When Republicans are shrugging off the need for any kind of rational gun policy — not that they ever consider it — they enjoy mentioning the high murder toll in Chicago and pretend that doing so proves their argument.
“I think if you look to Chicago, where you had over 4,000 victims of gun-related crimes last year, they have the strictest gun laws in the country. That certainly hasn’t helped there,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Oct. 2, drop-kicking the issue in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre.
“The most stringent gun laws in the U.S. happen to be in Chicago,” Donald Trump tweeted in 2014. “and look what is happening there!”
What is happening here is that Chicago — though banning gun sales but not gun ownership — is ringed by suburbs pumping guns into the city and by states whose lax gun laws provide a direct pipeline to the city’s streets.
Legal gun sales are a big part of the problem. The Sun-Times outlined that situation again last week. According to the second “Gun Trace Report,” the work of the Chicago Police Department and the University of Chicago Crime Lab, more than half of the 27,500 guns recovered by CPD between 2013 to 2016 came legally from 5,000 federally licensed gun shops in Illinois and other states; almost a quarter from Indiana.
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60 percent of the guns in Chicago come from Indiana, Wisconsin, and Missouri.
ReplyDeleteMcDonald v Chicago took away our ability to regulate gun ownership 10 years ago. Our gun violence has increased every year since.
Funny how those stats never get mentioned.
of the over 27000 guns recovered by the CPD over a three year period I wonder how many seizures resulted in arrests. I wonder how many arrests resulted in convictions for illegal possession of a hand gun?
ReplyDeleteoften offenders are allowed to plead out to a lesser offense and are back on the streets.
while the laws need to be strengthened . the laws that exist need to be enforced. even violent offenders, those who use these illegally possessed weapons to shoot someone, are allowed to plead to a lesser offense and are back on the streets after a short sentence.
its unlikely we will gain the upper hand on the NRA and its supporters anytime soon but we can demand of our mayor and the county commissioner and our governor that the justice system be adequately funded and the laws be strictly enforced.
people realize the consequences for engaging in gun violence are often fairly minor and this doesn't discourage them from carrying and using a weapon
365 days until the midterms. Now, what are we going to do about this shit? We're the ones that allowed legislators who kowtow to the gun lobby to be elected. Who's fault is that?
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the subject was guns I thought Neil was getting a jump on the news from Texas, but that would have been fast reaction indeed. On that subject, we didn't really start learning about the shooter, a white male, which makes it a case of mental illness, until the morning news. Not a Moslem, or a black thug. Just a crazy white man.
ReplyDeleteOur dear leader, of course, jumped in with a statement that it didn't have to do with guns because we have a lot of mental problems in this country, "as do other countries." Using gun homicides as a metric then, we have from five to eight times as many homicidal maniacs per capita as countries like the UK, Germany, Sweden, Japan, etc. Makes you want to stay in the house.
Tom
" A well regulated militia"
ReplyDeleteAt the time that clause was written the only kind of arm that existed was a single shot, muzzle loading weapon. Now every nut in America has access to modern battlefield weaponry.
Somehow the NRA, the GOP, and SCOTUS Interpret well regulated as meaning no regulation. In a world not massaged daily by Fox News, Limbaugh, and Breitbart, owning battlefield weaponry would be considered madness. So we get daily mass murders. Is this really the country we want?
Tracing guns, banning types of guns, confiscating guns, smashing guns or selling guns at police auctions, gathering data, all very interesting, yawn. The source of guns will be where they can be purchased for the least cost. Let's get down to the root cause of the bulk of the violence plaguing our city, our nation, our world. It is all a result of the war on drugs, and the unintended consequences of cracking down on illegal drugs. We are taking commodities like marijuana, cocaine, heroin, MDMA, and fentanyl, which have the same intrinsic value of products like spices or cold medicine, and making them ounce for ounce more valuable then gold bullion. There are juicy profits to be made at every step of the supply chain. We empower cartels and drug lords to leave a wide swath of devastation in third world countries who bribe, extort, and kill people in the thousands at will. It goes all the way down to the streets of our cities where gangs kill for the purpose of controlling territory where drug sales are most lucrative. They amass cash they can't put in banks for fear of confiscation. They can't rely on police for protection, so the employ a wild form of vigilantism. Guns at any cost being a necessary tool. Finally without a secure supply chain the drugs can be cut with inert chemicals or laced with dangerous additives like fentanyl and its analogs. Few addicts take illegal drugs for the purpose of suicide, but not knowing for sure what dosage you have is what leads to death by overdose. The way to slash a high percentage of the gun violence in Chicago is to end the war on drugs.
ReplyDelete24 people shot dead in church. Yawn. Jesus loves guns.
DeleteAbsolutely correct!
DeleteMost of the shootings in Chicago are the result of gangs fighting over who gets to sell drugs on a specific block.
I Capone's days, the fought over the North Side, South Side & West Side.
Now we have over 250 distinct gangs here.
