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Chicago’s Crime Spree Won’t Be Solved with Gun Control
For the second weekend in a row, more than 50 people were shot in Chicago. Gun violence continues to rage in the Windy City, despite regular pleas for peace by community leaders, aldermen, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. After receiving news about six more killed and eight wounded Monday evening, a somber Emanuel spoke with reporters.
“Wherever you live, you should be able to get out of your car and go to your home,” the mayor said. “You can say this happened in the neighborhood of the Back of the Yards, but everybody (who) woke up this morning, or heard it last night, felt a pain of anguish, and it’s time that our criminal justice system and the laws as it relates to access to guns and the penalties for using them reflect the values of the people of the city of Chicago.”
Of course. More gun control.
Blaming the inanimate object is a bad habit of Democratic mayors. After a bloody Memorial Day weekend, Emanuel insisted to a police group, “it is not just about how many police you have, it is about the quantity of guns that are on the street so we actually have gun laws that back up the men and women we just recognized.”
According to the Chicago Tribune, at least 2,300 people have been shot in 2015; about 400 more than at this time last year. Every three hours, a Chicagoan is shot. Every 16 hours, a Chicagoan is murdered. And this is a city famous for its restrictive gun control regime; so restrictive, in fact, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled their draconian rules unconstitutional in 2010.
After Chicago passed its handgun ban in 1982, the percentage of Chicago murders committed with handguns averaged a number approximately 40 percent higher than prior to the law’s enactment. Since murders actually trended down after the SCOTUS decision, they cannot be blamed for the increase in violence. But, sadly, beginning last year, gun violence began creeping back up.
It’s easier for a politician to call for new gun laws than it is to counter gang activity, improve economic opportunity, and modify policing. But it’s obvious that guns are not the cause of Chicago’s woes. In 2013, the city had 15.2 murders per 100,000 people. In that same year, the famously gun-happy city of Phoenix had about half that number at 7.9 per 100,000. Arizona has some of the least restrictive firearms laws in the nation, yet experiences nothing close to the violence seen in Chicago.
It’s past time for Democratic mayors to stop scapegoating the Second Amendment for their violent cities. Gun control is unconstitutional, ineffective, and will do nothing to improve the crime spree devouring Chicago’s most vulnerable.
Published in Guns, Policing
Most gun control advocates rely on 2010 statistics when rating the 50 States on gun homicide rates. Several advocacy groups cite Illinois has having a low gun homicide rate. Statistics on gun related homicides like any other data can be and is manipulated. For instance if someone commits suicide at 0200 hours in a school parking lot some gun control advocacy groups classify this as a school shooting.
When I worked the streets as a police officer I assumed that everyone I encountered might be armed. Even though I’m no longer a police officer I still act as though everyone I encounter might be armed.
Arizona does not require a citizen to have a license to carry concealed, and Arizona does not have the problem that Chicago has with gun violence.
They also blame their problems on an influx of guns from Indiana and other border states.
Why those states don’t have the same murder rate as Chicago does remains a mystery to them…
As a police officer I never had a problem with a private citizen obtaining a CHL or owning and keeping a firearm in their home. You have a right to protect yourself, your family, or your business. There are not enough police officers and there is not enough money to assign a police officer to sit on your front porch 24 hours a day.
CHL holders should understand that they might not want to engage in road rage or hang out in some sleazy dive. Basically don’t put yourself in dangerous situations or dangerous places. I also know that sometimes that despite your best efforts some moron might cross your path. Know your state laws but you might just find that many street officers, unlike admin officers that write grant proposals are sympathetic to responsible gun owners that wish to protect themselves.
That sounds like a good idea, but what about the disparate impact on blacks?
In related news, San Francisco’s HIV epidemic won’t be solved by handing out poppers and lubricants outside gay bathhouses.
I went trap-shooting with some friends this week. It was only my third time, ever, and I got 14 out of 25. A new personal best!
(My previous record was 9. My first time out I hit zero.)
If you want to reduce crime, stop threatening to prosecute police officers for doing their jobs. It really is that simple.
The lives of black criminals matter.
The lives of the innocents they prey upon (most of whom are also black) don’t.
If we were concerned about gun violence, murder etc. we’d end the war on drugs, end welfare and then wait a few generations for the inner city culture to ravel back toward civilization. But we don’t care, they vote right, and can be pointed in the right direction if we need a violent mob. Besides, kill them in the womb or let them kill themselves what’s the difference to racist Democrats.