The pro-gun response to this is usually one of two things. They jokingly say this proves gun control doesn't work since there are severe restrictions in Chicago, or that criminals will always get guns anyway so any attempt to prevent that is futile.A nephew of Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade was one of 13 men shot — two fatally — during a violent six-hour stretch in Chicago, another indication that violence is on the rise in the nation's third-largest city.
Wade's nephew was one of six males shot at a store on Chicago's South Side about 6 p.m. Thursday by hooded men who police said fled the scene in an SUV. One man was dead at the scene and four others — ranging in age from 16 to 24 — were hospitalized in critical condition. The Cook County medical examiner's office identified the slain man as Shawndell Harris, 22.
Have you ever heard such self-serving and irresponsible responses to a serious problem in your life. I haven't.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
In your view, I suppose the altruistic and responsible response would be to advocate for wacko laws such as the ones found in Illinois? We aren't joking when we observe that such laws don't work:
ReplyDelete1. Carrying a handgun is illegal--failed.
2. Owning a firearm without a FOID is illegal--probably failed.
3. Shooting someone who isn't endangering your life is illegal--failed.
But wearing a hood is still legal, so far as I know. At least no one's civil rights have been violated. . .
Mike - wasn't this shooter a likely fat white man with a CCW permit? You left that out in your article.
ReplyDeleteFUCK, those hoodies are even worse than we thought!
ReplyDeleteDwayne Wade, LeBron and the rest of their NBA team WORE hoodies a week or so back (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/23/dwyane-wade-lebron-james-heat-speak-out-trayvon_n_1375896.html)
and now this--1,375 miles away! Wearin' a hoodie can cause people in a city clear across the country to shoot somebody you're related to. It's a conspiracy!
MikeB,
ReplyDeleteYou just are not getting it. Let's review basic human behavior. When citizens want to interact, they do so cooperatively more or less and they follow the rules more or less. On the other hand violent criminals simply take what they want -- whether it's your possessions, body, or life -- by force. They have no interest in working cooperatively or following rules or laws.
While this behavior is depraved, violent criminals are by no means retarded. They know that overpowering citizens is the key to their success. Thus violent criminals will do whatever it takes to acquire enough force to overpower citizens. They will adjust their victims and/or weapons as necessary to take what they want.
Because violent criminals refuse to play by any rules, there is no nice way to deal with them. The only sure way to come away from a violent criminal encounter favorably is if you have equal force. And the only way that ensures equal force -- especially for "weak" citizens (e.g. small women, elderly, people who are not trained in martial arts) -- is a firearm. The criminals know this as well and will acquire them at all costs.
As a result, gun control will fail.
Capn Crunch, your little fairy tale would be nice if the world were divided neatly into good guys and bad guys. It's not. There are many "good guys" who are dangerous and unfit to own guns for one reason or another. And there are many "bad guys" who aren't the committed thieves, rapists and killers you make them out to be. This huge gray area is a problem when you have gun availability like it is.
DeleteMikeB I am asserting that once a person is determined to commit a violent act, they are going to do it.
DeleteLet's say for discussion that 10% of the population are criminals (that may or may not have a criminal record) and another 40% of the population are people that have not yet committed a violent crime but certainly will in the near future. And the remaining 50% of the population are good people that will never commit a violent crime against another person.
How do you reduce the availability of guns to the 50% of the population that are bad apples without interfering with the 50% of the population that are upstanding citizens? Remember, a criminal can make a simple shotgun in one afternoon with about $20 in parts and tools from a local hardware store.
More importantly, how do you reduce the overall amount of violent crime and carnage at the hands of violent criminals?
"once a person is determined to commit a violent act, they are going to do it."
DeleteI agree with that, but what you're overlooking is that many violent acts are performed by people who are not determined to do anything. They're often spur-of-the-moment acts, they're often half-heartedly done.
MikeB,
DeleteRegarding "spur-of-the-moment acts", that is an interesting possibility. What data do you have to support that claim?
No data, I'm sure it's out there, though.
DeleteDoes that mean you don't believe people commit spur-of-the-moment acts?
If it had been a white teenager who was shot, and a 28-year-old black guy who shot him, the black guy would have been arrested.
ReplyDeleteSo assert those demanding the arrest of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin.
And they may be right.
Yet if Trayvon had been shot dead by a black neighborhood watch volunteer, Jesse Jackson would not have been in a pulpit in Sanford, Fla., howling that he had been "murdered and martyred."
Maxine Waters would not be screaming "hate crime."
Rep. Hank Johnson would not be raging that Trayvon had been "executed." And ex-Black Panther Bobby Rush would not have been wearing a hoodie in the well of the House.
Which tells you what this whipped-up hysteria is all about.
It is not about finding the truth about what happened that night in Sanford when Zimmerman followed Trayvon in his SUV, and the two wound up in a fight, with Trayvon dead.
