Mayor Daley Would Have Let Them Die (Updated)

The City of Chicago's handgun ban might have caused the deaths of an elderly couple early this morning. Had the couple obeyed the city's ban, they would have been defenseless against an armed intruder and quite possibly killed. UPDATE: WLS 890 AM reports that the 80-yr old man used a handgun. (8:00 p.m., 5/26)

"An 80-year-old man shot and killed an armed man who broke into his East Garfield Park home this morning, police said," reports Chicago Breaking News today. "The intruder, who police believe had a gun, broke into the family two-flat in the 600 block of North Sawyer Avenue about 5:20 a.m., said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli."  

UPDATE: WLS 890 AM reports that the 80-yr old man used a handgun. (8:00 p.m., 5/26)

It is curious that none of the reports about this defensive shooting tell us what type of gun the 80-year old man used to defend himself and his wife. Was it a rifle? Many types of rifles are actually legal in Chicago, which is curious considering the ban on handguns. Was it a handgun? If so, that would be embarassing to Mayor Daley and supporters of the handgun ban. Did City Hall order the Chicago Police Department to suppress this information for political purposes?  

UPDATE: WLS 890 AM reports that the 80-yr old man used a handgun. (8:00 p.m., 5/26)  

What if the elderly man had not had a gun with which to protect himself? Would a call to 911 have gotten the police to his home faster than the bullet could reach the intruder? Would he and his wife be dead today?

Chicago's Mayor Daley hates the Second Amendment so much that he maintains Chicago's unconstitutional ban on handguns despite overwhelming evidence that it does not prevent criminals from using them in their illicit endeavors. While Daley's own taxpayer-paid bodyguards carry handguns, we lowly serfs are not allowed to have our own equalizers.

"Chicago’s gun ban ordinance was enacted in 1982 to stem increasing use of firearms in crimes in the city," wrote Maureen Martin at HoumaToday. "From the beginning, the ordinance has been an utter failure in accomplishing that goal."

Martin continued with some stunning statistics. "The number of murders committed with guns has soared in Chicago since the ordinance was enacted, as has the share of all murders committed with guns. In 1983, the first year the Chicago ordinance was in effect, 290 murders (39.78 percent of the total) were committed with handguns. That rose to 513 murders (60.21 percent) committed with handguns in 1990. In 2003, 442 murders (73.54 percent) were committed with handguns, and in 2008, 402 handgun murders were committed (78.67 percent). In the 25 years since Chicago’s handgun ban was enacted, the number of murders committed with handguns dropped below 1983 levels in only four years (1984-87). All of these data are from the Chicago Police Department."

Related:

• Chicago Mayor Snaps at Reporter Who Questions Handgun Ban‎ FoxNews
• Mayor Daley Threatens to Shoot the Messenger—Namely, Me Mick Dumke, Chicago Reader
• Justices debate Chicago handgun ban CNN.com
• We Need More Guns, Not Fewer Chicago News Bench 
• The More Guns the Better, and Here's Proof Chicago News Bench