July 2, 2010 - The Democrat-dominated Chicago City Clowncil - excuse me, Council - today passed an ordinance that shows their utter and unanimous contempt for the U.S. Constitution and the recent ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court that upholds the Second Amendment. The Chicago Sun-Times reports today:Grumbling about a U.S. Supreme Court they say is out of touch with America’s cities, Chicago aldermen voted 45-0 today to approve a rushed-through compromise gun ban.... Within 100 days, anyone who wants to keep a gun in the city will have to register, get their training and pay the fees. Also within 100 days, any of the estimated 10,000 Chicagoans convicted of a gun offense will have to register at their local police station like sex offenders.In other words, the aldermen know that they have to live with the Second Amendment, but they'll be damned if they'll make it easy for citizens to actually excercise their right to own and bear arms. Which leads us to the main thrust of this post: Stupid things that aldermen said at today's council meeting (all quotes taken from the Sun-Times unless otherwise indicated):
Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th) said that law was written for militias and, “they guaranteed the right to carry around muskets not Uzis.”Uhm, Ald. Smith, are you serious? I've met you, I've spoken to you, and you didn't seem as stupid as that quote makes you sound. Can you show us where in the Constitution the word "musket" or "muskets" appears? Furthermore, can you show us any evidence that the authors of the Constitution meant "muskets only?" For that matter, show us where that is in the Federalist Papers, or in any other writings by any of the Founders. Do you really believe, for example, that the Founders meant long guns and not pistols, swords, knives, bludgeons, or any other kind of weapon?
“No Supreme Court judge could live in my community and come to the same conclusion they did a couple days ago,” said Ald. Sharon Denise Dixon (24th).As for Supreme Court judges living in the 24th Ward of Chicago and her presumption about their conclusion, well, the "judges" (justices) do live in Washington, D.C., a rough town in its own right. The same justices who ruled that D.C.'s handgun ban was unconstitutional in 2008.
After that ruling (Heller),"violent crime fell" in D.C., says the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "even faster in the District of Columbia than in the U.S. as a whole. In 2009 alone, the District's murder total dropped 25 percent, to the lowest level since 1967."Of course, geniuses like Mayor Daley and Ald. Dixon are immune to hard facts. They'd rather go with the typical liberal emotional argument, facts be damned. The D.C. ban first went into effect in 1976, and according to the Washington Post it was essentially ineffective - gun violence "continued to plague the city, reaching staggering levels at times." Chicago's experience was virtually identical over the same period.
Alderman Dixon needs to get out and talk to her constituents more. Is she completely unaware of the high rate of gun violence in her ward? Does she think that the majority of those shooting are by law-abiding folks, or perhaps by criminally-minded people who possess the guns illegally and won't give a damn about this new ordinance?
“I find it hard to believe that the Supreme Court justices that voted to strike our handgun laws have spent any time in the communities that many of us represent,” Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) said. “There’s no way if they knew the violence our young people face every day that they could decide this was a reasonable course of action.”.Alderman Preckwinkle, see my remarks regarding Ald. Dixon's equally stupid remark, and know this: The violence that the American Revolutionaries faced everyday was worse than what your constituents see in the 4th Ward. Read the Federalist Papers. Stop believing the false myth that gun control reduces crime - it doesn't.
The reason for the Second Amendment was so that the citizenry could protect itself. Yes, they had a tyrannical government in mind, but I seriously doubt that John Adams would object to a little old lady blowing away one of your drug-crazed, murder-bent 4th Ward residents as he breaks through her apartment door. The Supreme Court upheld the letter of the Second Amendment, Ald. Preckwinkle. Go tell the elderly, the small females, and the shop owners in your ward that you believe they have no right to protect themselves against an amoral segment of society, created and perpetuated in large part by the decayed moral "values" of liberals such as yourself. Go on, tell them.
