DrjonesUSA
02-07-2007, 10:47 PM
Link (may have to login to read, sorry. Article is posted in full below anyway.)
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/119081.html
**Please pay attention to the part in bold near the end. The rest of the article is disturbing too: the govt. conning kids into tattling on people with guns, as well as encouraging people to snitch. Big Brother's watching.
Apparently the Sac Vice Mayor is collaborating with the gun-grabbing SS....er....Police Chief Albert Nazi...er...Najera to bring an ordinance in front of the city council to require fingerprinting in order to buy ammunition in Sac city/county.**
The vice-mayor claims that a similar ordinance is "on the books in other CA cities". Can anyone tell me what city in CA requires fingerprints just to buy ammunition??
Cops hope public, Web help snare illegal guns
By Christina Jewett - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Sacramento law enforcement leaders said Tuesday that they are turning to YouTube, MySpace and text messaging -- communication highways for teens -- to promote a new program offering $1,000 rewards for information about illegal guns.
The rewards will go to anonymous callers who provide police with information about an illegal gun or unlawful gun owner -- if the information leads to an arrest.
In California, felons are not allowed to own guns, and only people with permits can carry loaded firearms.
"This is one of the things we're doing to try to reduce the level of violence we see on the streets," Sacramento Police Chief Albert Nájera said at a news conference with Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness and agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Nájera said his teenage daughter inspired him to turn to text messaging to elicit tips from the public.
He said a rider on light rail or a bus may not call police if they notice a person carrying a gun -- but they may send a text message to dispatchers.
"We're hoping we can go to a little different audience with this," he said.
Police Capt. Daniel Hahn, who supervises investigations, said school resource officers will hold contests in high schools for students to create posters and video -- to be posted on the video-sharing Web site youtube.com -- promoting the reward program and its tip line: (800) ATF-GUNS.
Although a text messaging number has not been established -- or a myspace.com page -- officials say they plan to disseminate information about them.
Gun violence has led to bloodshed and widespread debate in Sacramento, as homicides and robberies soared in the city and county during the first half of 2006.
After slayings mounted early in the summer, police, ATF agents and sheriff's deputies conducted a two-day gang sweep that turned up 25 illegal guns.
Officials have no estimates of how many illegal guns are in Sacramento. But McGinness said they tend to turn a flash of anger into a tragedy.
"The existence of those weapons with the wrong people contribute to the ease with which life is taken on the street," he said. "So we want to make a change."
Law enforcement expects a variety of motives from tipsters, including ex-girlfriends' spite and drug users' greed.
"We'll take the information any way we can get it," McGinness said.
The potential for abuse -- citizens planting guns on others -- does not strike gun-violence researcher Dr. Garen Wintemute as a problem. Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis Medical Center, said police likely will investigate far enough to rule out fraudulent tips.
Although he has not seen a formal evaluation of similar programs, he said it is wise for police to tap the knowledge of residents.
"The main idea here is to use people who live in the community to help see and react to things that law enforcement just can't see," he said.
Sacramento police may get additional tools to contain illegal guns, said Vice Mayor Kevin McCarty, who consulted with Nájera on proposed city gun ordinances.
McCarty said one would require people to provide fingerprints to buy ammunition.
Another proposed restriction will crack down on "straw buyers," people who buy batches of guns and turn them over to felons and others who cannot legally buy guns.
McCarty said unscrupulous gun buyers -- when approached by police -- claim guns they bought were stolen.
McCarty said the ordinance he proposes would target those gun traffickers by creating a new misdemeanor crime: not reporting a lost or stolen gun within 48 hours.
Both ordinances are on the books in other California cities, McCarty said, and will come before the City Council in coming months.
"They may not be a panacea and solve all our gun crimes, but maybe make a small dent," McCarty said.
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/119081.html
**Please pay attention to the part in bold near the end. The rest of the article is disturbing too: the govt. conning kids into tattling on people with guns, as well as encouraging people to snitch. Big Brother's watching.
Apparently the Sac Vice Mayor is collaborating with the gun-grabbing SS....er....Police Chief Albert Nazi...er...Najera to bring an ordinance in front of the city council to require fingerprinting in order to buy ammunition in Sac city/county.**
The vice-mayor claims that a similar ordinance is "on the books in other CA cities". Can anyone tell me what city in CA requires fingerprints just to buy ammunition??
Cops hope public, Web help snare illegal guns
By Christina Jewett - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Sacramento law enforcement leaders said Tuesday that they are turning to YouTube, MySpace and text messaging -- communication highways for teens -- to promote a new program offering $1,000 rewards for information about illegal guns.
The rewards will go to anonymous callers who provide police with information about an illegal gun or unlawful gun owner -- if the information leads to an arrest.
In California, felons are not allowed to own guns, and only people with permits can carry loaded firearms.
"This is one of the things we're doing to try to reduce the level of violence we see on the streets," Sacramento Police Chief Albert Nájera said at a news conference with Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness and agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Nájera said his teenage daughter inspired him to turn to text messaging to elicit tips from the public.
He said a rider on light rail or a bus may not call police if they notice a person carrying a gun -- but they may send a text message to dispatchers.
"We're hoping we can go to a little different audience with this," he said.
Police Capt. Daniel Hahn, who supervises investigations, said school resource officers will hold contests in high schools for students to create posters and video -- to be posted on the video-sharing Web site youtube.com -- promoting the reward program and its tip line: (800) ATF-GUNS.
Although a text messaging number has not been established -- or a myspace.com page -- officials say they plan to disseminate information about them.
Gun violence has led to bloodshed and widespread debate in Sacramento, as homicides and robberies soared in the city and county during the first half of 2006.
After slayings mounted early in the summer, police, ATF agents and sheriff's deputies conducted a two-day gang sweep that turned up 25 illegal guns.
Officials have no estimates of how many illegal guns are in Sacramento. But McGinness said they tend to turn a flash of anger into a tragedy.
"The existence of those weapons with the wrong people contribute to the ease with which life is taken on the street," he said. "So we want to make a change."
Law enforcement expects a variety of motives from tipsters, including ex-girlfriends' spite and drug users' greed.
"We'll take the information any way we can get it," McGinness said.
The potential for abuse -- citizens planting guns on others -- does not strike gun-violence researcher Dr. Garen Wintemute as a problem. Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis Medical Center, said police likely will investigate far enough to rule out fraudulent tips.
Although he has not seen a formal evaluation of similar programs, he said it is wise for police to tap the knowledge of residents.
"The main idea here is to use people who live in the community to help see and react to things that law enforcement just can't see," he said.
Sacramento police may get additional tools to contain illegal guns, said Vice Mayor Kevin McCarty, who consulted with Nájera on proposed city gun ordinances.
McCarty said one would require people to provide fingerprints to buy ammunition.
Another proposed restriction will crack down on "straw buyers," people who buy batches of guns and turn them over to felons and others who cannot legally buy guns.
McCarty said unscrupulous gun buyers -- when approached by police -- claim guns they bought were stolen.
McCarty said the ordinance he proposes would target those gun traffickers by creating a new misdemeanor crime: not reporting a lost or stolen gun within 48 hours.
Both ordinances are on the books in other California cities, McCarty said, and will come before the City Council in coming months.
"They may not be a panacea and solve all our gun crimes, but maybe make a small dent," McCarty said.