Miami police say they consider the spike in shootings this year an “outlier.” They say major crime numbers remain low overall and put much of the blame on the end of the federal Assault Weapons Ban in 2004. Automatic gunfire from easy-to-get guns can spray hundreds of bullets in the blink of an eye.

Police say the lax gun laws leave them unable to track the number of weapons purchased or when they were bought. People purchasing weapons at gun shows or in shops are not required to register them.

via Deadly square: 43 people shot in Miami’s Liberty Square area in 2014 – Miami-Dade – MiamiHerald.com.

Writers Charles Rabin and David Smiley have so many idiocies and contradictions written in this article that one must wonder if it is ignorance or advocacy.

Let’s extract some other info from the same piece:

 Despite lower crime elsewhere, 43 people have been shot and seven of them have died in a rash of violence in and around a Miami public housing project.

So how does that work? The end of the “Assault Weapons” Ban was only applied in the Liberty Square area and the rest of the county is still under it? Obviously the answer is no.  And those with any inkling on gun laws know damn well that full automatic rifles were not affected by the AWB but still remain some of the most restricted items to buy and sell in the country. Clearly that is not the problem in Liberty Square.

And that little pun about registering firearms? We are still waiting for that big case solved through gun registration in those states that have it along with fired cases database and bullet fingerprinting.

But there is a reason to use the old and abuse “Assault Weapons” excuse: It is an easy target and very politically correct to do so. The authors out it out there because mentioning the real reasons first would be seen and racist and hateful without giving an easy out first. It is not after they bemoaned “Assault Weapons” that they gently dare to mention gangs although more like “it is not a big deal as they are small.”  The TV Show, “The First 48” has more information on what happens in this area (If you watch the show, anytime they mention Pork ‘N’ Beans, they are talking about Liberty Square.) than what you can actually get from the Herald or any other local media outlet.

The sad truth is that the only reasons for the violence in this area are the traditional ones: a community that has given up alongside the police and local leaders that are more interested in being re-elected than actually fixing the problems.