Good article from Delco Times

[K9346]

Hope this hasn't been posted yet, I think I am going to e-mail the author and commend him for his point made that is so obvious to us, but not to the liberal media and politicians:

02/11/2007
Spencer: Taking aim on gun woes can be hit or miss
Gil Spencer , Times Columnist

When Ken Crane noticed one of his guns was missing he did the right thing. He immediately reported it to the Ridley Township police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. It was a Taurus 85 Ultra Light .38 Special, just one of many in Crane’s substantial inventory.
How it had gone missing, Crane didn’t know, but he suspected thievery.


Crane, a retired federal customs investigator, has been in the gun-dealing business for more than 20 years. He does it out of his home in Crum Lynne. The downstairs used to be a beauty shop. Now it’s a firearms emporium.

The report on the Taurus, which included the serial number, was filed Aug. 7, 2005 and logged into the federal NCIC computer.

Seven months later, the Philadelphia police contacted Crane to tell him they had his gun. Detectives said it had been recovered in a drug sweep. A man with a substantial criminal history had been arrested and charged. He was later released after posting 10 percent of $1,000 bail. (For you math whizzes, that’s a hundred bucks.)

After another seven months passed, Crane called to see what was up.

The detective told him the case had been turned over to the Gun Crimes section and he’d get back to him.

Two weeks later, the detective called Crane to inform him the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office had declined to prosecute the case.

Why?

Crane never found out. Maybe it was a bad bust. Maybe the guy was a snitch and was given a walk. Maybe the D.A.’s office figured it had bigger fish to fry.

Whatever the reason, Crane was told if he wanted his gun back to call the D.A.’s office. So he did. He was told he had to go to City Hall and fill out an application, then a court date would be set for him to appear before a judge to determine if he was fit to have his property returned to him.

So the guy they caught with Crane’s stolen gun doesn’t have to appear before a judge, but Crane does.

Crane says he has no beef with the Philly cops. They’re pros, he says. As a federal officer he spent two years detailed with the city narcotics squad working the Badlands, arresting drug dealers like the one who ended up with his stolen gun.

"... (T)his was one of the finest units, if not the finest, that I have ever worked with."

What bugs him is cops, like his former colleagues, are put in danger every day when a career criminal with a penchant for going armed is put back on the street.

He fears his case was not the exception, but the rule.

As most cops know, a fairly small number of hardened criminals are responsible for a substantial percentage of violent crimes.

City officials spend a lot of time bemoaning the number of guns on the street. But it’s not the guns that are the real problem. It’s the people who are wielding them.

If they’re not going to prosecute and lock them up when they catch them, they’re not going to have much luck when it comes to reducing violence in the city.

As a gun dealer, Crane says, he tries hard to make sure the people he sells to are going to be responsible and law-abiding.

He does all the legally required background checks and uses his own experience as a law enforcement officer to sniff out any suspicious characters.

But he’s not perfect.

"I’ve had the wool pulled over my eyes," he told me.

It happened to him several years back when a young black woman from Chester walked into his shop one day. Her name was Tracey Saunders. (Yes, that Tracey Saunders.)

"She came across with a story (about why she needed a gun). She sounded legit. I had no reason not to sell to her."

It turned out she was buying the guns for the infamous Boyle Street gang. One day ATF contacted Crane and asked about guns he’d sold to Saunders.

"It wound up," Crane says, "she turned state’s evidence and took three bullets in the head."

So, no doubt about it, he’s not perfect about keeping his guns out of the hands of criminals. But, he says, he’s pretty darn good, because it matters to him.

"I’ve got an obligation to my community and an obligation to my fellow law enforcement officers to be very careful."

So too do prosecutors and judges who too often allow dangerous characters to walk when they could be kept safely behind bars.

Just recently, Crane said he was at his old stomping grounds downtown at Fourth and Girard. At the station house he saw a sawed-off shotgun laying on a table. A cop there told him the gun’s owner was in custody. But also that he’d arrested the same guy just three days earlier for carrying a different illegal weapon.

That kind of revolving-door justice "is putting police officers in danger," says Crane.

"The city of Philadelphia appears to be more interested in blaming the guns rather than the hardened career criminals who carry them with the intent to commit crimes."

In the meantime, the city is holding on to Ken Crane’s gun like it did something wrong.

Gil Spencer’s column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail gspencer@delcotimes.com

[billamj]

I'm thrilled, a columnist that doesn't need something hitting him about the head and neck to realize the truth. This guy is good, he deserves more than three columns a week.

[danp]

It's quite refreshing to see a news article that talks about many aspects of two problems, includes the background, explains the problem, proposes solutions and doesn't really "take a side" so to speak.

This is what people used to call "reporting", as in reporting the facts.

[KeithPA]

Wow that was amazing. An article that made sense and wasn't filled with bullshit. Props to that Paper Curious if he ever got his gun back

Hello,

I just read of copy of the article "Taking aim on gun woes can be hit or miss." I would like to thank you for actually writing the truth. Many papers from the Philadelphia papers seem to use words that make no sense but inflame the public. They tend use misleading statements in regards to guns and constantly blame guns for the problems are occuring. I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for writing a common sense article.

Thanks

emailed him a quick thank you

[K9346]

I did send him an e-mail to commend him. I would urge everyone that reads this to take 5 mins. and reply to him. If he gets enough replies he might make this an ongoing thing.

[danp]

Here's what I wrote to him:

Mr. Spencer,
I would like to take a moment to write you a letter praising you on your recent editorial "Taking aim on gun woes can be hit or miss " in the Delco Times. When it comes to reporting on firearms these days it's very rare that I can read an article and walk away with the sense that the issues involved were covered fairly and accurately using the proper terminology and understanding of the law. This article however was a pleasant exception to that trend.

Normally I'm excited to see even an anti-gun article that at least has it's facts and terminology right, but in the case of your recent article I'm especially glad to see an article acknowledging two important points:

1. How responsible firearm owners act, and how difficult it is to be one of the "good guys".
2. How a large part of Philadelphia's problems are not the firearms, but the people committing crimes with their illegal owned/carried firearms who are then out on the streets the next day because of Philadelphia's mind-boggling "catch-and-release" strategy to crime.

Violence in Philadelphia is a serious matter and people are rightfully afraid, I commend you however to helping them realize what they should truly be afraid of and angry about, because it sure isn't the thousands of law-abiding firearm owners who aren't dealing drugs and shooting people.

[xflyboy]

well i also emailed the author the other day nothing very long or fancy.
was kinda suprised when in my emails this evening i got a response from him

[danp]

Originally Posted by xflyboy

well i also emailed the author the other day nothing very long or fancy.
was kinda suprised when in my emails this evening i got a response from him

I got a reply too, he seems like a cool guy.

[MarkV]

Great article! Good to see some balanced reporting.

[Holleta]

Wow!! Refreshing indeed.