What to do about the Smiley Martins of the world?
Six people were murdered Sunday in Sacramento:
Sacramento police say that two groups of men began firing at each other in Sunday’s shooting downtown and that at least five shooters were involved in what authorities are now saying was a gang dispute that left six people dead and 12 wounded. “Evidence in the case indicates that at least five shooters fired guns during the shooting, and that an exchange of gunfire took place between at least two groups of men,” police said in an announcement Wednesday. “As detectives continue to identify shooters and weapons involved, the number of identified shooters may grow beyond five…
Law enforcement sources have been saying since Monday that the incident appeared to be a shootout between rival factions rather than the “mass shooting” that officials initially described in the wake of the 2 a.m. shooting that occurred near 10th and K streets as downtown bars were closing and large crowds were emptying out into the streets.
One of the involved men who was wounded, Smiley Martin, is being charged with multiple gun violations. He has been a criminal since his 18th birthday (my guess is that he was involved with the juvenile justice system prior to that, but those records are not available to the public):
Smiley Allen Martin, the second man arrested after Sunday’s mass shooting in Sacramento that killed six, has a criminal record stretching to 2013 and last year was the subject of a plea by Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert’s office that he not win early release from prison, where he was serving a 10-year sentence for domestic violence and assault with great bodily injury. Despite a two-page letter to the Board of Parole Hearings urging that Martin remain in custody, he won his release and was in Sacramento on Saturday night recording himself on a Facebook Live video brandishing a handgun hours before the shooting…
He faces charges of possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. A law enforcement source confirmed the machine gun is a handgun that was found at the scene Sunday that had been converted to be capable of firing as an automatic weapon.
He’s a violent career criminal, whether or not he was responsible for the deaths on Sunday. I have no idea whether any sort of three strikes law would have applied to him. But it’s certainly crystal clear that California’s strict gun laws had zero effect:
So what we have here are two prohibited persons with stolen firearms (that’s illegal) one of whom had a machine gun (against the law). They allegedly opened fire on a crowd of people (also illegal) killing six (we’re sure there’s a law against that, too). It’s almost as if criminals don’t give a flying fornication about gun laws…or any other kind, come to think of it…
…[T]he President was handed a note with the administration’s rote talking points on the topic . . .
“We also continue to call on Congress to act. Ban ghost guns. Require background checks for all gun sales. Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Repeal gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability. Pass my budget proposal, which would give cities more of the funding they need to fund the police and fund the crime prevention and intervention strategies that can make our cities safer. These are just a few of the steps Congress urgently needs to take to save lives.”
Apparently no one in the White House is aware that California already has the first four items on Uncle Joe’s wishlist in place. They have for years. Yet those laws did literally nothing to keep a gun out of the hands of a pair of recidivist felons.
It’s obvious that criminals know how to get guns, and they know how to use them, and that gun control laws are a joke to them.
I like how we’ve got this guy who murders 6 people and the takeaway is that “He faces charges of possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.” Murdering 6 people is evidently not as significant as possessing a machine gun.
After my second laugh, I had to check the source of the quote. Ah, TTAG. The site was founded by a journalist who was mugged by some reality real or figurative and decided to become a concealed carrier. And to educate himself about it. Later he sold the site.
I’ve been seeing anecdotes about the Chinese illegally selling small modification hardware parts that drop into Glock handguns converting them to full auto.
I was going to link a photo &/or video, but I suspect that big brother and the BATF is all over this stuff.
If people wish, they can search “full auto Glock switch.”
From the ATF.gov web site, dated May 30, 2019:
No picture of Mr. Martin on the SacBee article. That, and the fact that the focus of Sundowner’s talking points (more gun control!) were highly persuasive evidence that Mr. Martin is not white.
A Google search quickly confirmed this.
Had Mr. Martin been white, this would have been front page news for days, with constant sanctimonious screeds about ‘white rage’. Donald Trump would have been blamed, even if Mr. Martin was a demonstrated progressive.
Had Mr. Martin used a car to do his killing (but been black), this story would be memory holed in 48-72 hours. See e.g…Waukesha.
Since he’s black, but used a gun, the narrative is all about gun control.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Nonapod:
It’s not known yet whether or not he was the murderer. Ballistics, etc., need to be looked at. I am almost certain that if he is the murderer he will be charged with a lot more than weapons violations.
“What to do about the Smiley Martins of the world?”
In his unilateral denial of his victim’s right to life, Smiley has voluntarily forfeited his own claim to that right. There’s only one cure for the rabid.
Murdering 6 people is evidently not as significant as possessing a machine gun.
