As we told you in a story posted yesterday, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn recently blamed high crime on law-abiding gun owners who have concealed-carry permits
In an interview with USA Today, Flynn said: “I can tell you anecdotally we’re seeing a number of shootings involving concealed-carry permit holders—many of whom have extensive criminal records. But I’m not allowed to tell you how many or whom, because the law has been carefully written to prevent analysis of that information.” “That is a pattern in part due to an inability of [Chief] Flynn or anti-gun Mayor Tom Barrett to come up with a plan to reduce the pathologies that contribute to violence.”
— Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke
Upon hearing about Flynn’s remarks, Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke immediately weighed in on the issue, sending us the following statement:
This anti-gun liberal is doing what liberals do best. Blame the law-abiding citizen for incidents of violent crime. He knows no shame as he manufactures fake news about concealed-carry permit holders.
To date, Milwaukee has had 138 homicides, compared to 145 in 2015. This is one of the highest per-capita homicide rates in the country. Many of these are senseless killings in drive-bys; drug- and gang-related incidents; instances of domestic violence; and innocent people becoming caught in a crossfire. You can count on one hand the number of these involving a concealed-carry permit, and of those, most involved self-defense.
These are the second- and third-highest homicide totals in Milwaukee history. That is a pattern. That is a pattern in part due to an inability of Flynn or anti-gun Mayor Tom Barrett to come up with a plan to reduce the pathologies that contribute to violence. Those are generational poverty, failing K-12 public schools, massive black unemployment, and dysfunctional families due to absent fathers. So they blame law-abiding citizens instead.
He is lying about not being able to analyze shootings involving concealed-carry permit holders. His problem is that there are so few, and most of those are justifiable self-defense.
My advice to Flynn: Fix the ghetto, concentrate on career criminals and leave law-abiding gun owners alone.
Look for further reporting on this issue tomorrow morning at americas1stfreeedom.org.
