Does being a victim of crime shift a politician's views?

But even during the encounter itself, her mind went to conversations she’s had with law-enforcement officials about kit guns, firearms that can be assembled from parts and can’t be traced because they have no serial number. “I’m looking at this 19-year-old who has a gun pointed at my chest, and I’m looking at the gun, speculating in the back of my mind that’s not completely going terror, That looks like a kit gun. It looks plasticky. It looks like I could assemble it.”

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Scanlon told me she was frustrated about how quickly the discussion around her carjacking became polarized along partisan lines, especially because she believes there are serious crime problems in the United States today, including a rise in carjackings and the availability of guns, and those problems require a thoughtful, depoliticized conversation. But as for Lehman’s hope that the incident will change her way of thinking about crime policy, he’s out of luck.

“I’m afraid it really doesn’t,” she said. “I don’t know that there’s been a big change in my views. I have always supported community policing and good law enforcement, and I will continue to do so.”

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