Guns Recovered in Raid Looking into Prison Contraband

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Prisons are the most secure places in the world. If you can't keep things out of prison, then you can't keep them out of anywhere. Yet contraband shows up in every prison on the planet. The fact that at least some of the people who are locked up made a lot of money getting goods they couldn't have into places where they couldn't have it probably helped contribute to this to some degree.

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But it's a thing, and it's illegal.

So I'm not shocked to see law enforcement in Alabama take this seriously. What was interesting was what was recovered in a recent raid.

A Birmingham man has been arrested in connection with an ongoing investigation into prison contraband.

The Alabama Department of Corrections and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency SWAT team carried out a search Monday at an Ensley home, authorities announced Thursday.

Christopher Needham, 41, was taken into custody at the home.

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Needham was charged with unlawful distribution of marijuana, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, trafficking methamphetamine and possession of an altered firearm.

Needham allegedly had a number of firearms on hand, though only one was "altered," which means had the serial number obliterated.

Now, the fact that someone in Alabama had a gun isn't exactly shocking. While I can't say they issue them at birth, it's not far from the truth. Someone having guns is almost like someone breathing oxygen.

But this is someone who was accused of being part of an effort to get things into a prison. He had illegal drugs on hand and while the nature of the contraband making it into the prison wasn't discussed, it was probably the drugs.

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Some argue that gun control stops people like this from getting firearms. Many even claim they can respect our right to keep and bear arms in the process.

However, let's note that Needham isn't charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, so he could buy whatever he wanted lawfully. The fact that he had a gun with the serial number removed suggests that he didn't get them that way, or at least one of them, but he probably could have, or so it seems.

Yet he was being investigated as part of a plot to get stuff into prisons, the most secure places anywhere in the country short of a nuclear missile site. He was investigated because the operation he was suspected of participating in was successful.

Do you really think an operation that can do that can't figure out how to get guns even if they're illegal?

Seriously?

What is it about guns that seems so magical to anti-gunners? They seem to think that the things that apply to other illicit goods wouldn't apply to guns. I mean, we've got a massive black market for auto parts for crying out loud. I have a hundred car part stores I can drive to right now and get whatever I want regardless, and people are out here selling illegal parts. Why do you think guns would be exempt?

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They wouldn't, and if they can get stuff into a prison, they can get guns into their own hands.

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