Monday, March 10, 2014

No need to argue over concealed carry permits; just watch


     The purpose of the news media is not to be a hallelujah chorus, not to clap our hands like seals whenever an official does or says something we feel is right. They pay a PR staff to do that.
     What we are supposed to do is find flaws, point out problems, hint toward solutions. That’s our role.
     So not a lot of “Well played, Mr. Mayor!” in this space. Not that there’s much cause for it anyway.    Which is why I want to depart from habit today and tip my hat to Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, because he said something that is utterly true and will certainly be born out by events.
As the state of Illinois sent out its first 5,000 concealed-carry permits, he noted: “Stand by and watch what happens. The answer to gun violence is not more guns.”
     We don’t get a lot of “stand by and watch what happens” in politics. We are so hot to debate, to argue,  to predict, to shout down the other guy — especially on guns, where arm-everybody proponents have adopted an all-or-nothing, cover-our-ears-and-howl approach that forbids even thinking about the issue — we forget there are facts under all this, a verifiable reality just waiting for us to notice, or, more likely, to not notice.
     What are those facts? Well, some — and I know this will jar the “All libs hate guns and want them confiscated” mindset — support liberal gun rights. There are 300 million guns in this country, and if the vast majority weren’t being handled safely, the carnage would be far worse than it already is.

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7 comments:

  1. Repeal all gun laws now. We should not need a permit, everyone should be armed.

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  2. Ummm.... the vast majority of the freaking country has shall issue permits for years now. A greater percentage of the country has CONSTITUTIONAL carry than may issue at this point.

    Haven't we "stood back and watched it enough" to know that it's not a bad thing? The sky isn't going to fall?

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    1. Nobody said the sky was going to fall. I said it will cause tragedies, more tragedies than crime will be prevented. Which we're seeing across the country No one is actually arguing that point; they seem content to vent whatever argument is cycling through their heads.

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    2. Or maybe we're just used to the way things are and don't realize that the sky has already fallen. The US has far more gun violence than most other countries, due to high ownership and lax laws. How far does the sky have to fall for people to know it's not a good thing?

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    3. Well, I would have to disagree with you on the cause of the gun violence in the US. The Law abiding citizens are not the ones going out and killing everyone in the south side of Chicago every day. These are illegal guns being used by criminals. Tougher gun laws will not correct the problem. Criminals will be CRIMINALS, thus the title CRIMINAL! If you want to correct the gun problems that we have here in the US, lets start with one area, and this will reduce alot of crimes. Lets start with enforcing the laws that are already on the books. Why is that a gang banger in Chicago can have a gun with no serial number on it that he bought for $200 on the street and only get 1 or 2 years, or a suspended sentence for time served? Why are these CRIMINALS not being charged with the real crime, which is a Federal count and sentenced to 15 years for the same offense. If you want to reduce the senseless crimes in the inner city, how about Truth in Sentences. Lets start there. I would guarantee that a lot of these wanna be gangsters will change their mind quickly when they realize that you use a gun while doing any criminal act, you go to jail. And, I am not talking one of these state run day cares, Federal prison because the majority would have broke at least one Federal Crime. One code to look at, which is in the Federal realm is 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1-9).

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  3. "Comments after newspaper stories are generally from trolls who would jeer at an 8-year-old with cancer."

    Just because that generalization is true, doesn't mean it doesn't hurt my feelings...

    -- MrJM

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  4. This will prevent much more crime. The country wide stats back that up. It just won't be reported on as much. Few media outlets report truth, that guns save more lives than they take.

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