Cops keep getting shot by people who can't have guns
The man who allegedly shot six police officers in Philadelphia before surrendering just after midnight, following a 7 1/2-hour standoff that ended when tear gas was fired into his home, has a very long rap sheet that makes it a felony for him to possess a firearm. That clearly didn't stop him.
It is part of a pattern that underscores how difficult it is to curb the epidemic of gun violence, even when there is political will. Despite the laws that are already on the books, criminals find ways to acquire weapons without background checks - whether at lax stores, through the gun show loophole, via the internet or on the black market. This is possible, in part, because it's breathtakingly easy for most Americans to legally acquire guns. Nevertheless, it's a challenge that policymakers must grapple with as they debate new forms of gun control.
A California highway patrolman was killed by a felon on Monday night, and two of his colleagues were badly wounded, during a gun battle after a traffic stop on the freeway in Riverside, according to authorities. The shooter used an AR-15 assault-style rifle without a serial number, which makes it untraceable, according to the Los Angeles Times. These “ghost guns” are assembled from parts that can be ordered by mail or obtained underground, and the ATF reports that about a third of all firearms seized in California now are un-serialized. Agents expect this number to grow.
A sheriff's deputy was fatally shot last month in Arkansas when he responded to a domestic violence call. That same deputy had reportedly arrested the man who would kill him for hitting someone else with a metal pipe in April 2018. The perpetrator had been charged with making terroristic threats, aggravated assault and second-degree battery. On July 8, Sgt. Mike Stephen was talking with a woman who had called 911 for help in the front yard of her home in Leslie, Arkansas, when Samuel Fullerton, 39, walked outside and opened fire, wounding both of them, according to KATV, the Little Rock ABC affiliate. Fullerton was dead when additional officers arrived.
Something similar happened in June in Sacramento, California, where local police were helping a woman collect her belongings from a home as part of a domestic violence call when Adel Sambrano Ramos allegedly opened fire on them and mortally wounded Officer Tara O'Sullivan, 26. Court records show that Ramos, who is facing murder chargers, has a history of domestic violence restraining orders. At the time of the shooting, he was wanted on a bench warrant that had been issued nine days earlier for failing to appear on a charge that he battered a young woman last year, per the Associated Press. In addition to murder, the 45-year-old Ramos is also charged with felony possession of an AR-15 with a non-fixed magazine and a pistol grip, as well as felony possession of another assault-style rifle with a telescoping stock, the Sacramento Fox affiliate reports.
There are several other examples this year of officers being shot by people who were not legally allowed to possess guns.
The suspect in last night's firefight in Philly, 36-year-old Maurice Hill, has a remarkable history of firearm-specific convictions. “Hill's history in the adult criminal justice system began in 2001 when he was 18 and was arrested with a gun that had an altered serial number,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Public records show that he has been arrested about a dozen times since turning 18 and convicted six times on charges that involved illegal possession of guns, drug dealing, and aggravated assault. Along the way, he beat criminal charges on everything from kidnapping to attempted murder. He has been in and out of prison; the longest sentence handed to him came in 2010, when a federal judge gave him a 55-month term. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to federal firearms violations after he was caught with a Smith & Wesson .357 and later a Taurus PT .45 semiautomatic. His prior felony convictions should have barred him from owning those weapons.”
The Riverside cop killer, identified by authorities as Aaron Luther, previously pleaded guilty to attempted murder and two counts of burglary. He had also been convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm, as well as assault with a deadly weapon, spousal abuse, disturbing the peace, vandalism, battery and stalking. Luther was killed by police during an extended firefight on the 215 Freeway. Before he died, CHP Officer Andre Moye was able to return fire and radio for help.
Luther's father told KTLA that his son was a “desperate man.” His wife told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that he called her after he was pulled over and sounded panicked about going back to prison. Other family members said he had been battling depression.
Ghost guns like the one that Luther used can be legal for those who are allowed to own firearms, but Luther's prior convictions barred him from owning weapons. “But California requires that anyone building a weapon apply for a unique serial number with the state's Department of Justice and that number be put on the firearm,” today's L.A. Times notes:
“The weapon must comply with California's laws governing firearms. Police gun experts say that those forbidden from purchasing a gun can still buy the partial lower receiver, known as an ‘80% lower,' and then buy the other parts of the weapons. In 2013, John Zawahri killed five people in the Santa Monica area using an AR-15-style rifle, which he built from a partially manufactured lower receiver that did not have a serial number and therefore did not have to be registered. . . . A serial number is issued only to the lower receiver of a weapon. Some lawmakers in California are seeking to require a background check for all gun parts to stifle the trade-in ghost guns.”
President Donald Trump, who signed a major sentencing overhaul into law in December, tweeted this morning that the Philadelphia suspect “should never have been allowed to be on the streets” and said that he should get a long sentence:
In Philadelphia, it's a miracle that no one died. Gunfire first broke out around 4:30 p.m. when officers attempted to serve a drug warrant. Once they got inside, a barrage of bullets forced officers to return fire and retreat through windows and doors. Two officers were stuck in the house for a few hours until they could be rescued by a SWAT team. But the suspect remained barricaded inside. Hill's longtime lawyer was allowed inside to talk with him. The attorney, Shaka Johnson, told reporters on the scene that he urged his client to surrender.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said at a news conference that all six officers who were wounded have been released from the hospital. He said a bullet grazed one officer's head, and the others were shot in the arm or other peripheral places on the body. “It's nothing short of a miracle that we don't have multiple officers killed,” Ross said.
The latest on the federal fight over gun control: Trump is weighing action on gun control, but the discussion remains theoretical. The New York Times reports: “He has called Senator Christopher Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, where 26 people were gunned down at an elementary school. He has reached out to Senator Joe Manchin,D-W.Va., and Senator Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., who sponsored a bill extending background checks that the Senate defeated in 2014. What President Trump has not done yet is the kind of arm-twisting of Republican senators wary of gun control legislation that will be necessary to force a bill through Congress, according to interviews with White House officials and congressional aides. He has shown no interest so far in a major address to ensure that public opinion is behind such a move. And he and his aides have yet to settle on what he will actually propose.”
“Trump's public push for gun-control measures is causing consternation among conservatives and some of his advisers, who have privately raised concerns about the political and policy fallout of the approach,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, says this time will be different and predicts that Congress will finally do something, even if modest, after the recent string of mass shootings. Politico reports that the vulnerable incumbent has assumed a central role in the burgeoning effort to find a consensus among Republicans: “She's spoken to Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and White House legislative director Eric Ueland about potential gun safety reforms and plans to talk to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., this week. . . . Collins proposed to Ueland a three-part package: Tweaking the background checks bill sponsored by Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to gain GOP support, passing a ‘red flag' law that allows temporary removal of guns from people deemed imminent threats, and cracking down on straw gun purchases.”
The new frontier in the fight over gun control is between states and local governments. The city council in Missoula, Montana, passed a law requiring stricter background checks in 2016. But the state's conservative attorney general declared that measure unlawful. In response, the city sued - and won. Then Republican state legislators drafted a bill to nullify the ordinance and make it illegal for local governments to tighten gun laws. That passed the legislature but was vetoed in May by Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat who is running for president. Gun rights groups have successfully mobilized to put a referendum on the November 2020 ballot that would enact the law Bullock vetoed. Voters will get to decide.
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