Posted on 07/28/2014 10:06:36 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
It’s a picture-perfect summer day, bright sun, sparkling skies. And here I am, stuck waiting for another press conference in another stuffy meeting room.
Up front stood a bundle of boys and girls, 25 or so, preschoolers in pigtails, strapping youths sporting football jerseys, assembled at the podium, to pose with the politicians and preachers.
What’s wrong with this picture? These kids should be in play lots, parks and backyards. They should not be props at a photo op at a West Side church, waiting for the boring adults to make boring their speeches. Perversely, this is the best place they could be — in a church, flanked by the big shots, sheltered from the epidemic of gun violence that is killing Chicago.
There are too many guns, and too many people think that is OK.
The conference was called Thursday by Gov. Pat Quinn, who joined a cadre of ministers and politicians to endorse an advisory referendum that will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The measure will ask Cook County voters if Illinois should “require universal background checks for firearm transfers and prohibit the sale and transfer of assault weapons, assault weapon attachments and high capacity ammunition magazines?”
Yes, said Rev. Michael Eaddy, senior pastor at People’s Church of the Harvest in East Garfield Park.
“It has been the cry in the community, especially in the churches,” he said. “We have taken strong positions and have said to our constituents that opportunity has come.”
He urged voters and faith leaders to back the referendum. “Our children deserve to be safe. They deserve to have a sense of safety when they leave out of their homes to go to the parks, to go the schools, to go anywhere. They should not fear not being able to return.”
Some can’t even leave.
On July 18, Shamiya Adams, 11, was killed during a sleepover at a Garfield Park home when a stray bullet entered and struck her in the head. Shamiya and her friends were reportedly circled around a pretend campfire and preparing to eat s’mores.
Wednesday night, Darren Foggey, 16, was killed by a shot through a first-floor bedroom window in Chicago Lawn.
Eaddy’s rhetoric will rile the People of the Gun. Some oppose all bans at all costs. Some argue the slaughter is self-imposed, black-on-black crime. Legal gun owners are not the problem, they argue.
Some, like Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner, cite the U.S. Constitution and gun rights.
The use of assault weapons “would be up to the owner, and I do think it’s target practice, or use on their property as they choose fit,” Rauner said last March at a debate on WTTW-TV.
Assault weapons are not home entertainment. They are engineered to kill people. If our society can’t eschew this menace, then we may as well surrender to the People of the Gun.
Some say it’s just a political ploy to get out Quinn’s vote.
Gun control is indeed a signature issue for Quinn. The African-American vote is crucial to his re-election. Since June 1, at least 76 people have been murdered in Chicago, nearly all gun victims, according to DNA Info. Nearly all were black, like those 25 children who stood, somber and solemn, at a podium on a glorious summer day.
They just want to make it home.
The term...Son Of A Gun...will soon be outlawed....
How many Chicago shootings are committed with “assault weapons”? Very few, I’d wager.
standing up to criminals with guns... without a gun... is otherwise known as being a meat shield
liberals are morons
Since June 1, at least 76 people have been murdered in Chicago, nearly all gun victims, according to DNA Info. Nearly all were black, nearly all the murderers were
black.
So Laura, where is the slaughter of people of the gun
by people of the gun? You know, those you accuse?
“Our children deserve to be safe. They deserve to have a sense of safety when they leave out of their homes to go to the parks, to go the schools, to go anywhere. They should not fear not being able to return.”
You children deserve the truth. You lies do not serve them well.
“Assault weapons are not home entertainment. They are engineered to kill people. If our society can’t eschew this menace, then we may as well surrender to the People of the Gun.”
Assault weapon is a misnomer designed to engender fear. Further, even using the specious definition, how many of the murders in Chicago involved an “assault weapon,” Another lie.
“There are too many guns, and too many people think that is OK.”
Wrong again. There are too many criminals.
The measure will ask Cook County voters if Illinois should “require universal background checks for firearm transfers and prohibit the sale and transfer of assault weapons, assault weapon attachments and high capacity ammunition magazines?”
Will the measure also ask if anyone believes criminals will follow this new law?
People of the gun? The problem is people of the black culture with guns. Unless you would like to explain why all those millions of guns in white neighborhoods dont kill people.
The writer doesn't quite come out and say it, but it sure sounds like she is arguing that the white people need to understand that the black people in Chicago just can't handle responsibility as well as the rest of us.
I'm OK with that ;')
Compel the Chicago government to lift all gun bans so that honest citizens can shoot back at the vile thugs that are product of the Leftism that you love that has created the monsters in the gangs.
Stupid question.
Answer: IT DOESN'T MATTER. Even if 100% of them were committed with some specified "Boogie-Man Gun" ...
Get this:
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Other peoples' criminal abuse of whatever type of gun in no way, shape, or form has any bearing on your or my right to own and carry arms.
Interesting question:
How many Chicago shootings are committed by career criminals who have already done time for violent crimes?
Liberals who hate guns never seem to want to discuss the biggest reason for the right to bear arms: preventing fascism.
Criminals who illegally obtain and misuse guns are a problem. Fascists who disarm the public are a bigger problem.
The author is part of the bigger problem.
“we may as well surrender to the People of the Gun”
I consider myself a member of the gun culture in good standing. As a self proclaimed member of the People of the Gun, I would graciously accept his surrender.
It is all they have left. The People of the Gun, or Gun Culture have the facts, the Constitution, and the Culture on our side.
Gee, I’m sorry I asked a “stupid question”. Screw you.
Using liberal reason I have figured out how to end breaking and entering. First we outlaw lock picks, then crowbars, electric drills, battery powered drills, hand powered drills, screwdrivers, heavy duty brush guards on pickup trucks, bulldozers, backhoes, cranes, sledge hammers, mauls, and on and on and on. Anyone possessing any item that could conceivably be used to break into any kind of building will be arrested, his property seized and he will be fined and or imprisoned or executed according to the whim of the moment.
At the same time anyone caught actually breaking in and stealing will spend one night in jail and released the next day. Repeat offenders will be given a ten day sentence.
Hey if we only banned guns they'd be as hard to get as street drugs!
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