Our nation’s capital is experiencing a wave of violent crime this year. Compared to 2022 , there has been a 54% increase in robberies, an 18% increase in homicides, and a 6% increase in assaults with a deadly weapon. There have been numerous murders of young people, predominantly occurring with firearms , with seemingly no end in sight.
How could this be when the District of Columbia has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws in the nation?
The anti-gun lobby constantly tells the public that more gun control laws will stop violent crime. But their intentionally vague call to “do something” almost always includes restrictive policy proposals that make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to purchase a firearm or carry it in public for self-defense. The District of Columbia government has already implemented many of these laws — before the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision last year, which affirmed the constitutional right to carry a firearm in public, it had been nearly impossible to obtain a concealed carry permit in the District — and clearly, they are not lowering violent crime rates in any capacity.
Washington isn’t experiencing a spike in violent crimes committed with firearms because of a lack of sufficient gun control but rather because the laws already on the books are not being properly enforced and violent criminals aren’t receiving appropriate levels of punishment. Thanks to soft-on-crime prosecutors and lenient judges, there are an increasing number of incidents in which someone who had previously been charged with a violent crime was released, then went on to harm or even kill an innocent person.
In fact, there are three such recent cases in Washington. The first is the horrific story of a 62-year-old Air Force veteran named Lasanta McGill, who was shot and killed outside a deli in the Shaw neighborhood when a fight inside spilled out onto the sidewalk. As an innocent bystander, McGill was caught in the crossfire and pronounced dead at a hospital not long after. It was a tragic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it never should have happened.
The man arrested for slaying McGill had previously been charged with illegal gun possession while in a stolen vehicle and pleaded guilty last month. However, rather than keeping him behind bars, a judge let him walk until his sentencing hearing, which was supposed to take place later this month.
In a similarly tragic story, the Metropolitan Police Department arrested a man on first-degree murder charges for allegedly killing a 25-year-old schoolteacher from Kentucky named Maxwell Emerson, who was visiting the capital with his family for July 4. According to FOX5 , the 22-year-old man charged with Emerson’s murder was arrested in May 2022 “for assault with a ghost gun,” released by a Superior Court judge the following month, then had his trial delayed. He allegedly murdered Emerson four days before his rescheduled trial date.
And a third, eerily similar case could be unfolding right before our eyes. Last week, a man who reportedly brandished a firearm and attacked Gaynor Jablonski, the owner of Valor Brewpub in Barracks Row, was offered a plea deal from the U.S. Attorney’s Office within days of the incident and was released until sentencing. This is despite the fact that Jablonski, whose 4-year-old son was present during the attack, told the U.S. Attorney’s Office that he didn’t want a plea deal offered. One can only hope that the violent attacker will not harm additional victims before his sentencing hearing, but as the Lasanta McGill and Maxwell Emerson stories demonstrate, there is no guarantee.
These tragedies are the result not of insufficient gun laws but of a truly bizarre unwillingness to enforce current laws and punish violent criminals. Regardless of the intentions or excuses behind this type of prosecutorial discretion, it is clear that leaders in Washington aren’t serious about reducing violent crimes committed with guns, as they’re letting criminals in possession of illegal firearms get off scot-free.
In fact, the D.C. Council is poised to pass a law that removes “requirements for a person to be held for a dangerous crime, such as carjacking, kidnapping, felony assault with a knife or other weapons,” and drops mandatory minimum sentences for crimes such as robberies and carjacking. The irony is that supporters of more leniency toward violent criminals frequently stump for more gun laws.
Gun control laws, which only serve to punish law-abiding citizens and strip away people’s constitutional rights, are not the answer to this problem. Leaders in our nation’s capital should strongly consider setting aside the empty promises of gun restrictions, empower more responsible gun owners to protect themselves and their loved ones in public, and actually start holding violent criminals accountable.
* Article From: Restoring America
