Philadelphia’s left-wing District Attorney Larry Krasner blamed the recent mass shooting on Pennsylvania’s “crap” gun laws, despite the city itself having strict gun control laws.
Kimbrady Carriker, 40, allegedly shot and killed five people Monday, including a 15-year-old boy.
Krasner said authorities are currently investigating the shooting, which he says appears to be random. He then said it is unclear whether the gun is illegal, and blamed the NRA.
“The NRA has done a hell of a job of trying to make it difficult for people to investigate the source of a weapon. But there is good reason to believe that the purchase of the AR and his either manufacture or purchase of a ghost gun, which of course are not sold through official vendors, there is good reason to think it may have been obtained illegally.”
“I think at points you have been criticized for both your decisions on prosecutorial discretion and from a numbers perspective, the convictions on illegal gun cases haven’t been where I think even you said you want them to be,” the host said,” Which there are a lot of different elements that go into that. What’s your view on those who say to some degree your office needs to be doing more when it comes to illegals gun purchases, bringing cases on violent and nonviolent gun cases?” (RELATED: Two Robbery Suspects Were Out On Bail In Philadelphia. Democratic DA Larry Krasner Calls It ‘Shocking’)
Krasner said he had a high conviction rate for shootings before arguing that cases involving illegal gun possession are different because sometimes “witnesses don’t show up.”
“This man, this person, Mr. Carriker, had a gun conviction and it, obviously, didn’t stop this,” Krasner said. “What we are up against here is people would like to deflect, like to talk about other things. The reality is this office has been extremely focused on gun violence, extremely successful in the prosecution of gun violence. We will vigorously prosecute this case and all the people throwing out that criticism should show you their record on votes that they put down or votes they supported in relation to gun regulation.”
“Pennsylvania’s gun regulation is crap. It is crap. If you go to New Jersey, if you go to other states nearby, you go to Delaware, these states are safer and they are states that have more reasonable gun regulation. It is time for a bunch of legislators who wear AR-15 lapel pins, it’s time for them to quit or to get voted out,” Krasner said.
Krasner has come under fire for his resistance to prosecuting people for having illegal firearms, saying that illegal gun possession being a felony in the city but a misdemeanor in the rest of the state is “obviously racist.”
“We do not believe that arresting people and convicting them for illegal gun possession is a viable strategy to reduce shootings,” Krasner’s office told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Krasner was impeached in 2022 by the Republican-led House of Representatives over rising crime and violence.
While Philadelphia cannot make its own gun laws, the city does have carveouts in the state law. For example, Pennsylvania law says a person can open carry a gun without a permit throughout the state except for Philadelphia, which requires a permit to carry or transport a gun.