Bail Reform Allows Mentally Unstable, Violent New Yorkers to Walk Around Unafraid, a Counterterrorism Expert Says

By Yehudit Garmaise

While criminals with handguns have long been sources of violence on the city’s streets, New Yorkers with mental illnesses, such as 18-year-old Buffalo shooter Payton Gendron, can now easily buy assault weapons that are designed for use in combat warfare.

Top NYPD officials say: we can thank New York’s 2019 bail reform law for that.

“There has not been a time in modern history where this many people have been walking around with guns: not fearful of the consequences,” Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said on his WABC 770 on Sunday.

Last Tuesday, for example, NYPD Officer Dennis Vargas was shot in the arm by Rameek Smith, who was killed in the shootout and had been inexplicably walking free: as he awaited his June sentencing date for a previous gun charge, Miller pointed out.

In fact, nearly 70% of those busted by the new anti-gun units have prior criminal records, and thanks to lenient judges and bail reform, many of those repeat offenders are immediately returned to the streets without bail to wreak more havoc.

Miller expressed urgent concern about the ever-exploding number of ghost guns, which are untraceable firearms without serial numbers that are bought in parts online, often by mentally unstable and violent criminals, who build their guns at home.

The number of the ghost guns recovered at NYC crime scenes has skyrocketed from 17 in 2018 to the hundreds, said Miller who predicted in 2022, the number of ghost guns recovered will likely reach 700.

“Under the current federal law, which is about to change, because [online ghost gun sellers are] selling parts that are not considered ‘completed firearms’,” Miller said. “Nobody’s getting a background check. Nobody has a license. Nobody has a permit.

“No way to trace [guns] is a [like] dream machine that deals death.”

Photo: Flickr