these shooters.  Too many times we have failed to educate them, thereby depriving them of vital tools they need to compete in an increasingly complicated world.  All along the way, the adults in charge have failed to take the necessary steps to break the cycle of an education system that has been inefficient at best.

Exactly.

Education is a big part of crime, especially in the black community where Democrats have had a stranglehold on organizing and implementing one social justice program after another, resulting in worse conditions and a renewed call for more money for union teachers and government schools.

Never mind that Missouri charter schools outperform the national average.  We have to keep pouring money into the Educational Industrial Complex.

Think about the children.

But outside of education, there is one component of crime that Mayor Sly didn’t address.

Fathers.

According to Public Repesenitive for Kansas City Missouri Danny Rotert, the precursers for these teens are due to broken families, education, and a poor economy.

The mayor agrees:

We KNOW that we have to educate our children and that we must provide more jobs for teens and young adults.

So naturally he spent a lot of time covering absentee fathers and crime, right?

Not so much.  The word “fathers” appeared once, and not in relation to the cause of crime.

According to Mayor James, we need to educate and…beat the crap out of straw men:

We KNOW that we have to educate our children and that we must provide more jobs for teens and young adults.  There is no doubt about either of these imperatives; however, that is not all we must do to stop gun violence in this city.  We must reduce both the number of illegal guns on our streets.

I can hear the protests and the “nattering nabobs of negativism” now.  They won’t like even the discussion of relieving gun-toting individuals of their illegal guns.

Can someone please show me where anyone is fighting to keep illegal guns on the street?

Anyone?

I know there are a lot of people fighting to keep legal guns legal.  I’m one of them.

Where are the rallies to keep illegal guns in the hands of criminals?

There aren’t any. That’s something Mayor James made up.

Illegal guns should be off the street.  They’re illegal!

The mayor then cited some stats to back up his premise and reiterated it:

With all that said, I’m not suggesting that we rid the country of all firearms. I simply argue that cities like ours, St. Louis, and others with gun-related homicide issues be allowed to take reasonable steps to eliminate illegal guns from our city streets and cars.

I’m right behind you, Mayor.  Get those illegal guns off the street.

Just, leave the legal guns alone.  Leave the law abiding citizens alone.

And leave my civil rights alone.

My proposal is simple and designed solely to help make this city safer:

• Require universal background checks for all gun sales and transfers;

• Impose mandatory reporting and identification of stolen guns;

• Enact limitations on guns in cars;

• Create Gun Courts to vigorously and swiftly prosecute idiots who use illegal guns in criminal acts; and

• Ban assault weapons in vehicle passenger compartments in the city.

Now if that nonsense isn’t enough, he directly followed it with this:

None of these proposals deny a law abiding citizen gun ownership, nonetheless, I expect them to be met by some with vehement protestations and anger.

So, if I understand the mayor, I need to get a universal background check to buy an illegal gun.

And if someone steals my illegal gun, I need to report it.

And he’s going to limit the number of illegal guns I can have in my car.

Oh, this next one is precious.  The Gun Court.  Because people with illegal guns will really soil themselves over that one.

And finally, a ban on people with assault weapons in cars.

This is the plan?

This is the best the mayor can do?

Which gang in Kansas City is going to go ahead and comply with these rules?

I mean, it’s clear they don’t care about the “don’t shoot people with illegal guns” rules.  Why would these new rules change their whole outlook towards the law?

Mayor James’s idea of progress is boilerplate liberalism.

Don’t address the consequences of decades of social experimentation.  Instead, limit the rights of people who’ve done nothing wrong and aren’t the problem.

If you want to lower the crime in any city, we need to take a look at why fathers are disappearing from the family.

And I already did here.

The solution isn’t more liberalism.  It’s less.