Fifty-two people shot, eight of them fatally in a single Chicago weekend, yet Mayor Richard Daley appears poised to go down screaming in his opposition to the Second Amendment Foundation’s lawsuit to overturn his city’s handgun ban, says SAF.The U.S. Supreme Court could rule any day on the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, filed by SAF, the Illinois State Rifle Association and four Chicago residents. That ruling will likely strike down the handgun ban, thus opening the door to legal self-defense by Windy City residents.
“Chicago has become a slaughterhouse,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, “where defenseless victims are terrorized by armed thugs who have taken full advantage of an unarmed populace. Daley and his predecessors who perpetuated this ban are wading knee-deep in the blood of hundreds of crime victims who should have had the means to defend themselves.
Did he really say "defenseless victims?" How many times have we heard the vast majority of gun crime is gang and drug related AMONG THEMSELVES. That's the argument when convenient, but it changes when the spin doctors want to emphasise something else.
The obvious conclusion is that more guns in Chicago will only increase the already deplorable situation. The fact that they already have strict gun laws is meaningless when their neighbor states do not. The problem is the exact point in which the guns used in crime in Chicago are getting into criminal hands, whether by theft or improper transfers. To curb that we need more laws in the places where they don't have enough, we certainly don't need to lessen those in Chicago.
Gottlieb should be ashamed of himself for saying something like, "defenseless victims are terrorized by armed thugs who have taken full advantage of an unarmed populace." That's beyond spinning. That's drawing a totally false picture, as if to say bad guys have guns and they only use them on poor defenseless good people.
What's your opinion? Do you think Helmke, Henigan and Sugarmann should be held to a high standard and called on every possible thing and Gottleib should get away with writing things like this?
Please leave a comment.
Gottlieb is right about one thing: Not all of the people are defenseless victims; a large number of otherwise law-abiding citizens ignore the law, to the peril of criminals who assume the intended victims follow the law.
ReplyDeleteWhat good is a gun ban if someone running from the police is able to hide by using his advantagous armed status to break in to a home and terrorize the majority who are far less able to fight back?
"otherwise law abiding"
ReplyDeleteDoesn't that description fit most criminals? If it weren't for laws that they disliked or didn't feel applied to them, they would be law abiding.
Child molesters are otherwise law abiding, the government just keeps raising that age of consent. If it were still 13 years old, or didn't exist: they wouldn't be child molesters.
Laci
Given that Gottliieb is a convicted felon, I'm pretty sure we can ignore everything he says.
ReplyDeleteAs bad as Chicago is, it is still much safer than those gun utopias like New Orleans and Memphis.
In fact, Chicago's crime rate is equal to that of Atlanta's--which is pretty gun-friendly.
Of course, the gunloons don't wish to discuss NYC where gun laws are similar to Chicago's. Why is that the crooks in NYC haven't learned they can just exert their will on the populace?
--JadeGold
Laci and Jade, I'm sure you both are otherwise law-abiding also. Three felonies a day, so they say.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of NYC.
but how many 2nd amendment supporters know what the 3rd amendment is or how many amendments there are. Bet you everyone reading this had to google how many amendments there are.
ReplyDeleteAnswer is 27
Anon:
ReplyDeleteHaving read Silvergate's book, I'm less than impressed. It's a pretty typical libertarian screed that attempts to argue That everyone is a felon (several times over each day) because of all these terrible US laws and codes. Thus, the reasoning is that we need fewer laws, less Govt, Ayn Rand, etc. Of course, Silvergate makes some pretty huge leaps of logic and never really shows how most Americans are ever felons.
WRT NYC crime stats, if you go the NYTimes article--most NYers do feel safer. And let's face it, if you have aa murder victim, it's pretty tough to fudge that down to a misdemeanor.
--JadeGold
"The obvious conclusion is that more guns in Chicago will only increase the already deplorable situation."
ReplyDeleteYet the opposite has happened in the rest of the country where gun sales reached an all-time high a little over a year ago.
All this talk about NYC tough laws and low crime, and Chicago/DC’s tough laws and high crime, and NOLA’s lax laws and high crime, and everywhere else’s lax laws and low crime, prove one thing… Nothing.
ReplyDeleteMikeB: “The fact that they already have strict gun laws is meaningless when their neighbor states do not.”
ReplyDeleteThank you! Since we agree that Chicago’s laws are currently useless- we should agree that either Chicago’s laws should be applied nationwide (or Midwest multi-state wide), or they should be dropped entirely. We can disagree on the effect of gun control, but it seems we can agree that a local ban is pointless.
TS said it right: "we should agree that (either) Chicago’s laws should be applied nationwide."
ReplyDeleteIl Principe, I'm afraid you're wrong about them not knowing about the 3rd. It's come up a number of times. I myself have often pointed it out as an example of how a sacred Amendment of the Bill of Rights can indeed be anachronistic, a condition I believe the 3rd shares with the 2nd.
You're probably right about the total number though. I certainly didn't know it was 27.
JadeGold, Shoot me an e-mail, will ya? I want to ask you something.
ReplyDelete" JadeGold, Shoot me an e-mail, will ya? I want to ask you something."
ReplyDeleteI'll save you the trouble. Here's his answer no matter what the question is:
1. It is because the NRA is at fault.
2. All gun owners have small penises.
3. Insert random, made-up bullshit here.
MikeB, but you won’t be willing to give up Chicago even though you admit it is meaningless. Gun control for the sake of gun control…
ReplyDelete