But Ald. Ed Burke (14th) retorted, “We can disagree with the Supreme Court all we want, but … this is the law and we’re going to have to follow it.”Burke's comment sounds reasonable at first, until you realize that he is saying that he disagrees with the Court's upholding of the U.S. Constitution. Why does Alderman Burke seem to resent having the Constitution applied equally to all Americans? He did redeem himself somewhat, however, when he said that he had to "confess that back in 1982, when I was chair of the police committee that perhaps I and so many others that voted in favor of this [handgun ban] ordinance exhibited too much ardor for the ban and we perhaps we should have been more sensitive to weighing the rights of legitimate citizens to have weapons." Well, that's nice, but notice Burke's elitist attitude in the "weighing of the rights" guaranteed by the Constitution.
Still, Burke seemed determine to make an ass of himself. He also uttered this stupidity:
“All the gang-bangers out there who have been convicted of gun offenses who think that they can flaunt this law, they’re going to be locked up,” Burke said. “Each day that you don’t register, it’s a separate offense. If you don’t register for 365 days, that’s 365 offenses.”Alderman Burke doesn't seem to understand that it's been primarily the bad guys who have committed gun offense. Does he not see the profound irony and simultaneous idiocy of his speaking about gang-bangers who have "been convicted of gun offenses," and are no longer imprisoned, and will - in his apparent opinion - have the opportunity to register for legal gun ownership? Does Ald. Burke favor allowing those who have been convicted for gun violence to be able to legally register - and own - a gun? His statement indicates so.
Finally, Mayor Daley himself made another of his typically stupid statements. CNN quotes him as saying this:
"Either we enact new and reasonable handgun laws in Chicago to protect our residents -- as the council has done -- or we do nothing and risk greater gun violence in our streets and in our homes," Mayor Daley said.Mayor Daley is a deaf, dumb and blind imbecile insofar as gun ownership is concerned. Nevertheless, somebody should urge him to read the the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Washington Post pieces that are referenced above. Then he should watch this short video by Penn and Teller (contains strong language):
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 Martinat 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."
WLS TV reporter Chuck Goudie filed this stunning video on May 5. He spent a night prowling the streets of Chicago's Gresham police district, 10 miles due south of Chicago's Loop to see just how dangerous the hood really is. Mayor Richard Daley must hate this report. As Goudy noted in his report, "And despite Mayor Daley's disquieting photo op last week, his own police department's statistics show that in 2008, 77 percent of all city murders were committed with handguns that are already banned."
Goudie also wrote,"One hundred and twenty four people have been killed so far in 2010 - one per day - nearly the number of Americans killed during the same period in Iraq and Afghanistan combined." Nice work, Mayor Daley. Good job, Supt. Weis.
There were a number of other shootings over the past weekend in Chicago. Business as usual in this city of tight gun laws. Chicago anti-handgun laws are ineffective and not worth the paper they're printed on.
Perhaps that's an overstatement: Law abiding citizens do not own handguns in Chicago, so in that regard it's a smashing success. However, the bad guys still have plenty of guns, and they're not shy about using them. If Mayor Daley and his City Clowncil want to justify the Chicago handgun ban by saying it's intended to prevent gun-related homicides, then you'd have to say they are deluded.
The criminals have guns and use them to attack innocent people and, of course, each other. They laugh at the Chicago gun laws. Law abiding citizens are denied their right to own guns for self defense, thereby making it easier for the bad guys to attack them. The murder rate in Chicago is high, very high, and the overwhelming majority are committed by criminals with guns.
Don't blame the guns, though; guns are inanimate objects, as incapable of committing murder as any baseball bat, kitchen knife or screwdriver. A gun is a tool, and like a screwdriver or a hammer, it can be used properly or improperly. The proper use of a handgun is self-defense, but Chicagoans are denied this right.
How many attacks in Chicago would be thwarted before they leave victims dead or maimed if the victims had been able to fight back with a gun?
We cannot know the answer to that, of course, but it is reasonable to say that with a fighting chance some of those victims would have come out on top of the situation, instead of under a gravestone.
