The Associated Press was right to leave the name of the author out of the byline in their June 28 piece about concealed carry in Chicago. Apparently, this particular staff writer thinks mass slaughter will ensue because law-abiding citizens will be able to carry handguns.
Yes, because law-abiding gun owners have committed the vast majority of homicides in Chicago. The lead paragraph sets the tone of the piece. It’s inaccurate. It’s absurd – and carries the tone that is seen pervasively with the anti-gun left.
This city, where violent street gangs shoot it out dozens of times a week despite some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on guns, now faces a new challenge: Well-meaning citizens with the legal right to hit the streets with loaded firearms, whenever they want.
As Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn mulls whether to sign off on eliminating the country’s last concealed carry ban, the question in Chicago is whether it will matter in the crime-weary city. Will a place that long had some of the nation’s tightest restrictions on handguns be more at risk? Or will it be safer with a law that can only add to the number of guns already on the street?
Well, with the Windy City drowning in its own blood from stringent anti-gun policies, more gun control would land the city a special place in textbooks analyzing insanity. Nevertheless, the piece includes little anecdotes like this:
During 2012, the first full year the law was in effect, Milwaukee’s total for homicides and rapes remained virtually the same as the year before. As for robbery, the kind of crime that concealed carry supporters say would be reduced if more regular citizens had weapons, Milwaukee saw a 17.2 percent drop between 2011 and 2012. But police say so far this year the number of robberies has climbed by 19 percent.
Keep in mind that this is the same city where the ATF botched a ten-month long investigation that resulted in an ATF-issued assault rifle finding its way onto the streets of the city. When ATF cleared out, they left sensitive documents behind, which included names, vehicles, and phone numbers of undercover federal agents.
Although, the bigger issue is AP’s completely omitting the drop in homicides since the Heller decision in 2008. DC v. Heller ruled that the District’s handgun ban was unconstitutional. Following the decision, Washington D.C.’s crime rate fell to its lowest point since 1963.
Instead, you have semi-defrocked Rev. Michael Pfleger giving his two-cents about Chicago’s proposed legislation.
You are going to see a lot more gunfights and you are going to see people using guns as their first line of defense when they are confronted. To think guns are suddenly going to be the answer to violence in the city or the state, it’s absurd.”
Is it just as absurd as accusing Hillary Clinton that a black man was “stealing” her show?
