Granite City, Illinois, looks to be just a little across the border from Saint Louis, Missouri. That's a rough town, and while I can't say that Granite City is as bad, I can say it has had its moments.
For example, recently officers were forced to shoot and kill a suspect after he refused to comply with orders to drop his weapons — a handgun and a replica rifle of some sort.
But while that is unpleasant, it's not what grabbed my attention.
No, that was the deceased's history.
According to court documents, Cerentano had a criminal history including several felony convictions and had been served with an order of protection just a few days before the fatal incident.
Court records show the suspect had prior felony convictions in 2007, 2009, 2018 and 2019, which made it illegal for him to possess weapons.
He also had a history of domestic issues, including convictions for felony domestic battery and violation of an order of protection.
His wife filed a request for an order of protection in March, but it was dropped; a new order of protection was filed Aug. 18, and he was served with a temporary OP that day.
Now, all of those disqualify someone from owning a gun.
Illinois requires a Firearms Owner Identification, or FOID, card. This has to be maintained for as long as you own your firearm, which means the state knows who has guns and who doesn't, more or less. You also can't get one if you're a prohibited person, obviously.
So how did this Cerentano guy get a handgun in the first place if gun control works so well?
"He got it from Missouri," someone will claim, but note that you still need a FOID if you reside in Illinois, and he didn't have one. It's also illegal for a felon to buy a gun anywhere, including Missouri, under federal law.
Again, gun control failed.
The problem is that no matter what happens, gun control is never responsible. It's always the lack of some other bit of law or the rules in place in the next state over. There's never a point where an anti-gunner stops and thinks, "This isn't working. Maybe we should try something different than restricting firearms since the criminals aren't really impacted."
But nope. Never happens.
Maybe because it's not really about crime? Maybe it's about something else entirely, like they just don't like guns and don't think anyone should have them at all, but since criminals are a handy justification for gun control, they don't mind them breaking the laws so much.
I might just need to tighten the tinfoil a bit, but I'll say that between their lack of support for strong penalties for criminals and their lack of concern over criminals breaking the gun laws, it's hard to see it otherwise. I mean, it's possible, but I also need to say that if my potentially paranoid view is wrong, there's nothing they'd do differently if I weren't.
Just sayin', is all.
Still, the laws don't work. They've never worked, and this whole incident is proof of that.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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