CrimePolitics

Arrest in WA gun shop burglary illustrates gun control failure

Hoping the courts “make an example of this guy,” the owner of a Sequim, Washington gun store that was burglarized last month might also hope that the courts in other states had done their jobs since, according to the Peninsula Daily News, the suspect now in custody has an arrest history in eight states.

There are no background checks when stolen guns are traded between criminals. (Dave Workman)

Just as important, none of the 26 firearms stolen from Fred’s Guns in Sequim have been recovered. If those guns are now in circulation, they’re being transferred without background checks, a requirement of Initiative 594 that was passed by public vote in 2014.

That measure mandated so-called “universal background checks” with limited family exemptions, and backers said it would keep guns out of the wrong hands.

But if suspect Joey Anthony Maillet, 38, is the culprit in the Fred’s burglary, that law failed at least 26 times over.

The newspaper said Maillet has been arrested in California, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire and Washington. The report did not indicate what alleged crimes he was arrested for. He has also been cited—in Washington and Maine—for illegally crossing the U.S.-Canada border, the newspaper said. The report suggested he may have dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship.

At the time of his arrest Monday, he was in the Snohomish County Jail on unrelated charges. He had been transferred there from the Whatcom County jail on charges of third-degree theft and possession of methamphetamine, the newspaper reported.

What reportedly led authorities to Maillet was DNA and fingerprint evidence.

What doesn’t make this case unique is that someone ignored laws against burglary and theft, as well as a high-profile gun control law in the Fred’s burglary. Ditto a different gun shop burglary in the tiny community of Gorst at about the same time. That caper saw 98 firearms stolen, according to KTUU. There was no indication that the two cases are connected.

When tallied up, there were at least 124 guns out there somewhere just because of these two crimes. How many times will those stolen guns change hands before they are recovered, perhaps at a crime scene? Gun control proponents, say rights activists, never seem to understand this simple fact. Criminals don’t obey gun laws. That much was evident in the store security video which was posted to YouTube by Jesse Major at the Peninsula Daily News:

Three months ago in Ohio, authorities in Whitehall arrested several people in connection with a gun shop burglary. Taken into custody were an 18-year-old adult suspect and four juveniles, according to the published report. Three guns found at the scene had been stolen from the gun store. Police also recovered a stolen vehicle.

This is how criminals typically get guns, not by legally purchasing them at gun shops, gun shows or sporting goods stores after filling out all the proper paperwork.

Second Amendment activists argue that pushing increasingly restrictive gun control laws that only affect law-abiding citizens don’t prevent crimes. The burglary at Fred’s gun shop in Sequim should allow those rights activists to rest their case.

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