This city has arguably the strictest gun laws in America. Not a single gun shop can be found within its borders, because they are outlawed. For decades, handguns were banned, until the Supreme Court finally ruled in 2010 that the city gun control zealots were going just a bit too far in their agenda. This city resides in a state the remains the only state in America with no provision to allow private citizens to carry a firearm in public, in clear violation of the Second Amendment. It also was the murder capital of the United States last year. Where am I talking about? The land of Barack Obama, Chicago, Illinois.
But hey, Chicago not only has the above in place legislatively but they also have an “assault weapons” ban and a “high capacity magazine” ban as well and yet they cannot stop their gun violence problem. Wait, I thought all those measures were suppose to solve the “problem.” Apparently, they don’t. Chicago is still combating gun violence that led to more than 500 homicides last year and at least 40 in this first month of 2013, with the latest involving 15-year-old victim Hadiya Pendleton, shot on Tuesday, just blocks from Barack Obama’s former home in an upscale neighborhood!
Thankfully, there are some competent people speaking out. Executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association Richard A. Pearson. According to Pearson,
“The gun laws in Chicago only restrict the law-abiding citizens and they’ve essentially made the citizens prey.”
Others want to blame areas with less restrictive laws in neighboring in communities and states for the problem. Pastor, and yes I use the term loosely, Ira. J. Acree said, “Chicago is like a house with two parents that may try to have good rules and do what they can, but it’s like you’ve got this single house sitting on a whole block where there’s anarchy.”
Actually, all around Acree are people that should be following the law (ie. the United States Constitution), not anarchy. He has it, as my friends used to say, “bass-ackwards.”
The New York Times reports,
Lately, the police say they are discovering far more guns on the streets of Chicago than in the nation’s two more populous cities, Los Angeles and New York. They seized 7,400 guns here in crimes or unpermitted uses last year (compared with 3,285 in New York City), and have confiscated 574 guns just since Jan. 1 — 124 of them last week alone.
More than a quarter of the firearms seized on the streets here by the Chicago Police Department over the past five years were bought just outside city limits in Cook County suburbs, according to an analysis by the University of Chicago Crime Lab. Others came from stores around Illinois and from other states, like Indiana, less than an hour’s drive away. Since 2008, more than 1,300 of the confiscated guns, the analysis showed, were bought from just one store, Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale, Ill., within a few miles of Chicago’s city limits.
Efforts to compare the strictness of gun laws and the level of violence across major American cities are fraught with contradiction and complication, not least because of varying degrees of coordination between local and state laws and differing levels of enforcement. In New York City, where homicides and shootings have decreased, the gun laws are generally seen as at least as strict as Chicago’s, and the state laws in New York and many of its neighboring states are viewed as still tougher than those in and around Illinois. Philadelphia, like cities in many states, is limited in writing gun measures that go beyond those set by Pennsylvania law. Some city officials there have chafed under what they see as relatively lax state controls.
Actually, when you deal with the real numbers there is no contradiction. In fact, if the media and the politicians were honest, they know exactly where the problem areas are and why, but they don’t want to deal with that. They want to infringe on the rights of all citizens for the sake of the few.
Others join Acree in wanting to place blame on those outside of Chicago for the failure of their laws.
“The way the laws are structured facilitates the flow of those guns to hit our streets,” Garry F. McCarthy, the Chicago police superintendent, said in an interview, later adding, “Chicago may have comprehensive gun laws, but they are not strict because the sanctions don’t exist.”
Even the Godfather himself, Rahm Emanuel, stated “Our gun strategy is only as strong as it is comprehensive, and it is constantly being undermined by events and occurrences happening outside the city — gun shows in surrounding counties, weak gun laws in neighboring states like Indiana and the inability to track purchasing. This must change.”
Senior advisor to Emanuel David Spielfogel said, “Chicago is not an island. We’re only as strong as the weakest gun law in surrounding states.”
So what you’re saying is, is that your gun control laws don’t work and that you want to blame those around you for your incompetence in enforcing your unenforceable and I might add, unconstitutional laws, right?
Here’s what I want to ask, where do these problems exist Mr. Emanuel? Where do you have the most issues with gun violence Mr. Acree? Can you put your finger on the problem areas of your city Police Superintendent McCarthy? I’ll answer. Better yet, I’ll let the racist Jesse Jackson answer. “Poverty, race, guns and drugs — you’ve got to deal with all these issues, but you’ve got to start somewhere,” Jackson said.
OK, stop blaming those around you that have lesser restrictions on Constitutional rights, which should have no restrictions on them and start dealing with the areas where these things are taking place. I’ll guarantee you, if you actually started dealing with the root problem, you wouldn’t have a “gun problem.” Guns are not the problem. They are a tool to address the root problems, criminals. Strip away your gun control laws, allowing law abiding citizens to own whatever firearms they desire in Chicago. On top of that, send a clear message via radio, TV, and internet that you actually support the Second Amendment, encourage law abiding citizens to purchase firearms, go through training to use them, warn criminals that citizens are armed against them and you will see a drop in your gun violence, at least on the criminal end of things, because law abiding citizens will begin to take care of your criminal element with Constitutional self defense.
Don’t forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook, Google Plus, & Twitter.
You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here.
comments
Tagged with
