Photo by Charles York | The Chronicle
Durham, NC — There’s out of touch, and then there’s Mayor Steve Schewel of Durham, NC. The city saw six shootings within a five day period last week, sending 10 people to the hospital and one to the morgue.
With this violent crime wave in his city, Schewel has decided that law-abiding gun owners are the problem.
In a recent interview, , Mayor Schewel said:
Mayor Steve Schewel said he is also calling for stricter gun laws. He said he is asking for the state to allow cities to ban guns in parks, trails, restaurants, bars, and school parking lots. He is also calling for background checks for all gun sales, for automatic assault weapons to be banned, and for ammunition to be taxed. “This is not about taking away a hunter’s rifle or the right to bear arms,” Schewel said. “If we’re serious about getting a handle on it, we’re not going to stop it until we cut off the supply of guns to people who are committing crimes.”
This is the desperate action of a man caught between two powerful forces. On the one hand, he knows he has to look like he’s actually doing something about the rising crime. On the other hand, he knows that if he cracks down on gang violence, the media and Black Lives Matter will accuse the Mayor and police of racism.
And he’s right to fear that backlash. After all, when several members of the city council brought up the possibility of approving a free six-month trial of ShotSpotter technology, the idea was immediately shot down.
Several city councilors voiced concerns about the technology, saying they “feared it would increase policing in the city.”
So they want less violent crime, but don’t want to know where it’s happening or who is doing it and they don’t want the police to stop the people doing it. Because that might be racist.
So the only option left is to go after law-abiding gun owners.
Gang Violence = Gun Violence
According to the local police and even their local leftist media outlets, the rise in crime has primarily been a rise in gang violence in 2020.
Local media reports said: …”as CBS 17 has previously reported, police said that some of the guns used in crimes are stolen and several of the recent shooting are gang-related.”
So in addition to gang violence, the police have determined that many of the guns used in these crimes are stolen — meaning, no amount of laws on the front side of purchasing them will deter these crimes at all.
And that’s why gun violence will continue to rise. Because only prosecuting and punishing these criminals is going to deter people from committing a crime with a gun. After all, making it harder to buy guns hasn’t stopped gun violence anywhere!
In fact, we’ve spent the summer reporting on rising crime in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and more — all cities with the kinds of strict gun control Mayor Schewel is talking about implementing.
Passing The Buck Isn’t Leadership
These crazy times in 2020 are highlighting the lack of character in many of our elected officials. Rather than face this problem head on and tell his prosecuting attorney to lock these criminals up for the maximum time allowed, Schewel took the coward’s way out and pointed the finger at guns.
Blaming gun owners and guns is just a mirage of actually doing something about the crime in his city. He’s hoping people buy it long enough to get through the next election.
Shame on Mayor Schewel.