Any seasoned cop will tell you what puts you most at risk of becoming the victim of a crime: chance.
That’s right, Aurora. Many, many more times than not, those of us who are robbed, swindled, have our cars stolen, are burgled, beat up, sexually assaulted or even murdered by a stranger become victims of happenstance.
In the case of having your car stolen, it’s a game of odds. If you lock your car, the chances of a thief or hoodlum driving away with one of your most expensive possessions drops dramatically. Same with having your home burgled. Leave the garage door open or plant big bushes in front of your porch, and your chances of coming home to missing bikes, TVs, computers and cash goes up dramatically.
It’s easy to see why sometimes little things can be so effective in keeping you safe. It’s because when it comes to criminals, in almost every case, they choose the path of least resistance. If your car is locked, they’ll quickly go to the next one that’s not. Rather than hit the house with a bright porch light and a barking dog, hit the house with no lights at all and four newspapers on the front porch.
Cops will enthusiastically tell you that for the most part, crime is a game of odds, and easy things you can do greatly have the odds working for you.
So how is it that the usual suspects of misled, gun-nut Republicans don’t see that clear-cut logic when it comes to gun-sale restrictions?
Trust me, we here in Aurora know something about what happens when really, really bad people get hold of guns. After the July 20 Aurora theater gun massacre, we came to know too much. The next year, state lawmakers, horrified about how easy it is to get guns and murder people with them, took a look at what they could do. Not much. National and local gun industry and owner lobbyists are too powerful and menacing to pitch much of a real fight. So Democrats took the easy way out, barely limiting the size of semi-automatic gun clips and tweaking existing background check laws to make them applicable to private and online gun sales.
Inciting mostly rural Colorado with misinformation, lies and hyperbole, the nutters were able to get two Democratic state lawmakers recalled for supporting the tepid gun-control measures.
And this week, one of those Republicans, who prevailed in the Pueblo recall of Democratic state Sen. Angela Giron, had important words for us.
“When people are bent on committing mayhem they’re going to do it, and the laws notwithstanding,” Rivera told the Associated Press. He called the background-check expansion onerous to the majority of the population and said Pueblo voters “sent me here to deliver a message.”
That message? He is a fool.
Already, the change in background check law has prevented 104 people with criminal records from illegally buying a gun from a private party. One of those flagged by the new law, on the books for only seven months, has a homicide conviction. They new law also prevented 16 felony assaulters and six people with restraining orders from buying a gun.
This new law did what protects all of us most from becoming victims of crime: It simply reduced the odds against us. Granted, it was a small change in the big picture of things. But if you were to be at the business end of a gun one of these rejects was trying to illegally obtain, and would have before the law was passed, it would be no small thing to you.
Last year, lawmakers did what they could. They passed a measure that only makes background checks apply to everyone, not just those that walk into a gun store. They stopped more than a 100 people, so far, from illegally getting a gun. They did what crime experts tell us all to do: little things to reduce he odds of becoming a big statistic. And their political opponents are now determined to make them pay, this time, with your safety, thinking most folks either don’t understand what’s really happening or that you don’t even care. And what are the odds of that? Pretty good.
Reach editor Dave Perry at 303-750-7555 or dperry@aurorasentinel.com.
Geez, Dave, who died and made you God? Calling people “nut-job”, “nutters” and “fools” is typical of the liberal mantra. I have one question, how many guns were reported stolen in 2013? There were 2,575 guns reported stolen in 2012 in CO. How many of those culprits are criminals? (All of them!)Your statistics don’t hold water! Those that were denied have no compunction about stealing one.
The problem with Dave is he is not a journalist, rarely uses facts and will lie to get his point across. He’s about as trustworthy as a politician.
Say what you will about Dave Perry, gun-lovers, his words make perfect sense. I am grateful to him for his candor and courage in speaking up in an attempt to protect all of us. Even you.
If it makes sense to you, then you don’t understand the problem. Background checks only give info up to that moment, it the individual does not lie. It is not predictive what he/she will do in future. And any shooter can change magazines fast. Most guns declared “assault” are rifles, of many shapes. But most shooters use pistols/automatics, easily hid, disassembled, and disposed of. None of the gun laws passed in Colorado would have prevented the shooters now or in future. I learned about weapons at age 13, now 84, have shown weapon on 4 occasions that kept myself and family from trouble. Bad guys departed post-haste. No police near and I have traveled in 44 of the 50 states, lived, visited, or as tourist. 26 years in military, and have not shot anyone, so possessing weapons did not remove my common sense-or experience. As block advocate in neighborhood for two blocks, I called Aurora police about suspects, and no one came. Learned to say “I think I saw a weapon” and had 2 or more cars in minutes. So I don’t have faith in Dave Perry or the gun grabbers to protect me or my family. I believe in Make my Day law. Period. And I also have read the Colorado Constitution, and U.S. Constitution and 2nd Amendment.
If Dave Perry was truly interested in our safety he would be pro gun and pro 2nd amendment. Instead he continues to push his socialist agenda that calls for the authorities to have firearms while the peasants are defenseless. Stalin would be proud of Dave, he is a very useful idiot.
You’re just another uneducated idiot that knows no facts.
Yet another idiotic rant.
Dave Perry every knows is a democratic hack..he will print . lie and say anything to push the criminal democratic agenda…so all his words mean nothing.