Enough is enough already

[Dave W]

But that's a microscopic area in a country that knows no surveilled or monitored borders between its states (if you consider DC as a state for sake of argument). Tougher handgun laws in one state won't change anything overall  or do you think the youths will then stop buying illegal ones there because of the prevailing state law? What the liberal gun laws have caused is that there are so many weapons freely available on the black market too.

I know it's a touchy subject for you guys, an amendment right, your own history and concept of freedom etc. But I don't think the US would be a less great (or free) country with a couple of million handguns less. You're free to arm your police and double its manpower if security concerns you.

As long as there is demand, there will be guns available. More laws can't solve that problem. Laws had a major role in causing the problem.

Gangs are privatized illegal governments. As long as there is motivation for them to exist, and as long as firearms are produced, they will get guns, laws or no laws.

We've already got overly militarized police departments conducting armed SWAT raids. The last thing we need is more militarization. What we need is to make it easy in every state for private citizens to defend themselves. It won't stop gangs and crime but it will make honest individuals safer.

[Barklessdog]

Something they did here which seems to be working is when they evicted the poverty people from the huge Chicago high rise ghettos like Cabrini Green (Candy Man), They relocated them to smaller public housing in nice neighborhoods. We have a small one near us and you can bet there are not shootings everyday in our fine upper class community. Funny though I have heard the police comment that a majority of our cities crime happens there, but not shootings. the cops are there all the time.

Of coarse nobody wants them living near you, there goes your property values, but I believe the moms are glad to get out and try to give their kids a better life. Of coarse these were public housing, not neighborhoods where people own a home in a terrible area, where a majority of this years shootings took place.

Cabrini Green


Tore down


Now it's being turned into trendy yuppieville with ultra expensive city style row houses & condos.

This is also not to far from Lakland, which is being forced to move as their land was sold

[Barklessdog]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/905411,wknviolence042008.article

31 people shot, 8 dead, 2 stabbed over just one weekend.

n an especially violent weekend, no less than 31 people have been shot in Chicago -- six fatally -- and two people have been stabbed since noon Friday. The shooting victims range in age from 12 to 65.

On Friday, 15 people were shot -- four fatally -- between noon Friday and midnight Saturday, police said.

I find this appalling.

[uwe]

That is a lot, true, especially as we are not talking about Sao Paulo or Mexico City.

[TBird1958]

     Wow. It was a safer weekend in all of Iraq.

[Darrol]

Grand Theft Auto is now getting flack brought about by the weekend because a week from tomorrow the new game in the series is set to be released.

It is kind of sad to see some of the stuff that gets said about games these days but I don't think anything should really be pinned to the games alone.

[Barklessdog]

When I guess the Mayor is fed up too, he's sending out SWAT assualt teams

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/907531,CST-NWS-crime22.article

SWAT will go on patrol. And police plan to respond with gun, tactical and gang teams -- even SWAT officers in battle gear.

The unofficial weekend tally of 36 shootings over Friday, Saturday and Sunday was 14 more than the city experienced last year at the same time, police said. Seven people were killed.

Of the 36 shootings, 14 were classified as gang-related, Bond said. Seven juveniles were among the victims, including five who were out beyond curfew. So far this year, 21 Chicago Public Schools students have been shot to death.

One seasoned officer described the three days as "triage'' -- with detectives rushing from shooting to shooting.

Of the 36 shootings, 19 happened in the Wentworth Area that stretches south of downtown and west along the Stevenson Expy. The rest of the shootings were spread out among the remaining four detective areas of the city.

One law enforcement source said a new faction of Gangster Disciples that moved into the area's Englewood neighborhood is vying for control against longer-established members of the gang. In addition to the shootings, home invasions also have escalated, the source said.

[bostonguitarrepair]

I shouldnt even get into this discussion - since I'm a liberal pinko elitist - blame it on formative years growing up in Sweden, Denmark and Germany and too much reading of the International Herald Tribune and NY Times .. and my mom.

But here's an observation (no I dont have time to get the actual numbers) - I believe the US has one of the highest rates of per capita private gun ownership - on par with the "tribal" areas of Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and perhaps Israel.

We also have gunshot mortality rates on par with those countries - with the exception of israel - where the reason there are a lot of guns is that a big chunk of the population is actually in the military reserves.  So I'm not even sure if that qualifies as private gun ownership.

So how bout this - if you want to own ammunition - you have to be willing to be conscripted for 2 years - it'll give you training, a career potentially, help out the nation and teach you how to be responsible with a gun.  Of course, conscription should include non-combat options hopefully !

if you just want to own guns - e.g. - a gun collector - no problem, you just can't get ammo for them.  Kind of like all the guitars I have that I NEVER plug in actually.  I guess the musket owners could get around this restriction by casting their own shot and mixing their own black powder, but its REALLY hard to do a drive-by with a muzzle loading musket !! ... Gotta drive REAL SLOW!!



