A surge in the use of machetes in gang-related attacks in the Boston, Mass. region proves that criminals, not guns, are and always have been the problem at the root of crime, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said today.
News agencies in Boston have reported that gang members in the greater Boston area have also been arming themselves with Chinese throwing stars and Japanese metal chain whips, also called Nunchukas. Several communities have passed machete ordinances that restrict or ban the big knives.
“When are politicians going to wake up and understand that it’s not inanimate objects – whether we’re talking about guns, knives, clubs or rocks – but criminals that are causing urban and suburban problems,” challenged CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron. “For years, the gun rights community has insisted that even if there were no guns, criminals would resort to some other type of weapon. The Massachusetts situation proves that point.
Waldron also scolded local news agencies for their continued focus on gun crime when this wave of machete attacks has ensued. The Associated Press admitted in a report that “the surge of machete attacks has gained less attention than recent gun-related homicides in Boston parks.”
“The Associated Press’ admission is proof positive that the media is more interested in
demonizing guns than in focusing on violent criminals,” Waldron said. “Such news coverage constantly reinforces negative public emotion toward guns, while devoting much less attention to the harm that thugs can do with other weapons.
“Sadder still,” he concluded, “the political ‘quick fix’ is still the same. City governments are placing restrictions on objects, rather than face the harsh reality of punishing individuals, and holding people, not the instrument they carry, responsible for their criminal behavior. As we’ve seen repeatedly, it is the evil intent in a person’s heart, not the object in his hand that is at fault. Gun control laws haven’t worked, and pretty soon, politicians in Massachusetts will discover that machete laws won’t work, either. They will merely penalize the wrong people.”