Monday, August 24, 2009
Law and Order / Legislature / Silverman A Shining Endorsment of Tennessee Gun Laws Courtesy of History Channel's Gangland
Posted by Jack Silverman on Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 7:17 AM
The History Channel series Gangland featured an episode on street gangs in Nashville, titled "Hunt and Kill," which aired several times throughout the month of August. The show's hyperbolic tone at times made it sound like the streets of Nashville were a war zone comparable to South Central. Regardless of the exaggeration, there were enough specific details about gang activities here to remind us that Nashville isn't the quaint and cozy town pictured on postcards hawked in the tourist traps on Second Avenue.
In addition to an examination of the Brown Pride, Sureños and MS-13 street gangs (including an in-depth look at the 2006 murder of two Brown Pride members by MS-13 members on Nolensville Road), the show featured the following segment, which caught my ear in light of recent gun legislation:
NARRATOR: BP members love to pack heat, from handguns to semiautomatics. JAMES CAVANAUGH, SPECIAL AGENT-IN-CHARGE, ATF: To be a gang, to be the bully of the block, to be the strong man, to control the neighborhood, there's no way that a gang's gonna do that without a boatload of guns. NARRATOR: Tennessee has some of the loosest gun laws of any state. No permits or licenses are required to purchase a shotgun, a rifle or a handgun. BROWN PRIDE MEMBER SPOOK: You just wanna buy a gun, just have a gun with you, you can get it anywhere. BROWN PRIDE MEMBER GORDO: You can get 'em from a gun show. You don't even gotta show 'em no permit or nothing. Say I can just come up to you and be like, "hey, you wanna buy this? Here. You give me the money, that's it."Yet another shining endorsement of Tennessee's gun laws! Way to go state legislature!
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