Tag: homicide
Yes, Even In Firearms-Friendly Maine, They Need Gun Safety Laws Too

Yes, Even In Firearms-Friendly Maine, They Need Gun Safety Laws Too

Rep. Jared Golden's about-face on gun laws is not surprising. He is a Democrat representing Lewiston, Maine, still convulsed by a mass shooting that took 18 lives. Formerly against tightening the laws, Golden now wants a ban on semiautomatic weapons.

One can understand why elected officials in rural areas, even in generally liberal states, would put forth the argument that guns really aren't a problem. Maine, after all, is a low-crime place. Its murder rate is fourth-lowest in the nation, despite a strong gun culture. Many Mainers rely on firearms to hunt for dinner. Vermont, another New England state with little gun violence and lax guns laws, has the second lowest murder rate in the country.

And what's true in northern New England is true throughout much of rural America. What fuels the impression that homicides are high in these areas is that the official statistics for gun deaths include suicides, which account for just over half of the deaths by firearms. Wyoming had one of the lowest homicides rates in America but the highest gun suicide rate in 2021, according to the latest numbers.

In opposing sensible gun laws, the National Rifle Association summons visions of peaceful gun-owning communities centered on hunting. Of course, the killing machine used in Lewiston was designed not for hunting deer but for mowing down large numbers of humans in seconds.

The massacre in Maine also underscored the insanity of letting anyone with severe mental illness own any firearm. The Lewiston killer, paranoid and hearing voices, was mentally ill enough to be hospitalized during the summer. And less than two weeks after he legally bought a high-powered rifle, he had run-ins with New York State police and his National Guard superiors.

Maine might have seen a stadium full of waving red flags regarding this sick man if it had red flag laws at all. But it doesn't. These laws enable the authorities to take away firearms from someone they have reason to believe is dangerous. Maine has a weaker yellow flag law. It requires a family member to first contact law enforcement when they fear someone at home is a threat to himself or to others. After that, police would take the disturbed family member into protective custody.

Many New Englanders harbor the delusion that these shootings are mainly a problem to their south and west, in places like Texas, Florida or Colorado. But of course, one of the most horrific school shootings took place in Newtown, a leafy Connecticut town where a mentally ill local kid shot dead 26 at an elementary school. And shocking as that event was, it was not enough to bring about a national ban on assault rifles.

Efforts to merely limit who may buy them are doomed to fail. The 20-year-old Newtown killer simply picked up his mother's assault weapon plus 10 magazines with 30 rounds each.

Maine's two senators, Republican Susan Collins and independent Angus King, won't go the distance to backing a ban on military-style weapons. They've even supported an amendment to a spending bill that would forbid the Department of Veterans Affairs from automatically alerting the federal firearms background check system if a veteran is mentally unable to manage their benefits.

One would like to think that Golden has seen the light and is not proposing tighter gun laws only because his own community is in mass mourning. Whatever the reason, though, he is now in the right place.

To sum up: No one who is not in the military or law enforcement should possess a military-style weapon. No one who has been deemed severely mentally ill should own any firearm. Those reforms shouldn't be so hard to support, including in gun country.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Hernandez Challenges Lloyd Case Evidence

Hernandez Challenges Lloyd Case Evidence

New York (AFP) – Lawyers for Aaron Hernandez on Monday urged a judge to dismiss the murder charge against the ex-NFL star in the killing of Odin Lloyd for lack of evidence, the Boston Globe reported.

In a pre-trial hearing before Judge E. Susan Garsh in Fall River, Massachusetts, attorney James Sultan said the case presented to the grand jury that indicted Hernandez was “woefully lacking”.

Garsh did not immediately rule on the motion to dismiss the murder charge, and a tentative trial date has been set for October 6.

Former New England Patriots tight end Hernandez pleaded not guilty in September of 2013 to murder and five gun-related charges in the June 2013 death of Lloyd.

Lloyd was a 27-year-old semi-pro football player whose bloodied body was found in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, less than a mile from Hernandez’s luxury home.

Prosecutors say Hernandez and two associates picked up Lloyd in Boston and drove him to the location where he was shot, and two other men are also facing murder charges in the case.

Hernandez was released by the Patriots hours after his arrest. He has since been charged with murder in the case of a 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston in which two men were killed.

Hernandez pleaded not guilty to those murders in May.

Hernandez was in court on Monday, and pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and battery and making threats over an incident in which he allegedly attacked a fellow inmate and threatened a guard while he was detained in a county jail in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Hernandez has been in jail without bail since June of last year.

Photo: Jared Wickerham via AFP

Homeland Security Head To Review Release Of Immigrants Convicted Of Crimes

Homeland Security Head To Review Release Of Immigrants Convicted Of Crimes

By Brian Bennett, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Under pressure from lawmakers, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Thursday he was reviewing the release from jail of thousands of immigrants in the country illegally who were convicted of crimes and faced deportation.

The Department of Homeland Security last year released 36,007 such immigrants who had been convicted of crimes, according to federal data. Among those, 193 had homicide convictions and 426 had sexual assault convictions. Nearly all of those released still face deportation and are required to check in with authorities as a condition of their release.

Johnson told members of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that he asked for a “deeper understanding” of the releases. In many cases, Johnson said, the individuals were released under an order from an immigration judge that included some type of supervision and monitoring.

“I’ve seen some pretty serious criminal convictions on that list, including homicide,” Johnson said. “I want to ensure we are doing everything we should be doing.”

The chairman of the committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., criticized the administration’s policies, saying the releases “needlessly endanger Americans’ lives.”

Since 2011, the Obama administration has tried to focus immigration agents on deporting recent border crossers, repeat immigration violators and people who pose a threat to public safety. In March, Obama asked Johnson to review the department’s deportation policies to see if expulsions can be done in a more “humane” way.

This week, the White House asked Johnson to delay announcing the results of that review until August to avoid angering House Republicans who are considering a series of bills on immigration reform. Johnson told lawmakers on Thursday that he saw a need to clarify instructions given to immigration officers about which individuals should take priority for deportation.

“Whatever we do to revise our enforcement policies, however, is no substitute for comprehensive immigration reform passed by Congress,” Johnson said.

Johnson added that the estimated 11.4 million people living in this country illegally are “not going away.”

“As a matter of homeland security, we should encourage these people to come out of the shadows of American society, pay taxes and fines, be held accountable, and be given the opportunity to get on a path to citizenship like others,” he said.

Photo: ndlon via Flickr