| In one day 20 shot in Chicago - Officials blame the weather, we blame the officials |
According to the Chicago Tribune’s May 1 edition:
“At least three people were killed and 17 wounded in
shootings across Chicago
overnight as the city saw its warmest weather in seven months.” See article
In the past, Chicago’s
Chief of Police Garry McCarty, has blamed warm weather for his city’s gun
violence, along with pointing the finger of blame at Sarah Palin and “government
sponsored racism.”
By using this metric, if the weather keeps heating up we can
expect more gun violence to erupt on the streets of Chicago. Where’s Al Gore?
According to the Tribune article, “warm weather” is behind
the outbreak of gun violence, not the lack of enforcement of some of the toughest anti gun
laws in the United States.
Checking statistics in different countries known for their
warm weather and violence, the following stats were observed:
In Afghanistan
for the entire month of April a total of 17 coalition force personnel were
killed, see report
In a recent 5 day period in all of Iraq, a total of 25 civilians and
police were killed, see report.
Chicago, one of our nation’s biggest cities outpaced the
violence in 2 war torn countries.
Instead of pointing the finger of blame at outside forces,
perhaps it’s time for the people of Chicago
to point the finger of blame at their leaders.
Not long ago, NRA’s President Wayne LaPierre noted Chicago had the nation’s
toughest gun laws, yet was failing to enforce them. He noted that if federal gun laws already on
the books were enforced, instead of putting even more restrictions on gun legal
ownership, it could help solve the city’s violence problems. See story
La Pierre had also called on
federal officials to bring in forces to patrol Chicago’s
streets in order to restore order: “We need a federal task force, if it takes
500 agents; if it takes a thousand agents, go into Chicago."
The law abiding citizens of Chicago deserve to have safer streets and
adding more laws to the over 9,000 gun laws already on the books isn’t going to
make any difference.
Chicago’s
violence is not due to the weather, the NRA or Sarah Palin, it’s due to the
lack of will by city officials to enforce the law.