Oh by the way .. I watch the Colbert Report a lot .. so .. maybe take this post in that context ....

[Dave W]

So how bout this - if you want to own ammunition - you have to be willing to be conscripted for 2 years - it'll give you training, a career potentially, help out the nation and teach you how to be responsible with a gun.  Of course, conscription should include non-combat options hopefully !

Just what we need, more militarization. When did self-confessed liberal pinko elitists start favoring conscription? 

if you just want to own guns - e.g. - a gun collector - no problem, you just can't get ammo for them.  Kind of like all the guitars I have that I NEVER plug in actually.  I guess the musket owners could get around this restriction by casting their own shot and mixing their own black powder, but its REALLY hard to do a drive-by with a muzzle loading musket !! ... Gotta drive REAL SLOW!!

And what percentage of gun-related crimes are committed by gun collectors? Just about Zero!

Anyway, we're teetering on the brink here, but always remember this: correlation doesn't equal causation.

[Barklessdog]

5 killed in S. Side home
'THAT'S MY DAUGHTER' | Relatives of one victim say robbery may be motive of city's deadliest shooting since 2003

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/912863,CST-NWS-shoot24.article

It just keeps going, almost everyday here. You just become desensitized to after so many YEARS of this.

In one of the worst mass killings in Chicago in years, three men and two women were found shot to death Wednesday afternoon in a ransacked South Side home.

The victims were found on the first floor of the home, police said. At least one was shot in the head.

One of the women was nude and the other was partially clothed, sources said.

Police said they did not have a motive for the shootings. But relatives of Richardson suspect the home was targeted for a robbery, possibly of his jewelry and art.

Richardson lived in the home with Flowers and they had a 2-year-old son, relatives said.

Her mother, Cheryl Flowers, arrived at the scene about 6 p.m.

"That's my daughter, that's my daughter," she said, weeping and collapsing into the arms of a relative.

She said her daughter did not show up for work at a suburban club where she is a dancer.

[Barklessdog]

Next article -

Man charged in Englewood triple-homicide
April 24, 2008 Recommend
FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS
A 29-year-old man was charged with murder early Thursday for the April 4 murders of a husband, wife and teenage son in their West Englewood home.

Vennis McCall, of the 6100 block of Hermitage Avenue, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of criminal trespassing to a residence, police said.

McCall is scheduled to appear at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse later Thursday, police said.

McCall is accused of killing Danna McCowen-McCullough, 43; Allen McCullough Jr., 46; and Allen McCullough III, 19.

It just goes on & on.

[bostonguitarrepair]

Just what we need, more militarization. When did self-confessed liberal pinko elitists start favoring conscription? 

And what percentage of gun-related crimes are committed by gun collectors? Just about Zero!

Anyway, we're teetering on the brink here, but always remember this: correlation doesn't equal causation.

Ah .. I didn't say gun collectors committed gun-related crimes - just wanted to head off the "well what about gun collectors?" argument against controlling availability of ammunition.  After all "guns don't kill people, bullets do !!"

[Barklessdog]

The mayor is grappling with the same issue as our Olympic dreams drift away.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/915238,CST-NWS-page1edit25.article

We can't stop trying.

The problem is guns. No, it's not about guns.

Mayor Daley speaks on gun control in March at St. Sabina Church, with the Rev. Michael Pfleger joining him. He has called for a summit at City Hall today to search for solutions to the violence in recent weeks.
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times)


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Editorial: We can't turn our backs

The problem is bad parents. No, we can't make bad parents good.

The problem is drugs. No, we can't stop the drugs.

The problem is jobs. No, we can't bring back the good jobs.

The problem is our schools. No, we can't ask our schools to solve all the problems that flow from broken families and broken neighborhoods.

But we can't stop trying.

Just three days ago, this newspaper all but begged Chicago to rise up and take action against the bloodshed on our streets, especially the shootings of children. We drove home our point by reversing almost every word on the front page of our Tuesday paper, saying, "We cannot turn our backs." We called for a civic campaign to stem the violence.

We were concerned, we will admit now, that our attention-grabbing front page might be ridiculed by some as a gimmick, a grandstanding way to sell newspapers. But we meant every word when we wrote: "Chicago must confront the carnage."


How can you just ignore something like this in your own back yard?

We do, because there is no easy answer. But to do nothing ?

[Barklessdog]

When we wrote that first editorial on Tuesday, the weekend body count was seven more dead and 29 shot but alive.

Now, horrifyingly, the week's tally is 12 dead and 40 shot, five of them in a single massacre in a Chatham home.

I'm sure your all as sick as hearing about this as I am.

I'm going to just go back to ignoring it all as before, along with everyone else in this country, no answers, just as long as they only kill each other.

[Darrol]

Well with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV coming up on Tuesday, I kind of expect acts of violence to be slightly pointed at games as they seem to be a lot these days.