In the wake of brutal triple homicide

New Jersey Gov. Corzine has proposed a bunch of measures that probably won’t do anything to stop crime. The measures proposed by the City of Newark include:

_ a city ordinance requiring the registration of all firearms in Newark and penalize gun owners who don’t report when their guns are lost or stolen

_ a separate ordinance regulating gun retailers by controlling where they are located and working with them to help identify illegal purchasers, known as straw buyers.

_ a law requiring anyone convicted of a crime involving a gun to register with the city.

_ the formation of a special court in Newark to expedite cases involving gun violence

The only one of those that I think could actually be effective in reducing gun crime would be the last one, the formation of a special court. Of course, that would mean actually punishing people who commit crimes with firearms, instead of letting them out of prison after 2 years.

While I was reading, another part of the story caught my eye, and that’s actually what I’d like to focus on. Regarding the murderous scumbag that perpetrated this crime:

28-year-old illegal immigrant Jose Carranza. (emphasis mine – ed.)

This guy has been in the hands of law enforcement twice earlier this year. Neither of those run-ins with law enforcement resulted in his summary deportation. This is the kind of stuff that makes me angry. When mayors and governors are talking about “cracking down” and “getting tough” on crime – and they’re not even bothering to enforce the laws we already have on the books.

Gov. Corzine, Mayor Booker; if you really wanted to prevent crime like this from occurring, you would enact measures to enforce your existing laws. When you arrest scumbags like Carranza, you don’t let them “slip through the cracks” of the system. Instead of writing a bunch of laws that will just make life more annoying for your law-abiding citizens, why don’t you open your eyes to the fact that the it was already illegal for Carranza to have a gun, and that didn’t stop him.

The paragraph above is largely rhetorical. I know that they wouldn’t actually want to enforce their laws – so instead they’re just going to have some more gun control, because gosh-darn-it, we have got to stop those law-abiding citizens from having guns.