There is good reason why security guards are allowed to carry guns. Mayor Daley's bodyguards carry guns, and they are right to do so. The ordinary citizens of Chicago should have the same right to defend themselves with firepower that is allowed the merchants and the mayor.
Liberal Evanston, Illinois has given in to common sense and repealed its ban on handguns. The vote in Evanston was an overwhelming 7-1.
That leaves the People's Democratic Republic of Oak Park as the only Chicago suburb that still has an unconstitutional ban on handguns. Nobody is surprised.
Chicago, of course, still has its handgun ban in place. Is it working? Hell no. The murder rate is up 18% from a year ago.
Make no mistake, however. The Evanston City Council did not repeal its ban out of love for the Second Amendment or for the people's right to defend themselves. ABC7 Chicago reports that an Evanston
official explained explained the vote:
"I give Mayor Daley all the credit in the world for hanging tough," said Jack Siegel, attorney for the city of Evanston. "But the fact of the matter is, we think they do not have the high probability of succeeding. And we would rather have an ordinance that's enforceable. And we're thinking the ordinance is subject to attack." [Source]
So, Mr. Siegel gives Chicago Mayor Daley credit for hanging tough, eh? Apparently Attorney Siegel has as little respect for the U.S. Constitution as Daley does. At least Siegel - and the Evanston lawmakers - could read the writing on the wall. The old ban became unenforceable after the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Washington DC ban unconstitutional. Give them credit for being pragmatic, at least.
Not so with Mayor Daley and his stooges on the Chicago City Clowncil, who are determined to continue to violate your right to own a tool of self defense. Daley and others cling to the belief that a handgun ban prevents gun crime, a belief that boggles the minds of more rational people. It also has the affect of amusing criminals. It is clear that the Daley Handgun Ban is not saving lives. Chicago police -try as they might - cannot be everywhere at once and can only rarely stop crimes before they are committed. That being said, Daley should get out of the way and allow citizens the ability to defend themselves.
As the Chicago Tribune reports, Chicago’s murder rate is up 18% over the same time frame last year. 62 people were killed in the month of July alone, and there were several high profile shootings, such as the Taste of Chicago shootings or the murder of a cop with his own gun. In the overwhelming majority of these murders, criminals used handguns, despite 20+ year long ban on handgun ownership in Chicago. Clearly, the criminals are ignoring the handgun ban. More at LearnAboutGuns.com...RELATED:Chicago Confronts a Crime Wave - TIMEGov. says Chicago crime "out of control" :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES ...Department of Justice Announces New Anti-Gang Funding to Chicago ...Chicago police: Sending troopers is political move
The handgun ban imposed on Chicago by Comrade Mayor Daley and the City Clowncil has a major loophole in it: Knives and blunt instruments are not banned. Oh, yah, and criminals don't give a rat's butt about the law. So, we get stories like this:One man is in custody Friday morning in connection to the possible gang-related stabbings of three people in a West Side delicatessen Thursday afternoon. Full Story...Meanwhile, a startling revelation from the geniuses at the Chicago Police Department that gangs are, just maybe, a cause for rise in murders. Gee, ya think? CPD Spokesgenius Monique Bondsaid the majority of homicides in Chicago are gang-related with high most offenders and victims having criminal histories, according to a report in the Southwest Observer...
The proposed ordinance to repeal the local ban was passed unanimously late Tuesday night. “The Supreme Court has made their decision. It calls into question our ordinance,” said Village President Chris Canning. FULL STORY at Wilmette Life...
Well, God bless President Canning. Now what the hell are Chicago's Mayor Daley and his City Council of Stooges waiting for?
Hat tip to Backyard Conservative, who has some pithy comments about the Wilmette action! Also see RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS at Second City Sarge...
Once again, we see the stupidity of Liberalism and proof that it stems from mental illness. It often manifests itself in delusionary actions and beliefs. You know, like levitating the Pentagon. Or anti-crime neighborhood walks, or Petunias for Peace. What nonsense.
