Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
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Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights Springfield, Illinois |
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 Bloody Chicago by Jim Butler, President, SCRA June 2008 GunNews The recent spate of homicides in Chicago has Mayor Daley again calling for more gun control. The futility of the April 1982 handgun ban that he is so proud of has been proven again and again. Even the citizens of Chicago are starting to question the effect of more gun laws as they know the gangs will just ignore them. According to Bureau of Justice statistics between 1976 and 2006, while only 13 percent of the population, blacks committed over 52 percent of the nations homicides. 46 percent of blacks were homicide victims and ninety-four percent of black homicide victims were killed by another black. This is in a large part caused by liberal judges and parole boards that have released these criminals to prey on black communities. Chicago police have flooded the city areas that have recently had the most violence. While this is needed it is only a short term solution that will not stop the violence when they leave. Gangs are the biggest problem, and they should be prosecuted under the federal racketeering law where applicable. The National Rifle Association has long pointed out that a disproportionate large number of gun murders has occurred in those jurisdictions having the most severe anti-gun laws. Something like 25 percent of gun murders in America have occurred in gun-banning New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., for decades. Yet, the population of these cities amount to less than 5 percent of our nation's population. Severe anti-gun laws including gun bans are usually passed in jurisdictions like these that already have a high rate of violence. Unfortunately, the problem with most of these gun control proposals is that they criminalize much of the citizenry but have only marginal effects on career criminals. Eric Holder Jr., the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., said, "There has been far too long a conspiracy of silence in the black community - a reluctance to discuss our manifest problems, a desire to avoid painful truths. . . .we are the ones who pull the triggers, and we are the ones who sell and use the drugs. We must talk about these things and confront these truths." Black-on-black violence in large cities like Chicago must fundamentally be treated as a moral issue. It has to be treated in this way by all Americans. Black-on-black violence in Chicago is destroying communities, and decimating younger generations. The disintegration of the family is in a large part responsible for a large part of the violence in Chicago. The rebuilding of morality in cities like Chicago will not be a simple task. First the responsibility lies with the family and then with the many institutions that help shape society's moral values. Work ethics, education, morality, and respect for life and respect for others all help mold character and serve to escape poverty. Many black sections of Chicago have become criminal habitats because there are few legitimate entry level opportunities for young men. The most important reason they drift into criminal activities is the income they can earn compared with the few jobs available to them without a decent education. All too often they see crime as a better choice. This means many of them will have a short life span due to their poor choice. The poor quality of Chicago schools available to them only makes matters worse. Dropout rates in these schools is beyond belief, especially considering the huge amount of money spent on them. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to address these issues through the black civil rights or education establishment, or the black political structure, as well as those they serve, because of having an interest in maintaining things as they are now so they don't lose power or their material perks. Most of these people know who's committing the majority of crimes but they don't want to deal with it as it's too hot a potato and too politically incorrect. Gun violence is a social problem, not a hardware problem. These people try to divert attention from the real cause of violence by calling for more gun control even though they know it doesn't work. They want to make it look like they are doing something about violence to take the heat off of them. As I See it index Return to SCRA Home Page |