United States needs heavier gun control: Pundit
Press TV has conducted an interview with Matthew Fogg, a retired chief deputy US marshal, to discuss the wave of gun violence that swept Chicago during the July 4 weekend.
A rough transcription of the interview follows.
Press TV: What do you attribute this violence to because we continue to see a flaring up of violence in the United States. Why is that the case?
Fogg: Well, speaking of Chicago and even with Baltimore, one of the problems I have with this I think is that there has been some clearly slowing down in law enforcement procedures. You can actually see that it is no doubt we are talking about that many murders and its few investigations being conducted, or cases being resolved.
Not only that, I have always said that this whole war on drugs has been a… when it comes down to how it has perpetuated this sort of crime wave in America. We know the war on drugs doesn’t work.
We have found out now that states like Washington and other states that are legalizing Marijuana, they are finding out that the murder rate is down, crime is down and financial situations are up for the cities.
So I’m seeing here that to me Chicago needs to follow suit. They need to first ratchet down this whole war on drugs and these officers need to really get involved when it comes down to serious crimes.
I see some type of fallback and maybe it is because all of the fallout that now videos have been showing that law enforcement officers around the country have been doing some things that the public has not been really happy about.
Press TV: What about there are some that say that the problem is the sheer number of guns in the US society, over 300 million guns. Your take on that? Do you think that controlling the right to bear arms in the US would make a difference or not?
Fogg: I think so. To be honest with you I would rather see there be a war on guns rather than war on drugs. I would rather see them cut back on this whole notion of we have to go after the drug dealers and all that and do the same thing with alcohol; turn this whole controlled substances act around, regulate this stuff, stop trying to use our law enforcement resources and specially go after these low-level, small-time drug dealers.
Go after guns, I do believe that there should be heavier gun laws out there to get these guns off the streets. They are there, we have got to face it; the guns are there.
MTM/KA
Iran seeking ouster of US forces from West Asia region: Analyst
Foreign interference would worsen situation in Thailand-Cambodia conflict: Analyst
Early retirement of US admiral Holsey paves way for warmongering: Analyst
VIDEO | Martyr Haj Qasem Soleimani Warship
Health system nears ‘complete paralysis’ as Israel uses medicine as weapon: Gaza officials
Mohammad Bakri, Palestinian director who exposed Jenin massacre, dies at 72
Iran president offers Christmas, New Year greetings to Pope
‘Normalization not in Iraq’s lexicon’: PM Sudani vehemently rejects ties with Israel
Hamas releases Al-Aqsa Flood narrative, says Palestinian resistance ‘cannot be erased’
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
Israel targeted radiopharmaceutical facility in first attack on Isfahan: Iran nuclear chief
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