Again, another "Turn in a Gun" event in Chicago. Do the idiots who operate this project really believe that gangsters and people bent on murder will turn their guns in for $100 gift card? Good God, these people are dumb. The type of people who turn in their guns are not the type who want to continue using them. In other words, the guns being collected by this program are probably no threat.
Meanwhile, Mayor Daley's bodyguards continue to carry loaded handguns. The hypocrite Daley wants you to turn in your handgun, Sucker, for a lousy $100 gift card.
How much money can a gangster punk make in one night with a gun? Answer: More than $100, chump.
Has the Chicago ban on handgun worked? Nope. If Mayor Daley is so adamant about the city's handgun ban, why has it gone virtually unenforced? And why has Daley and his idiot sycophants perpetuated the myth that the ban is actually - magically, I guess - working?
According to the Sun-Times, June 27:The Chicago Police Department seized more than 13,000 guns last year, but only a handful of people were arrested for violating the city's handgun ban, records show. Chicago Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said 74 people were arrested in 2007 and 83 people in 2006 for failing to register their handguns, an ordinance violation.
In other words, the damned law that Daley screams is so necessary - is not even being enforced! Good lord. Didn't Idiot Daley recently decry the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said D.C.'s ban is unconstitutional? Didn't he whimper and moan that this will turn Chicago into the "wild west?" Yep, that was our mayor.
Will Daley's fears come true? Doubtful. For one thin, based on the experience of 48 states were conceal and carry is legal, they will not affect or will actually reduce handgun crimes. For another, there are now serious legal challenges to the ban, emboldened by the Supreme Court's ruling.
On July 2, the Sun-Times reported an increase - a substantial increase - in gun-related killings in Chicago:
Killings are up nearly 13 percent in Chicago this year. Through the end of June, the city has had 229 murders, unofficial Chicago Police Department figures show -- compared with 203 for the same period last year. Full Story...
Time for Mayor Myth Maker to face the facts. Bad guys have guns. His handgun ban not only hasn't prevented the bad guys from getting guns, it has not prevented large scale killing. His own police force isn't even enforcing the ban.
Daley has lied. Meanwhile, people have died.
God bless the rank and file officers of the Chicago Police Department.Gosh darn Mayor Richard Daley, the ACLU and the Chicago City Council. They are losing the battle against the criminals. Their own policies have ensured this. Many of us saw it coming years ago. Daley & Company still don't understand this. Lighter sentences, wimpier police tactics, coddling of lousy parents, and on and on and on for decades have produced the human trash that brandished guns and shot four people downtown after Taste of Chicago.
But Daley, and idiots like Father Pfleger, still have their heads up each other's asses, believing that tougher handgun laws will somehow magically make gang members fully civilized persons.
The city lost the gun battle years ago, in spite of a tough anti-handgun ban. Any sane person knew this would happen: Outlaw the guns, and only the bad guys will have them. The authoritarian Mayor Daley maintains his defiant stance against legal handgun ownership, in spite of the recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. How many more years of gangs shooting each other and innocent people, how many more years of gun-toting thugs robbing and killing innocent people must we take before Daley - whose own bodyguards carry pistols - understands that no matter how "tough" his unconstitutional anti-handgun laws are, the bad guys will still have them. Plenty of them.
Yesterday, I criticized CPD Superintendent Weis for his ridiculous statements in the wake of four people being shot (one died) after Taste of Chicago let out on Thursday nigth (see "Four More Daley Failures"). The Sun-Times reported on July 4 that Weis said police would be out "in greater numbers" for Friday night's Navy Pier fireworks show "after four people were shot last night as crowds streamed out of the Grant Park fireworks and Taste of Chicago."More police downtown for Taste? Arithmetic and the laws of phyics dictate that some officers would be taken from other districts to increase coverage of the downtown area. Did that concern Weis? Did it concern Daley? Doubtful. (In fairness, Weis must kow-tow to Emperor Daley.) But it concerned a lot of police officers. Here is the opinion of one:
Losing the Streets ("Second City Cop" blog)
Can you see it J-Fed? Can you feel it?Are you finally realizing what you're here for? You are a well-paid target. And the only person carrying the weapon that will bring you down is the mayor.....