Bernie, I'm sorry, I know your heart is in the right place, but honest to God, sometimes what you conceive to be a contrarian sense of humor leads you into gross insensitivity, if not outright boorishness. "Yawn" is not an appropriate response in a comment thread about the slaughter of 24 people.
DeleteAs for the substance of your argument, Thomas Evans has it exactly right. Other nations with draconian, even savage drug laws don't have anything approaching the murder rate we do, because they don't allow anyone and everyone to buy firearms. And drugs have nothing to do with the tragedy in Texas.
It really annoys me when anyone talking about the latest gun slaughter tries to change the subject by talking about mental health or "black-on-black crime" or missing fathers or drug laws or the phases of the moon or anything else. When people are being killed by the dozen with guns, THE PROBLEM IS GUNS. Period, full stop. Until we face that fact the slaughter will go on and probably get worse.
Bitter Scribe, well for that matter I know your heart is in the right place also. You're looking for a larger solution for all gun violence that is unlikely to be implemented any time soon. The 'yawn' was strictly for the peripheral issue of gathering statistics on gun purchases. The Texas massacre of 24 people was not mentioned in Neil's column but can illustrate an important point. Devin Kelley was convicted of domestic violence including cracking an infants skull for heaven's sake, yet through a clerical error was able to legally purchase firearms. Neil has no violation of the law preventing him from owning a gun whatsoever, but was unable to buy a gun. Do we need more or better laws? Can you think of a law that would correct this contradiction?
DeleteOne of several points I wanted to make is statistics matter little, the source for guns will be where they can be purchased at the lowest cost. That cost will include such things as, acceptable quality, cost of delivery, risk cost of detection if weapons are illegal, and the price a customer is willing to pay. If by some miracle guns are banned like drugs, we will have to grapple with the issue of illegally imported guns. If it ever becomes cost effective we will have to deal with small shops springing up all over making guns and ammo. The technology for making guns and ammo are well over a century old, and easily accomplished with surplus grinders, presses, and milling machines. Here is a 3 minute video showing how it can be done. No need to bother with stamping a serial number on the stock! Gunpowder can be made from chemicals easily obtained. Shell casings can be stamped out in any caliber. While they're at it, an inexpensive value added feature can be added, coat the bullets with Teflon.
So the Republicans get pissy when gun statistics are used to take a look at the gun problem.
ReplyDeleteAnd they also don't want satellites around to monitor the melting of the polar icecaps caused by climate change.
Call me crazy, but I'm starting to see a pattern here.
You're not crazy. What's crazy is the GOP's blatant disregard for any American values that don't involve profit.
DeleteSounds like you don't travel much. Other countries also tough on drug dealing
ReplyDeletedon't endure frequent killing sprees with military style weapons. Or for that matter gang warfare as lethal as ours.
Tom
Hi Tom,
DeleteI know you travel a lot, and I vicariously enjoy the stories you share. I'm most impressed with your transliteration of the Tuscany dialect, it indicates you actually talk to people when you travel.
But I also watch programs and read newspapers like Frontline, POV, 60 Minutes, the L.A> Times, and the New York Times. I doubt you visit the darker corners of the world where the drug trade prevails. The Trump and his supporters pointlessly mock us for the violence in our streets, offering no solutions just doubling down on more of the same evil policies that make things worse. Sure the shooting sprees are bad, but even counting Las Vegas the death toll dwarfs the staggering numbers caused by the war on drugs. As a personal note, I spent a part of Saturday calming a formally homeless friend who liked to hang out in the Starbucks at Broadway and Lawrence.
Whenever we finally are rid of Trump, the country can resume its inch by inch progress towards rationality and common sense with respect to guns, drugs, racial and sexual issues. I can only hope that we haven't slid too far backward by the time that happens.
ReplyDeletejohn
Once Trump leaves office, we can renew our inch by inch progress towards rationality and good common sense with regard to guns, drugs, gender, and racial issues, assuming that we haven't slid back too far in the mud of paranoia, vengeance, self-righteousness, and willful ignorance.
ReplyDeletejohn
Trouble is, it's not just Trump. The House and Senate need a major overhaul. We voters have a lot of work to do.
DeleteI read all the liberals talking about the guns in Chicago and how the GUNS are causing the crime. Maybe we should look at the shooters of those guns. We might find that 99.999999% don't have fathers. We might also find out that they come from broken single parent households. 101 people were shot in one weekend in Chicago-more than the last two mass shootings in one weekend! Truth be told we will never give up our right to bear arms. There were violent revolutionary left wing communist parties around in the 60s and they're around today (revcom). Last week was the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. The fact is these guns exist to deter anyone or group that wants to get cute and start a revolution or mass riots. I drove in the South a few years back and to my delight there were billboards every 25 miles advertising the AR-15. What do you think folks buy millions of long guns and ammunition for, to hunt? I don't think so. And what is the left's obsession with taking away a freedom we regard as precious? The left says we don't want to take your guns away and Obama cites the Australia gun confiscation scheme as 'a way forward'. We will not be defenseless-GET THAT THROUGH YOUR HEADS.
ReplyDeleteScaredy Cat!
Deletejohn