It is about the exacerbation of and the exploitation of racial conflict.
And it is about an irreconcilable conflict of visions about what the real America is in the year 2012.
Zimmerman "profiled" Trayvon, we are told. And perhaps he did.
But why? What did George Zimmerman, self-styled protector of his gated community, see that night from the wheel of his SUV?
He saw a male. And males are 90 percent of prison inmates. He saw a stranger over 6 feet tall. And he saw a black man or youth with a hood over his head.
Why would this raise Zimmerman's antennae?
Perhaps because black males between 16 and 36, though only 2 to 3 percent of the population, are responsible for a third of all our crimes.
In some cities, 40 percent of all black males are in jail or prison, on probation or parole, or have criminal records. This is not a product of white racism but of prosecutions and convictions of criminal acts.
Had Zimmerman seen a black woman or older man in his neighborhood, he likely would never have tensed up or called in.
For all the abuse he has received, Geraldo Rivera had a point.
continued...
Whenever cable TV runs hidden-camera footage of a liquor or convenience store being held up and someone behind the counter being shot, the perp is often a black male wearing a hoodie.
ReplyDeleteListening to the heated rhetoric coming from demonstrations around the country, from the Black Caucus and TV talkers -- about how America is a terrifying place for young black males to grow up in because of the constant danger from white vigilantes -- one wonders what country of the mind these people are living in.
The real America is a country where the black crime rate is seven times as high as the white rate. It is a country where white criminals choose black victims in 3 percent of their crimes, but black criminals choose white victims in 45 percent of their crimes.
Black journalists point to the racism manifest even in progressive cities, where cabs deliberately pass them by to pick up white folks down the block.
That this happens is undeniable. But, again, what is behind it?
As Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has written, from January to June 2008 in New York City, 83 percent of all identified gun assailants were black and 15 percent were Hispanics.
Together, blacks and Hispanics accounted for 98 percent of gun assaults.
Translated: If a cabdriver is going to be mugged or murdered in New York City by a fare, 49 times out of 50 his assailant or killer will be black or Hispanic.
Fernando Mateo of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers has told his drivers, "Profile your passengers" for your own protection. "The God's honest truth is that 99 percent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these guys are blacks and Hispanics."
Fernando Mateo is himself black and Hispanic.
To much of America's black leadership and its media auxiliaries, what happened in Sanford was, as Jesse put it, that an innocent kid was "shot down in cold blood by a vigilante."
Yet, from police reports, witness statements, and the father and friends of Zimmerman, another picture emerges.
Zimmerman followed Trayvon, confronted him, and was punched in the nose, knocked flat on his back and jumped on, getting his head pounded, when he pulled his gun and fired. That Trayvon's body was found face down, not face up, would tend to support this.
But, to Florida Congresswoman Federica Wilson, "this sweet young boy ... was hunted down like a dog, shot on the street, and his killer is still at large."
Some Sanford police believed Zimmerman; others did not.
But now that it is being investigated by a special prosecutor, the FBI, the Justice Department and a coming grand jury, what is the purpose of this venomous portrayal of George Zimmerman?
As yet convicted of no crime, he is being crucified in the arena of public opinion as a hate-crime monster and murderer.
Is this our idea of justice?
No. But if the purpose here is to turn this into a national black-white face-off, instead of a mutual search for truth and justice, it is succeeding marvelously well.
"Yet if Trayvon had been shot dead by a black neighborhood watch volunteer, Jesse Jackson would not have been in a pulpit in Sanford, Fla., howling that he had been "murdered and martyred."
ReplyDeleteMaxine Waters would not be screaming "hate crime."
Rep. Hank Johnson would not be raging that Trayvon had been "executed." And ex-Black Panther Bobby Rush would not have been wearing a hoodie in the well of the House.
Which tells you what this whipped-up hysteria is all about."
Actually, anonycoward, that bit--and the rest of your screed--tells me what YOU'RE all about. The racism is palpable. Thanks for playing, run back over to Stormfront and tell them what a swell job you did.
BTW, this:
"Zimmerman followed Trayvon, confronted him, and was punched in the nose, knocked flat on his back and jumped on, getting his head pounded, when he pulled his gun and fired. That Trayvon's body was found face down, not face up, would tend to support this."
is not supported by any evidence, NONE. You racist bozos that like to justify killing people because you haven't got the balls to live in the real world without a gun or a collection of them make me wonder what sort of parenting you had.
DC, I guess you missed this final remark:
DeleteBut if the purpose here is to turn this into a national black-white face-off, instead of a mutual search for truth and justice, it is succeeding marvelously well.
You said: is not supported by any evidence, NONE.
Really? So, you are saying Zimmerman did not follow Marin, did not confront Martin, and did not shoot Martin. Brilliant, DC.
orlin sellers