The important people are more threatened by machine guns then they are murderers. Now, if we did into it, the type of machine guns that are belt fed and mounted on a bipod, tripod or vehicle mount have very little value in crime but much value in combat, or in any serious application of the 2nd amendment.
As far as I can tell, there is really only one purpose for that gadget that turns a Glock into a machine gun – drive by shootings just like this. It allows you to blow through a standard sized magazine in less than two seconds, with most of the bullets going every which way. Essentially almost uncontrollable.
Only one thing can be done with people like this – lock them up until they are old men, unless you can execute them. That CA refuses to do that is just one more reason to give the state a wide berth.
Rope & tree; some assembly required.
Nice to know these six dead people, and the injured, were not in a “mass shooting” event. No, it was a gang shootout. That’s different, I guess, although the six of them are just as dead.
Murder charges will follow when ballistics figures out who shot whom.
IIRC, Soros DA Kim Foxx in Chicago recently declined to prosecute two orcs who were shooting it out in public, because it was “mutual combat.”
Making a pistol fully auto is worse than a waste; instead the weapon becomes uncontrollable.
Used to be said, fifty-plus years back, The Shotgun News had ads for a device that could turn the ubiquitous M1 carbine fully auto. That would have been useful if you like full auto. My allowance didn’t stretch to the M1.
It’s not known yet whether or not he was the murderer…
IDK the law on this, but isn’t the unarmed getaway car driver fully culpable for deaths in the commission of a bank robbery? How is this different, besides being CA?
A couple things:
1. Full-auto is overrated, most definitely in a pistol. It is definitely a “spray & Pray” item.
2. CA has a “felony murder” rule that wraps all knowing participants into the death of someone involved. [This includes the scenario where a victim or witness kills a participant; the other crooks are liable for their partner’s demise.] An operative term here is “knowingly”…. does the driver know the guy is going into the store to rob it rather than just buy a pack of gum. The law is therefor use on a case-by-case basis.
3. At this point, they are saying at least one of the dead is one of the potential shooters. He is in a video (mentioned above) with the Martin Brothers taken hours earlier.
4. Magazine capacity is irrelevant to a trained and disciplined shooter. Ten-round mags allow one to replenish (put in new, full one) during a lull without throwing away as many unspent rounds.
We know what to do about Smiley Martins: deterrence, punishment, and incapacitation. Not foolproof, just reduces the probability that they will commit lethal or injurious violence. We’re not doing that systematically because judges, prosecutors, and politicians Just.Do.Not.Feel.Like.It.
sonny wayz:
Difference is that as far as I know he was not participating in a separate felony. We don’t know the circumstances of how the fight broke out. For example, someone might have been shooting at him quite suddenly and he shot in self-defense. What precipitated the shootings was not a robbery, as far as I know, or any other crime. For felony murder to kick in – which is what you’re describing – there has to be a different felony in progress.
…there has to be a different felony in progress.
I think I sort of knew that once upon a time, but thanks for nudging my neurons.
sonny wayz:
Well, the concept was recently stretched in the Arbery case in order to give harsh sentences to the two people who didn’t kill Arbery, including the one who merely took a video without ever thinking a killing would be occurring. The supposedly separate felony was kidnapping, but the goal they thought they were aiming for was a bona fide citizen’s arrest. That’s one of the reasons the case was a travesty of justice.
@ saxinis > “Rope & tree; some assembly required.”
NOTE to the NSA, FBI, and DOJ: this comment is not an expression of support or approval of the above remark. It is part of a Constitutionally-protected free-speech discussion.
https://www.vox.com/22995013/anti-lynching-act-emmett-till
March 29, 2022
“President Biden just made lynching a federal hate crime after more than 100 years of legislative failure.”
Lynching itself, of course, is murder, and has always been illegal.
My web search turned up other solely leftist sites on the first page; I had to go looking for Redstate’s post.
Compare and contrast.
https://redstate.com/jeffc/2022/03/02/anti-lynching-legislation-is-nothing-more-than-feckless-virtue-signaling-n530521
For any who don’t know, the author Jeff Charles is black.
Interestingly, neither post mentions that the text of the law does not limit the definition of the “lynching” victims to a specific racial identity, not to the method indicated by Saxinis.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/55
It certainly seems to me that this case fits the bill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waukesha_Christmas_parade_attack
That is more evident if you read the background material that the Wiki editors prefer you not know about.
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/11/24/waukesha-suspect-called-to-attack-white-people-had-conviction-for-prior-bomb-threat-n481196
Throw away the key. That’s what you do with career criminals