Every sensible person on this planet wants to decrease the number of murders, but some of the proposed methods are, frankly, idiotic. Why do I saw that? Because they aren’t based on any sense of reality about human nature.
Take, for example, a recent proposal from the mayor of Stockton, California, Michael Tubbs. It’s the most ridiculous thing that you’ll see all day. The NRA gives us the details:
If you’re Stockton, Calif., Mayor Michael Tubbs, you identify the 50 people most likely to commit crimes using a gun—and offer to cut them a check.
The 27-year-old mayor’s program, called Advance Peace, offers 18 months of counseling, life coaching, job training and daily check-ins to would-be shooters, with the goal of cutting shootings in half over the next four years. Enrollees would also be offered “transformative travel” (consisting of a trip to a theme park), along with a $1,000-per-month stipend for enrollees who stay the course.
In its pilot city of Richmond, Calif., the program has fallen far short of expectations. Despite the promise of cash payouts, a full 30 percent of participants have committed offenses again. Moreover, according to the Richmond Police Officers Association, the group has refused to work with law enforcement. “In fact,” a spokesperson said, “they have worked hard to usurp the justice we work hard to serve our community.”
So, let me see if I have this straight: the mayor of Stockton, California, wants to identify the fifty people that his police department finds that they are most likely to get put in jail for shooting people and offers them money and a trip to go ride roller coasters if they promise to not commit crimes. And he’s doing this even though the results from another city which has tried this same program shows that the program has failed because 30% of the people getting paid still get arrested for committing a crime. Do I have that right?
Yeah, I’d say that pretty much sums up the program. It’s exactly like paying the mafia protection money in exchange for them not killing you.
If the program itself wasn’t idiotic enough, it’s the fact that Tubbs is trying to put it into effect even though it is proven to have failed where it has already been tried. Talk about throwing good money after bad.
It’s not hard to see how this is going to go. (To say it plainly for anti-gunners who may be reading this: This program will fail.)
In response to this idiotic attempt to control crime through bribery, the NRA said,
We’ve got a better idea: Remove the red tape restricting Californians’ right to self-defense, and put criminals on notice that their next target could be their last.
I agree completely with the NRA on this one.