Graveyards in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are filling up, yet Democrats still don’t understand what they have done.
To this day, any increase in gun violence is immediately blamed on the guns themselves. This overlooks one simple fact — we’ve had easy access to plenty of guns for generations. There must be more to the picture here.
Unfortunately, coverage of Philadelphia’s gun crisis lacks such nuance. On Wednesday, WTXF-TV covered the sad state of Friends Southwestern Cemetery in Upper Darby Philadelphia.
The cemetery is packed full of recently dug graves. According to workers who spoke with WTXF-TV, 90 percent of these new burials were “victims of gun violence.”
“We can’t dig graves fast enough” Grim and startling reminder of Philly violence. Workers told me 90% of new graves at this Upper Darby burial ground are from gun violence. Many victims in their teens and 20’s. They tell me they are runnning out of room. Story at 10 @FOX29philly pic.twitter.com/T18UsXByLw
— Chris O’Connell (@CoconnellFox29) August 18, 2022
So far, the Pennsylvania city, despite boasting some of the strictest gun-control laws in the country according to Fox News, has suffered over 340 homicides in 2022 alone.
The extent of the city’s gun restrictions is summed up quite well by a local criminal law practice in the area.
“Philadelphia is considered a city of the first class in Pennsylvania. Due to this status, it has particularly strict gun laws and high penalties for violating them,” a summary from the Criminal Law Practice of Price Benowitz notes.
Are the left’s gun-control policies making gun violence worse?
“Like other major metropolitan areas, Philadelphia has large numbers of individuals living in close proximity to one another. Other crimes are exacerbated because of the use of a firearm, and the threat of violence often could be escalated when firearms are involved. Courts and jurisdictions where firearms charges are common, such as Philadelphia County, have to attempt to counter these illegal and often dangerous firearms from coming into the City and County of Philadelphia. The courts are empowered to treat gun offenses in a harsh manner, even though small municipalities outside the city and the suburbs may see guns in a different fashion.”
“The local courts, governments, and police forces do not want firearms on the street in an unlawful fashion. Thus, licensing is often limited, and what is required to get a carry permit is often difficult. However, once the person obtains the proper permits, the right to carry a firearm is theirs. Before that happens, firearms should not be carried in the City and County of Philadelphia, especially in a concealed fashion or in a vehicle without a license to carry such a firearm.”
In other words, the city is doing everything it can to limit the number of firearms available. What city officials seem to be oblivious of, however, is that such practices likely don’t limit the number of guns held by criminals. Obviously, criminals are willing to buy guns illegally.
So, then, it’s not surprising that the number of Philadelphia homicides in 2022 is set to outpace 2021’s “historically bloody” number of 562 killed, according to WTXF-TV.
This begs the question: What changed?
Bad actors have had access to guns in this country, and in Philadelphia, for generations. How come, all of a sudden, things began to get worse in 2020 and 2021?
Well, the left’s dogged efforts to demoralize and defund police departments sure didn’t help. Its willingness to not just turn a blind eye to, but also actively apologize for the crime-ridden racial justice riots of 2020 certainly led to an uptick in violence.
Those on the left who didn’t dismiss the rise in violence as some sort of “lashing out of the oppressed” blamed the chaos on COVID lockdowns.
However, in a January 2021 article for Quillette, political scientist Wilfred Reilly found exactly the opposite. According to Reilly, the data clearly shows that anti-police sentiment and the defund-the-police movement, spurred on by Black Lives Matter, led to an increase in violent crime and homicide.
In his opinion, the economic downturn was not nearly as significant a factor.
“While homicides, aggravated assaults, and gun crimes all increased dramatically, crimes focused purely on obtaining money all decreased in frequency during a heavily locked-down year,” Reilly wrote.
“Perhaps most significantly, crime data is tracked on a monthly as well as annual basis, and — as previously cited Minneapolis figures indicated — the largest 2020 increases in violent crime trace directly to the Riot Summer following the death of George Floyd, rather than to the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.”
In the wake of all of that violence, with criminal activity reaching new highs and police department manpower reaching new lows, it’s vitally important that law-abiding citizens arm themselves.
Citizens of Philadephia seem to understand this point.
According to Fox News, the city saw a whopping 602 percent increase in concealed carry permits issued in 2021 compared to 2020. “People are scared, and they want to learn how to protect themselves,” Terrence Lappe, a firearm instructor, said, according to the report.
And yet, the left will continue to avoid taking responsibility for the damage, destruction and death it has wrought with its Black Lives Matter, defund-the-police, Marxist agenda.
Until more Americans speak out for truth, Democrats will continue to double down on the very practices and policies currently filling up graveyards.
