Michael Mordaga
North Jersey dot com
When Michael Mordaga was a Hackensack detective, he was nearly killed when a suspected drug dealer rammed his car into him and two other officers during a drug stakeout on May 26, 1989.
With Mordaga, then 34 years old, snagged on the hood, the driver sped off. Mordaga reached for his gun and shot the driver through the windshield. The car crashed into a pole, sending Mordaga airborne and into a wall, leaving half his torso purple and blood gushing from his scalp. He thought he might die.
So it was troubling when Mordaga, now Hackensack’s civilian police director, recently got a call from the Virginia State Police telling him that the man who nearly took his life 24 years ago had been arrested with handguns. Authorities said Edward Carter Irvin, who served 12 years for attempted homicide in the incident that nearly killed Mordaga, had bought three guns in Virginia, which is known for its lax gun laws, by changing his name and denying he had ever been convicted of a felony.
For Mordaga, the phone call from Virginia was more than a reminder of his brush with death. It was proof, he said, of the need for a national fingerprinting system to screen gun buyers.
"Before selling a firearm, dealers in Virginia must contact the Department of State Police, which conducts a background check on the would-be buyer. Irvin was able to buy three guns in Virginia despite his felony conviction because, while in prison in New Jersey, he changed his name to Siddeeq Mu’eem Mu’min, according to an ATF report."
ReplyDeleteLet me see if I get this straight, while he was in prison in Jersey, he changed his name and somehow prison officials didn't think to send his new name in to be put on the list of prohibited persons list as a felon. And somehow this is the fault Virginia's lax gun laws?
I wonder, do you suppose the ID he used to buy the firearms from the FFL was maybe a driver's license? Considering he went to prison for assault using a car, what might be wrong with this picture?
Perhaps we should just fingerprint everyone when they get a driver's license. That should be an easy sell using the little league coach example.
Well, then, Mikeb, you'll be pleased to note that my fingerprints are on file, thanks to my applying for a carry license and for some jobs that I've worked. But reading fingerprints isn't the exact science that CSI would have us believe, and it takes time. Yet again, this is an effort to delay gun purchases and to make a record of who is buying what. And despite what we see here, most criminals aren't going to go through licensed dealers, so yet again, this is aimed at the people least likely to commit crimes.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely correct. Most criminals go to gunshows where some gunsuck NRA wack happily sells them whatever they want.
DeleteAnonymous, your terms make no sense, and you're wrong on the facts.
DeleteAnd the same for car buyers as well? Is this guy not concerned about him driving?
ReplyDelete