by Arthur Sido, Dissident Thoughts:
If you regularly read any stories about mass shootings or the various murders that happen by the thousands each year you will have noticed that the phrase of the day is “gun violence”**. The way it is written you would think that gun violence is a sentient, malevolent force that goes around in urban areas causing guns to spontaneously open fire on unsuspecting and of course invariably innocent people. Gun violence is like lightning or tsunamis, a force of nature.
Given how many “news” stories I read that deal with shootings, I see phrases like “rising gun violence” or “the scourge of gun violence” it seems dozens of times each day. Politicians and “community activist” types are endlessly rending their garments and moaning about how we need to Do Something™ about gun violence.
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Given how many “news” stories I read that deal with shootings, I see phrases like “rising gun violence” or “the scourge of gun violence” it seems dozens of times each day. Politicians and “community activist” types are endlessly rending their garments and moaning about how we need to Do Something™ about gun violence.
The “we” that needs to do something about gun violence means people like you and me, people that don’t commit any crimes but that doesn’t stop us from being punished for the actions of those that do in ways ranging from inconveniences to violations of our fundamental rights not to mention of course paying through the nose for the misdeeds of others.
The “something” is always some combination of disarming law abiding people and/or funding bullshit programs like “violence interrupters” or midnight basketball leagues, invariably programs operated by well connected community activists or clergy who definitely don’t pocket a big chunk of the funds.
What is apparent to anyone paying attention is that none of the people, without exception as far as I can tell, that are flapping their traps about gun violence really seem terribly interested in actually reducing gun violence. Case in point….
Feds prepare to deport alleged Tren de Aragua member after Cook County let him walk for selling rifles to undercover ATF agents
When I saw the headline I had to read the story because it is so drearily indicative of the state of the gun violence debate.
When we last checked in on purported Tren de Aragua gang member Jose Vasquez Hernandez, he was on top of the world. Despite being in the country illegally and being caught red-handed selling guns to an undercover ATF agent, we reported on June 30 that a Cook County judge handed him a sentence requiring him to serve absolutely zero prison time. What a country!
Well, folks, we can now report that Jose found himself unexpectedly run over by the wheels of American justice on Wednesday morning when federal agents swooped in, arrested him, and booked him for a complimentary flight back to Venezuela. Vasquez Hernandez, 31, is being deported.
“It would have been nice if the state or county would have held him for us,” a federal law enforcement agent said shortly after the arrest, noting that neither the county nor the state gave the feds a heads-up that Vasquez Hernandez was going to walk free — though he was in the country illegally and had sold firearms to federal agents.
Here is a guy in Chicongo, the poster child for gun violence exacerbated by a dysfunctional state government, led by the corpulent J.B. “Jabba” Pritzker and an even worse local government in Chicago overseen by Mayor “Let’s Go” Brandon, who was offering for sale multiple rifles and he didn’t even get the metaphorical slap on the wrist.
This mestizo gun runner even admitted to being a seller of firearms….
The case began in the spring of 2025 when an informant working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began communicating with a man to arrange a gun sale in Chicago, prosecutors alleged. The investigation was part of a wider operation targeting suspected members of the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang, officials said at the time.
Prosecutors said the informant arranged for a gun deal near 16th Street and Homan Avenue on July 10, 2025, and Vasquez Hernandez showed up, identifying himself as the other gun dealer’s “associate.”
He allegedly told the undercover agents and informant in Spanish, “I’m the other supplier, the one who gets these things.”
He then led them to a garage, retrieved a red bag, and repeated, “I’m the one who gets this,” before producing a 5.56-caliber rifle and a 7.62-caliber rifle that prosecutors said he offered to sell for $3,800. The transaction was allegedly captured on video and audio.
This isn’t a guy just selling his grand-pappy’s single shot shotgun, he is bragging about being someone running guns that end up on the street, and they released him because he had been held until trial. He was offering rifles chambered in 5.56 and 7.62 so while it is possible they were bolt action rifles like the Ruger American, most likely they were an AR and/or AK variant, those evil “assault rifles” we are told cause such mayhem in America despite rarely being used in actual crimes.
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