This blog is dedicated to the people who believe that stricter and stricter gun control laws will result in concomitantly less and less gun crime.
According to today\’s article at CBS News – Chicago, at least 11 Chicagoans were killed and 60 others wounded over the July 4th weekend. (UPDATE: according to the Chicago Tribune, the weekend was worse than CBS News told us. Now we know of 14 killings and an additional 70 injured – assuming none of the 70 die and make the numbers even worse than that).
How many of them do you suppose obtained their guns legally?
If you answered “probably none of them” (and, if you did, it is a virtually certainty you\’d be right), what does that tell you about the effect of strict gun control laws on people who don\’t obey laws? Maybe that gun control laws, necessary though they are, do not protect Chicagoans against them?
I would hope so.
Here is one of the key parts of this article:
Inan email, police spokesman Martin Maloney said, “We saw anunacceptable level of gun violence this weekend, and there is clearlymuch more work to be done. We will keep building on our strategy,putting more officers on the street in summer months, proactivelyintervening in gang conflicts, partnering with community leaders, andwith the Mayor\’s leadership the City will continue investing inprevention programs for at-risk youth. Yet, even with the best policeand the best policing strategy in the world, without better state andfederal laws to keep guns off the streets and out of the hands ofdangerous criminals we\’ll continue to face an uphill battle.”
CBS2 security consultant Ross Rice said the weekend\’s violence speaksto a larger problem.
“Ithink that is representative of the gang, drug, gun violence problemthat still persists in Chicago,” Rice said. “It\’s not a lawenforcement problem solely. There\’s not going to be a lawenforcement solution to this. You can\’t arrest your way out of gangviolence.”
Look at those two statements:
-A political flak barfs out the usual, standard-issue BS…i.e. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is really great, Chicago\’s gun problems are all the state and federal government\’s fault. (Question: aren\’t the Governor of Illinois and the President of the United States Rahm Emanuel\’s fellow democrats? Didn\’t he support them both? Didn\’t he work for President Obama?).
-CBS\’s security guy points out that law enforcement – i.e. making arrests after the fact – is not going to solve this problem. Busting up the gang and drug culture is the issue.
Rice is, of course, correct. As far as he goes.
But there is another truth – a painful one, but a truth nonetheless – which remains unspoken: namely, that the shootings in Chicago occur vastly more by members of minorities, and vastly more in minority neighborhoods.
But neither Martin Maloney nor Ross Rice mentioned this, did they? Can\’t do that, or you will immediately be called a racist.
Want evidence? Here are the 2011 statistics (the latest I could find) put up by Chicago\’s own police department:
-Go to page 37, and you will see that 75.3% of the murder victims that year were committed by Blacks, 18.9% by Hispanics, and 4.6% by Whites.
-Go to page 53, and you will see that 70.5% of the murders that year were committed by Blacks, 24.3% by Hispanics, and 3.5% by Whites.
-Now, with this in mind, consider the fact that Chicago is comprised of 32% Blacks 15% non-White Hispanics and 45% Whites.
Having shown you these data, let me be very clear about something: being Black and/or Latino makes a person Black and/orLatino. Nothing else, good or bad. It does not – repeat, not – make anyone a thug. Most Black and Latino people in (and out of) Chicago are law abiding citizens who simply want to go about their lives in peace.
The problem is that there are Black and Latino thugs galore among them, who prey on decent people. And these thugs generally have no problem with victimizing anyone at all; including people of their own race or ethnicity.
That is why decent Black and Latino people fear for their lives in their own neighborhoods. That is why the most mundane occurrences people in safe neighborhoods take for granted – like sending a teenage child to the store for milk and eggs – carry a significant risk factor for them.
Just ask the families of the 71 84 victims noted at the beginning of this blog.
So Chicago goes on its way, with White neighborhoods relatively safe, Black/latino neighborhoods disastrously unsafe…and it\’s all someone else\’s fault. After all, the Mayor put more cops on the street, didn\’t he?
Tell me when Rahm Emanuel and the police department he oversees will stop sending out fart-catchers like Maloney to blather cliches at us and start doing something serious to dismantle the gang/thug culture in those neighborhoods, and I\’ll be impressed.
Until then, don\’t bother. Because I won\’t be. Nor should I be.