Everything we've seen and heard suggests we were short at least 300 cops last night. WGN actually had footage of the brawl in front of Buckingham Fountain. Certainly a proud moment in the history of the Taste of Chicago and in the Daley Administration.
The question that ought to be discussed at length is whose head is going to be on the chopping block for this? Because Daley can't blame anyone except the management, and every single one of them is someone he told J-Fed to put there. And could any of the media finally pick up on the fact that we are shorthanded? It doesn't get much more obvious. Stop sniffing Daley's ass long enough to do a head count. FULL POST at Second City Cop...
"Chicago police will be out in greater numbers for tonight’s Navy Pier fireworks show after four people were shot last night as crowds streamed out of the Grant Park fireworks and Taste of Chicago," reports the Chicago Sun-Times today.
Thank goodness for Mayor Daley's (unconstitutional) handgun ban. He could argue, I suppose, that if not for the handgun ban there would have been even more shootings in Chicago last night. He might also argue that since we cannot see beyond the horizon, the earth must be flat.
“We’re going to have an even greater police presence” tonight, Police Supt. Jody Weis announced this afternoon. “We’ll have both uniformed officers and officers in a covert status that will mingle with the crowd and provide even greater security.” He also said, “It will be agile. It will be fluid, but we will be where the problems might develop.”
It's comforting to know that Superintendent Weis has crystal balls. He apparently plans to have remote viewers on duty tonight, able to see into the future and know exactly where trouble will happen before it happens. Now, why didn't Supt. Weis have that plan in effect last night?
July 2, 2010 - The Democrat-dominated Chicago City Clowncil - excuse me, Council - today passed an ordinance that shows their utter and unanimous contempt for the U.S. Constitution and the recent ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court that upholds the Second Amendment. The Chicago Sun-Times reports today:
Grumbling about a U.S. Supreme Court they say is out of touch with America’s cities, Chicago aldermen voted 45-0 today to approve a rushed-through compromise gun ban.... Within 100 days, anyone who wants to keep a gun in the city will have to register, get their training and pay the fees. Also within 100 days, any of the estimated 10,000 Chicagoans convicted of a gun offense will have to register at their local police station like sex offenders.
In other words, the aldermen know that they have to live with the Second Amendment, but they'll be damned if they'll make it easy for citizens to actually excercise their right to own and bear arms. Which leads us to the main thrust of this post: Stupid things that aldermen said at today's council meeting (all quotes taken from the Sun-Times unless otherwise indicated):
Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th) said that law was written for militias and, “they guaranteed the right to carry around muskets not Uzis.”
Uhm, Ald. Smith, are you serious? I've met you, I've spoken to you, and you didn't seem as stupid as that quote makes you sound. Can you show us where in the Constitution the word "musket" or "muskets" appears? Furthermore, can you show us any evidence that the authors of the Constitution meant "muskets only?" For that matter, show us where that is in the Federalist Papers, or in any other writings by any of the Founders. Do you really believe, for example, that the Founders meant long guns and not pistols, swords, knives, bludgeons, or any other kind of weapon?
“No Supreme Court judge could live in my community and come to the same conclusion they did a couple days ago,” said Ald. Sharon Denise Dixon (24th).
As for Supreme Court judges living in the 24th Ward of Chicago and her presumption about their conclusion, well, the "judges" (justices) do live in Washington, D.C., a rough town in its own right. The same justices who ruled that D.C.'s handgun ban was unconstitutional in 2008.
After that ruling (Heller), "violent crime fell" in D.C., says the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "even faster in the District of Columbia than in the U.S. as a whole. In 2009 alone, the District's murder total dropped 25 percent, to the lowest level since 1967."
