By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
Criminal cases unfolding against an alleged cop killer in Palm Springs, CA, the accused mall gunman in Burlington, WA, and a suspected “straw purchaser” in Seattle have once again underscored the failure of gun control laws in both states.
The Seattle Times reported that detectives investigating the Cascade Mall rampage in September confirmed that suspect Arcan Cetin tried to purchase a .45-caliber handgun at an Oak Harbor gun store hours before the shooting. He was deterred by the prospect of a background check – which he would not have passed because he is only 20 years old, and federal law prohibits commercial handgun sales to anyone under age 21 – but he wasn’t stopped.
A couple of hours after he left the store discouraged, he showed up at the mall with a Ruger 10/22 semi-auto rifle in .22 caliber. It’s a sporting rifle that had been fitted with an after-market 25-round magazine. He apparently took the gun without permission from his step-father.
Down in Palm Springs, alleged cop-killer John Felix was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and several other crimes. The convicted felon also faces charges of illegal firearms possession and possession of a stolen firearm.
The alleged California cop killer already knew he couldn’t have a gun, so he had one, anyway. Stories describing his ammunition as “armor piercing” were disingenuous at best because only a couple of types of soft body armor are designed to stop rifle bullets. Most bullet resistant vests worn by police are designed to stop handgun bullets, not centerfire rifle bullets, virtually all of which will penetrate those vests.
Meanwhile, the Seattle PI.com reported the story of Paul Philimon Gebrekidan, who allegedly bought guns legally and then sold “dozens of guns” on the black market after claiming the guns had been stolen. Some of those guns have reportedly turned up at crime scenes, an unsurprising turn of events since he allegedly sold those guns to people legally prohibited from possessing firearms because of criminal histories or mental illness.
The common denominator in all of these cases is that background check laws, and other gun control laws popular in both states, didn’t stop any of these crimes.
Cetin, the alleged Burlington mall gunman, was discouraged by the prospect of a background check, so he apparently never filled out the paperwork. The Seattle Times story indicates he left the gun shop without trying to make a purchase, which the store’s owner almost immediately decided would not have taken place, anyway, because of his behavior. But the background check roadblock did not keep a gun out of his hands.
If the allegations are true about the Seattle straw buyer, he provides a perfect example of someone who ignores a background check and other gun laws.
Gun control proponents will argue that just because laws don’t stop all crimes, that’s no reason to abandon all gun control laws. Instead, they want to simply pass more laws, apparently believing that more laws that encumber law-abiding citizens will somehow discourage criminals from committing crimes.
