Birmingham mayor pledges violent criminal crackdown, calls for weapons ban

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    BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WVTM) — In moments, a barrage of bullets turned a North Birmingham venue from a July birthday celebration into a scene of carnage.

Fourteen people were shot, four fatally.

The casualties included Lee Getting’s oldest daughter, Markeisha.

He received a call from someone at the scene during the chaos.

“She said, ‘Daddy. Keisha’s been shot. I think she dead.’ What are you saying? She said, ‘Keisha been shot, and I think she dead,’” Gettings said.

Markeisha Gettings was one of seven people killed in Birmingham in a six-hour window Saturday night.

On Tuesday morning, Mayor Randall Woodfin brought a pair of assault weapons to a city council meeting to make a point.

“If you want to defend your home, I’m cool with that. But tell me, should people be driving around with these? Because that’s what they’re doing,” Woodfin said.

Woodfin made a public plea for the federal government to revive its assault weapons ban from 1994 to 2004.

“It was the lowest decrease in gun violence in the city of Birmingham’s history,” Woodfin said.

We checked the numbers.

Over the course of the ban, Birmingham’s murders dropped 47%.

However, while they then jumped 62% the very first year after the ban was lifted in 2005, murders in the city actually had dipped by the same amount within five years without the ban.

In the meantime, Woodfin said Birmingham police are teaming up with federal agencies to put more heat on violent criminals.

Plus, the city plans to target suspected drug houses with civil penalties.

“We go after the homeowner or renter up to a $50,000 fine on the civil side, separate from the criminal side. As well as being in the position to shut that house down for being a public nuisance or drugs nuisance,” Woodfin said.

He believes that will disrupt the criminal network, which he claims can breed family-wrecking violence.

“I want them to catch him and punish them so it won’t happen to nobody else. Because Keisha gone. And I am going to miss her,” Lee Gettings said.

Woodfin announced a new anonymous hotline the public can call to report hubs of illegal drug activity.

He urges anyone who suspects that an apartment or house is serving as a narcotics-selling spot to call 205-254-6460.

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