Mayor Daley's solution to rising homicide rate in Chicago ...

[spin]

Homicide rate jumps in Chicago, Daley pushes for more gun control

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley argues that more gun control will address the city's rising homicide rate. Others have proposed that the National Guard should be called in.

By Mark Guarino, Staff writer / April 27, 2010

The homicide rate in Chicago has jumped in the past month, and the city is grappling with how best to respond.

At least two weekends in a row have been marred by multiple killings. For many Chicagoans, the breaking point was last Wednesday, when a 20-month-old girl was shot in the head while in a parked car on the South Side. The alleged gunman, who turned himself in, was reportedly aiming for the girl’s father.

As of last Sunday, Chicago tallied 113 homicides for 2010, compared with 101 for the same period last year.

The city’s mayor, state lawmakers, and the Chicago Police Department, among others, are weighing in on what should – and shouldn’t – be done.

On Sunday, state Reps. John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford, both Democrats, suggested that the National Guard should be dispatched to curb the recent rise in violence. They made the proposal to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D).

On Monday, both the governor and Richard M. Daley, Chicago’s mayor, dismissed the suggestion.

“The notion of trying to step in, in any way ... on the toes of people who are on the front line every day fighting crime in tough neighborhoods, I think is really not the way to go,” Governor Quinn said.

Mayor Daley argued that the National Guard does not have the appropriate resources and skills to fight street gangs.

Instead the solution, Daley says, is to continue pressing state and federal courts to tighten restrictions on gun ownership – and to uphold the city’s ban on handguns and assault weapons.

“This is all about guns, and that’s why the crusade is on,” he said at a press conference Monday.

Last month, Daley pressed the state legislature to pass a package that, among other things, would strengthen penalties for unlawful gun sales and ownership and require semiautomatic weapons to be stamped with more sophisticated tracking technology. The package is still pending.

Daley is also asking Congress to reinstate the federal ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004. emphasis added

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0427/Homicide-rate-jumps-in-Chicago-Daley-pushes-for-more-gun-control

[X_Digger]

1. what.. a.. moron.

"What we did before didn't work?!?" "Give us more of the same!"

(never mind the city's cops working without a contract for how long now, DonP?)

[Ready4Change]

2. 'Moron' is too Kind. Criminal more like. Remember Meigs Field?

It was a general aviation airport in the heart of Chicago, which for various contractual and legal reasons, he wasn't allowed to shut down. Which he dearly desired to do, in order to replace it with a park.

So what did he do? Go through the legal routes? Nope. In the dead of night he moved in construction equipment and used it to destroy the airports runways. They dug two big X's across both ends of the runways. While the airport was in operation. Pilots found their aircraft parked in a place from which they could no longer take off. In bound airplanes, due to land as all this was happening, had to be diverted. Some of them, flying across the lake, found themselves watching their fuel needles dropping close to empty before they could find safe havens. People well could have been killed, because a spoiled brat, a MAYOR, for gods sake, didn't feel like following the rules.

Daley should be in jail for attempted manslaughter.

There's a park there now. I hear it's nice. I'll never know, as I now refuse to go into Chicago unless I can't help it.

[leeloo]

4. Are'nt they trying to deploy the National Guard?

[Tejas]

3. hey, it worked for Stalin, go for it Daley!

Really, reinstatement of the Federal AWB would do WONDERS in battling Chicago crime!!1!

[spin]

5. The last "assault weapons" ban made these firearms far more popular..

than they would have ever become without the ban.

The Wild Ride of AR Sales

Record breaking sales and record breaking back orders prove that the AR has locked in its deserved place in the American firearms line up.

It's no secret that political controversy has been one of the key catalysts driving AR sales through the roof for the past two years. Since the expiration of the Assault Weapons Bill during the Bush Administration, sales of ARs, AR accessories, and the ammo to feed them have hit an all-time high.

A Little History

This feverish rise in rifle acquisitions has seen several spikes. The Clinton Administration pushed the Assault Weapons Bill through the Senate on September 13, 1994. Prior to the bill's passing, Americans were going through the first wave of "AR fever" sending sales soaring. Although the Assault Weapon Ban of 1994 did stem the tide of AR sales somewhat with a magazine capacity limit and a few non-AR models coming off the shelves, various compliance options still enabled classic AR rifle sales to grow.

On March 24, 2004 the ban expired. A last minute amendment from Senator Dianne Feinstein of California tried to extend the ban another 10 years, but the amendment was soundly voted down on the Senate floor by a resounding vote of 8-90.

Returning military personnel and hunters continued to spur AR rifle growth. Even a major downturn in the economy couldn't stop the massive surge of AR sales from 2007 through 2008, while the country debated who would become our next president.

At the start of 2009, sales continued to clip at a record pace. If you strolled into almost any gun shop in February of this year, chances are you found only one or two rifles on the shelf, and they were most likely already sold. Many shelves were entirely bare of ARs.

With hunters now choosing the AR platform for everything from coyotes to big game, sales have marched ahead even in the firm grip of these difficult economic times. In a rare retail moment in firearms history, larger retailers are not doing as well as the independent stores. The combination of all these trends, along with scarce ammo availability and strong handgun sales, has the independent gun dealer experiencing one of the most profitable periods ever seen in the firearms industry.

http://www.military.com/entertainment/outdoor-guide/ar-hunting/wild-ride-ar-sales.html

[jazzhound]

6. Italian proverb

"A book whose sale's forbidden, all men rush to see --- and prohibition turns one reader into three"