Posted on 06/09/2010 9:01:54 AM PDT by neverdem
America’s gun-control proponents might want to consider shooting (pun intended) this memo to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
“Dear Mayor Daley: Please shut up. You ain’t helping us.”
Is there anyone doing more damage for advocates of gun control than Daley? The man is a walking billboard for right-to-carry laws. Anyone needing proof of that might want to read the statements he made in the wake of an 80-year-old Chicago man fatally shooting a career criminal who invaded his home.
The background story goes like this:
The elderly man is a Korean War veteran who bought a handgun after three thugs robbed him at gunpoint in his home in late 2009. Chicago police would not reveal this elderly hero’s name, but my late older sister had a nickname she would give any old-timer she ran across: Pop Bucket.
For the purposes of this story, we’ll simply call the Chicago man — who defended his life, family and home in defiance of Daley’s tyranny — Pistol Pop Bucket. In late May, Anthony Nelson broke into Pistol Pop’s home. According to news reports, Nelson had a criminal history that included prison stints for drug and weapon convictions.
Nelson and Daley, before the incident, probably had little in common other than protoplasm and the firm conviction that Pistol Pop wouldn’t have a handgun in his home, because the city of Chicago bans them. Nelson got his rude and final awakening after he fired at Pistol Pop and missed. Pistol Pop returned fire, fatally wounding Nelson.
Daley has yet to get his awakening. In fact, he’s as stubbornly anti-handgun as ever. Listen to his comments about the Pistol Pop-Nelson affair, taken from the Chicago Sun-Times:
“Daley said that he ‘understands the frustration’ that prompted an 80-year-old robbery victim to purchase a handgun that he used this week to kill a home intruder.
“He still believes that ... access to guns kills far more people than it saves.”
There are a couple of direct Daley quotes in the Sun-Times story, and believe me, they’re gems:
“Criminals have far more access to guns today than in the history of this country, and that is frightening to America. You cannot live in America as the Wild West.
“It’s an issue that most people are afraid to talk about. It’s an issue that, politically, is incorrect. You’ll defeat your career. But if you firmly believe that people should have access to guns at all times, then you have a totally different society.”
Oh, indeed we would, Mr. Mayor. And that society would simply be called “a safer one.” Notice that Daley failed to mention that if the state of Illinois had simply done its job and kept Nelson behind bars, Pistol Pop wouldn’t have had to shoot him. But which political party recently adopted the mantra that convicts are simply society’s latest victims?
That would be Daley’s party.
Here’s Daley’s final quote, and it’s another lulu:
“Access to guns will destroy America faster than any other war. Take Europe. Take Japan and other countries that don’t have the access to guns. They don’t have the amount of killings.”
For the sake of the Pistol Pop Buckets of their city, Chicagoans need to take this pathetic excuse for a mayor and retire him from office.
Examiner columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to Sudan.
If Daley really believes handguns are so bad, he should give up his armed security detail.
bump
The simple fact is that Democrats are frightened to death of ordinary citizens and dread the day that they might be armed. They are not at all frightened of criminals, but instead regard them as useful propaganda ploys.
And that’s the heart of it.
I call it the “Rosie O’Donut effect” after the fatuous (think about it) celebrity spoke out against gun ownership but employed armed security guards. While there isn’t a thing wrong with not liking “icky” guns, it is disingenuous and hypocritical to suggest that no one should have them - except for the guards who do her dirty-work.
Given the source for this piece, and not knowing the author I wasn’t sure whether to expect satire or a straight-up piece. I was pleasantly surprised to see an honest op-ed.
I don't believe that statists in general, and gun control freaks in particular, are truly concerned about safety and the other issues they moan about.
I think, for them it's about control. They simply can't stand that others are engaging in activities and freedoms that they disapprove of.
Lefites are the new victorians, becoming furious about anything and everything they wish to condemn or control.
the man is officially stupid... doesn't he hear himself?
Keep flapping those jowls Mayor Shortshanks....
“Criminals have far more access to guns today than in the history of this country,..”
Liar. Before the 1968 gun Control Law you could go into just about any hardware store, gas station, clothing store, grocery store, lay down your money and walk away with a handgun. No feds involved, very few state laws, no paperwork. Even across state lines in most cases.
I bought my first handgun in California. Paid cash but had to wait two days to pick it up. No feds, no paperwork. In other states just walk in and lay down the money, get a firearm.
There was also much less crime in those days.
Actualy the "Wild West" where a very high proportion of the population was armed, was much more peaceable than the eastern cities, even at that time, which even then had some early forms of gun control.
What we are not hearing from Daley or any of the other anit gun libs is hammering the judges who are letting the perps out on the street with slaps on the wrists.
A simple truth
I was 7 yrs old when I bought my first firearm, a Marlin Model 80 bolt .22 rifle. That was 1964 in Orange County, California. I wa;lked into the corner store with my Dad. Put down my $35 and walked out with it. No questions asked.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-pawnbroker-shoots-20100608,0,6719263.story
chicagotribune.com
Man shot, killed during robbery attempt, police say
Authorities say a pawnshop owner opened fire on three men who were trying to rob his store
By William Lee, Tribune reporter
9:36 PM CDT, June 8, 2010
The owner of a Northwest Side pawnshop shot and killed one of three men who tried to rob his business at gunpoint, authorities said.
The 24-year-old man who was killed had a prior robbery conviction and had been sentenced to boot camp, court records show.
The store’s owner opened fire on the three armed men during an attempted robbery shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday inside the Fullerton Pawners, 5900 W. Fullerton Ave., in the city’s Belmont Cragin community, sources said.
One robber was killed at the scene, while a second may have been wounded before he and a third man fled on foot, said Officer Darryl Baety, a police spokesman.
excerpt
Most of Israeli's tote weapons by law of the land and the population there is much more likely to suffer a nail or chard injury from a bomb than they are a gunshot wound by a criminal.
I failed to mention that before 1968, you could also look in the sporting magazines and see pages of firearms for sale. Pick one you like and drop a check in the mail. It would not come by the post office, but it would be shipped to you by other means.
I ordered a derringer from Walter H Craig out of Selma, Alabama. It came by railway express. The shipping cost almost as much as the firearm cost. It also had a very RED label marked FIREARMS on it. Later, it was found that marking label caused many guns to be stolen in shipment.
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