Of course, geniuses like Mayor Daley and Ald. Dixon are immune to hard facts. They'd rather go with the typical liberal emotional argument, facts be damned. The D.C. ban first went into effect in 1976, and according to the Washington Post it was essentially ineffective - gun violence "continued to plague the city, reaching staggering levels at times." Chicago's experience was virtually identical over the same period.
Alderman Dixon needs to get out and talk to her constituents more. Is she completely unaware of the high rate of gun violence in her ward? Does she think that the majority of those shooting are by law-abiding folks, or perhaps by criminally-minded people who possess the guns illegally and won't give a damn about this new ordinance?
“I find it hard to believe that the Supreme Court justices that voted to strike our handgun laws have spent any time in the communities that many of us represent,” Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) said. “There’s no way if they knew the violence our young people face every day that they could decide this was a reasonable course of action.”.
Alderman Preckwinkle, see my remarks regarding Ald. Dixon's equally stupid remark, and know this: The violence that the American Revolutionaries faced everyday was worse than what your constituents see in the 4th Ward. Read the Federalist Papers. Stop believing the false myth that gun control reduces crime - it doesn't.
The reason for the Second Amendment was so that the citizenry could protect itself. Yes, they had a tyrannical government in mind, but I seriously doubt that John Adams would object to a little old lady blowing away one of your drug-crazed, murder-bent 4th Ward residents as he breaks through her apartment door. The Supreme Court upheld the letter of the Second Amendment, Ald. Preckwinkle. Go tell the elderly, the small females, and the shop owners in your ward that you believe they have no right to protect themselves against an amoral segment of society, created and perpetuated in large part by the decayed moral "values" of liberals such as yourself. Go on, tell them.
But Ald. Ed Burke (14th) retorted, “We can disagree with the Supreme Court all we want, but … this is the law and we’re going to have to follow it.”
Burke's comment sounds reasonable at first, until you realize that he is saying that he disagrees with the Court's upholding of the U.S. Constitution. Why does Alderman Burke seem to resent having the Constitution applied equally to all Americans? He did redeem himself somewhat, however, when he said that he had to "confess that back in 1982, when I was chair of the police committee that perhaps I and so many others that voted in favor of this [handgun ban] ordinance exhibited too much ardor for the ban and we perhaps we should have been more sensitive to weighing the rights of legitimate citizens to have weapons." Well, that's nice, but notice Burke's elitist attitude in the "weighing of the rights" guaranteed by the Constitution.
Still, Burke seemed determine to make an ass of himself. He also uttered this stupidity:
“All the gang-bangers out there who have been convicted of gun offenses who think that they can flaunt this law, they’re going to be locked up,” Burke said. “Each day that you don’t register, it’s a separate offense. If you don’t register for 365 days, that’s 365 offenses.”
Alderman Burke doesn't seem to understand that it's been primarily the bad guys who have committed gun offense. Does he not see the profound irony and simultaneous idiocy of his speaking about gang-bangers who have "been convicted of gun offenses," and are no longer imprisoned, and will - in his apparent opinion - have the opportunity to register for legal gun ownership? Does Ald. Burke favor allowing those who have been convicted for gun violence to be able to legally register - and own - a gun? His statement indicates so.
Finally, Mayor Daley himself made another of his typically stupid statements. CNN quotes him as saying this:
"Either we enact new and reasonable handgun laws in Chicago to protect our residents -- as the council has done -- or we do nothing and risk greater gun violence in our streets and in our homes," Mayor Daley said.
Mayor Daley is a deaf, dumb and blind imbecile insofar as gun ownership is concerned. Nevertheless, somebody should urge him to read the the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Washington Post pieces that are referenced above. Then he should watch this short video by Penn and Teller (contains strong language):
"Chicago police will be out in greater numbers for tonight’s Navy Pier fireworks show after four people were shot last night as crowds streamed out of the Grant Park fireworks and Taste of Chicago,"