By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
In the aftermath of a deadly weekend in Seattle, a stunning online survey by KOMO News, the local ABC affiliate, revealed Tuesday the overwhelming majority of respondents blame weak law enforcement and sentencing (90%) for the violence, while only 6 percent blame “easy access to guns.”
Three people were killed in three separate shootings, all in the same general area of downtown Seattle.
Still, Seattle’s body count was only a shadow of what happened in Chicago over the Labor Day Weekend. In the Windy City, eight more murders occurred, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, all of them apparently victims of gunshot wounds.
The Seattle survey, while hardly scientific, suggests a significant part of the population is looking beyond the easy “gun blame game” and paying attention to liberal policies which put repeat offenders back on the streets. Passage of increasingly restrictive gun laws in Washington state over the past dozen years has not prevented the kind of violence now being reported. While this fact likely not prevent Seattle-based state legislators from introducing even more gun control schemes when they convene in January, it will at least provide gun rights activists with a strong argument.
Seattle is not experiencing a tsunami of deadly violent crime, however. As reported by KING, the local NBC affiliate, homicide has declined more than 30 percent during the first half of the year, and shootings overall were down more than 20 percent.
“But the citywide gains are not the reality in some neighborhoods, where violent crime and property crime have surged,” KING offered as a caveat to the good news.
And, the city is continuing to investigate the “Bite of Seattle” murders while questions persist about the city’s response to that incident, and lingering questions about a third suspect still on the loose. Three people were killed in that incident including one of the teen gunmen.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, the Sun-Times is reporting there were 122 murders during the months of June, July and August. According to the popular website Heyjackass.com, Chicago has racked up 311 homicides so far this year, up 2 percent from the same time last year. Of those victims, 275 were killed with firearms.
