NYC killer ultimately slain by his own gun

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There’s long been an argument that you don’t need to carry a gun because a criminal will just take it away from you and kill you with it.

Of course, that’s more fantasy than reality. While it may happen from time to time, it’s not a common thing.

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But in New York City, with all their gun control laws, it seems sort of the reverse happened.

A gunman killed a rival after a fight at a Bronx baby shower — only to be fatally shot with his own gun by the victim’s younger brother, cops said Sunday.

The two men who wound up dead were inside a party at Webster Ave. and E. 198th St in Bedford Park when they got into a fight Saturday night, police said.

Their fight spilled out onto the street, where Arnold Oliver, 24, allegedly shot 28-year-old Jamal Smith in the face about 11 p.m., cops said. The shot man’s outraged friends then jumped the gunman, cops said.

Smith’s brother Wayne, also 28, managed to get the gunman’s weapon away from him and shot him in the chest with it, according to police.

Wayne Smith was taken into custody and charged with murder and weapon possession, police said.

Now, were these charges warranted?

I hate to say it, but probably.

Look, Wayne picking up the gun and using it to hold Oliver until the police arrived? I can see that and could see him not being charged with weapon possession in a case like that. (I do think, ultimately, that’s a bogus charge under the circumstances.)

However, Wayne didn’t just hold the gun on Oliver. He shot him in the chest and killed him. Allegedly.

But now did Oliver lose the gun in the first place? Well, after shooting Jamal, a group basically gang tackled him, causing him to lose the gun, which Wayne was able to pick up.

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The kind of thing that could have happened to anyone.

Had Wayne not pulled the trigger, all would be well.

However, I also think he’ll consider a temporary insanity plea. I don’t know that it’ll be entered, but it’ll come up in discussions with his attorney, I’m sure. After all, he’d just seen his brother gunned down and the man who did it was right there. I can see someone forgetting right and wrong for a few moments.

That doesn’t make murder right, though.

The big question is just how did Oliver get a gun in New York City, the most gun-controlled city in the country. We keep hearing how gun control works and how it’ll keep guns out of the wrong hands, yet Oliver had a gun and used it to kill someone, only for it to be turned against him just moments later.

It looks like, once again, gun control accomplishes precisely nothing except making it so no one else could intervene and possibly prevent Oliver from killing Jamal in the first place or in preventing Wayne from killing Jamal.

No one had to die in order to accomplish that, either.

Unfortunately, those gun control laws did what they always do: Nothing good.

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