Weekend Diversion: Night Of The Ponies
Pedway, First Store Open At Block 37
Around Town
Around Town
Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
Mayor Daley used an anti-violence rally yesterday to call for even stricter gun laws, and he pointed to glorification of violence in television and movies as part of the problem:
"It's not entertainment when a child loses his life," Daley said, drawing shouts and applause. "This child should not have lost his life."These young people that are getting shot and killed is a disgrace to humanity."
The rally was held one day after a gang-related fight at Crane Tech High School led to one student, Ruben Ivy, being fatally shot and another seriously beaten with a golf club. This continues the disturbing trend of gun violence amongst CPS students this year -- Ivy's death brings the current tally to 18 and we're barely into March.
But are more gun laws really the answer? These shooting incidents are seemingly on the rise despite the Chicago handgun ban already in place. And it's probably not a real stretch to assume that most of the shooters don't possess FOID cards and didn't obtain the guns legally. Going after the method of violence instead of the root cause seems to make as much sense as banning baggies to reduce drug sales. The common denominator in many of these stories are gangs -- wouldn't money and effort be better spent on reducing gang-related activity, and helping to provide more opportunities for kids so they are not lured into gang life to begin with? [Trib]
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What kind of opportunities? When I was 16 I had the "opportunity" to become a dishwasher.
I'm a gun owner, and if I thought that handing over my shotgun would solve the problem of gun violence in this city I'd turn it in with a smile, tear up my FOID card and do a little jig.
I followed all the laws, filled out all the paperwork, keep my gun unloaded and stored safe and if it was ever stolen I'd report it along with all the identifying information to the police, which would make tracing the weapon that much easier. This is what most responsible gun owners do.
Criminals can't buy guns. They can't get a FOID card. They aren't filling out paperwork or following procedure. They're buying guns on the streets that are brought in from any number of other states where there aren't any gun restrictions. A straw purchaser can drive a few hours, purchase a bevy of weapons, come back and sell them on the street for 10x their value. That's completely illegal under existing laws.
So tell me how more laws to restrict legal gun-owners are going to make us safer?
The politicians want to blame video-games and music and tv and movies. They want to blame anything but the decayed neighborhoods, gutted schools and failed social programs. They want to make it sounds as if kids in affluent neighborhoods are just as at risk as kids in Englewood. No, it has nothing to do with where they live or how the infrastructure of the city has completely fallen apart around them. It's "Halo 3" and that darn rap music that's doing it.
More laws don't make you more safe. Stop making it harder for law-abiding citizens to go about their lives and focus on the causes of crime.
Oh, who am I kidding. They'll just find a way to monetize it and Daley will get re-elected.
He's doing this to disarm us before he raises taxes again.
--The politicians want to blame video-games and music and tv and movies. They want to blame anything but the decayed neighborhoods, gutted schools and failed social programs. They want to make it sounds as if kids in affluent neighborhoods are just as at risk as kids in Englewood. No, it has nothing to do with where they live or how the infrastructure of the city has completely fallen apart around them. It's "Halo 3" and that darn rap music that's doing it.--
The politicians fail to take responsibility for the society they and their fathers created. Urban poverty was concentrated under Daley I. Work and education disincentives were applied, and the whole mess is kept in line by an ever-expanding Chicago and Cook County government, from utterly failing schools to ever expanding jails, and an ever more insidious police department and judicial system. And for all this, a hodge podge of interest groups keep reelecting the mutts.
Chicago deserves its fate.
--The politicians want to blame video-games and music and tv and movies. They want to blame anything but the decayed neighborhoods, gutted schools and failed social programs. They want to make it sounds as if kids in affluent neighborhoods are just as at risk as kids in Englewood. No, it has nothing to do with where they live or how the infrastructure of the city has completely fallen apart around them. It's "Halo 3" and that darn rap music that's doing it.--
The politicians fail to take responsibility for the society they and their fathers created. Urban poverty was concentrated under Daley I. Work and education disincentives were applied, and the whole mess is kept in line by an ever-expanding Chicago and Cook County government, from utterly failing schools to ever expanding jails, and an ever more insidious police department and judicial system. And for all this, a hodge podge of interest groups keep reelecting the mutts.
Chicago deserves its fate.
Banner headlines: A student slain by gunfire
on the streets of Chicago.
A news flash shows a coat lying in a pool of blood on the steps of Crane HS.
PROBLEM:
The owner of the coat was INJURED BY AN ASSAILANT WITH A GOLF CLUB.
Banner headlines: A student slain by gunfire
on the streets of Chicago.
A news flash shows a coat lying in a pool of blood on the steps of Crane HS.
PROBLEM:
The owner of the coat was INJURED BY AN ASSAILANT WITH A GOLF CLUB.
I call for stricter club control laws!