Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
I just saw this article and I had to report on it here. A Chicago woman is grieving the loss of her 4th child to gun violence. Her child was one of Five people shot and killed overnight in Chicago. “Ronnie Chambers, who was his mother Shirley’s youngest child, was shot in the head Saturday while sitting in a parked car on the city’s West Side. A 21-year-old man who was also in the car was wounded, police said. Shirley Chambers, whose two other sons and daughter were shot in separate attacks more than a decade ago, was left grieving again on Saturday, WLS-TV reported. “Right now, I’m totally lost because Ronnie was my only surviving son,” Chambers said.
Shirley Chambers’ first child, Carlos, was shot and killed by a high school classmate in 1995 after an argument. He was 18. Her daughter Latoya, then 15, and her other son Jerome were shot and killed within months of one another in 2000. “What did I do wrong?” she asked Saturday. “I was there for them. We didn’t have everything we wanted but we had what we needed.”
Chambers said despite this latest tragic chapter in her life, she’s not bitter or angry. “They took my only child. I have nobody right now. That’s my only baby,” she said. MSN.com
How can anyone see this continued gun violence and not be angered and want to do something to stop it? Reasonable gun control won’t solve all of our gun violence problems, but it is a good start. We have to deal with poverty, unemployment, drug abuse and the failed war on drugs also. However, some of these 5 people might not have died if guns were not so easily obtainable. What do you think? How can we reduce gun violence? We must start to act now or it will never get any better.
Crazy….
Porkchop – It is still illegal in Illinois to carry or possess a loaded firearm outside one’s home (the only state with such an absolute prohibition on both concealed and open carry).
Not entirely true… Technically Maryland and NJ fall into that, too. In MD, there is a permit system where they require a “good and substantial reason” to get a permit to carry, and almost nobody qualifies. Basically, if you’re a cop or some sorta security personnel, you might qualify. That’s about it.
New Jersey has similar ridiculous laws and hurdles.
Guess what. We have ALREADY got plenty of “gun control” laws right now. If they worked, we would not have this continuous gun violence in Chicago.
So we don’t have a problem with guns in the US. Glad to hear it because you could have fooled me. Lets say that what we really have is a failure of the mental health system to:help mentally ill mass murders? or to Create a list of prospective mass murders. If this is the case why aren’t all that “its mental health” crowd fighting improving the health care system to take care of the mentally ill. I’ll tell you why because the metal illness claim is just a smoke screen to protect guns, gun manufactures and the NRA.
If its the list, from past conduct we know that even if such a list could be put together, and that is a big IF, the same people who are clambering for it would put every procedural road block in front of actually using it to prevent gun purchases or they would defund the agency in charge. We have a list of prospective “terrorists” called the no fly list but the NRA does not believe that people on the no fly list should be stopped from buying a gun, 10 guns, 20 guns or more. The NRA has fought for quick and lax procedures to return guns to felons, often those involved in domestic violence ( of course those fellons might only kill their wives or girl friends so no problem) and the GOP has supported these laws.
These claims are distractions. When it comes to guns, it is all about distraction. We need gun control now.
To borrow a phrase: I aim to please. I always have problems with the IPad keyboard. 🙂
Gene H.: Just in case you were not aware, being a gun dealer is already a highly regulated and monitored profession. Every gun they sell has to be recorded, and the buyer must get instant-background-check approval, which the gun dealer has to get from the FBI. The BATF comes in and regularly inspects their records, and they can get in trouble if they are not maintained correctly. Is that not enough for you?
raff,
Thanks for the typo of the day!
There are common sense solutions that can help prevent the wrong kind of people from buying weapons as well as other measures that can make gun crime less attractive. Some of the ideas below are already being floated, others I have not seen.
1) Better background checks for both mental health issues (can be done blindly to avoid HIPPA concerns) and previous violent criminal offenses involving weapons.
2) Require gun dealers to not only keep inventory but make reporting that inventory mandatory. There should not be much leeway for discrepancies (if they are not corrected) before a dealer gets their license suspended. Multiple or chronic offenders should loose both their license and their inventory.
3) Micro-stamping lot numbers on to not just ammo but all brass and shells and make recording that number with the sale mandatory. Combine this with a program to eliminate unstamped brass and shells, something alone the lines of a buy back or discount toward stamped brass and shells.
4) Make manufacturers start a ballistics database that records the signature of every rifled weapon they sell (this won’t work for shotguns, but micro-stamping shells would go some way to tracking them).
5) Make registering private sales or other private transfers mandatory.
6) Stop gun shows. Make dealers operate out of a shop or their home.
7) Limit bulk ammo purchases including bulk purchases of reloading supplies.
8) Put proper focus on handguns and their regulation as they are the largest number of weapon by type used in gun violence statistically speaking.
9) Encourage manufactures to go to “smart fire/smart safety” technologies that make sure a handgun is usable only to registered users. With today’s computer technology getting smaller and faster every day, I should be able to buy a pistol I can program to fire for only me and my spouse or other immediate family. It’s not rocket science.
10) Make sure guns seized as evidence or bought back to be destroyed really do get destroyed instead of back into the market.
Keep in mind that even these restrictions will result in the rise of a certain level of black market activity, but not as severe as what you’d see with bans. Prohibition, be it drugs or guns or booze, does nothing but create black markets. Any approach to gun control is going to have to be about market controls, tracking who buys and sells what, and making sure that the first line of defense in keeping crazy people and criminals from buying guns – the gun dealer – bears the brunt of the duty to make sure their products don’t get into the wrong hands. Being a gun dealer should be a highly regulated and monitored profession.
That being said, none, I repeat – none, of these measures will stop either a professional criminal or a determined crazy person from getting access to firearms. Between the option of theft and the black market, they will always be able to become armed if they have the desire and the cash. Unlink most here, I’ve actually known black market arms dealers. They are amoral and generally evil people with no concern for what is done with what they sell. The harder you come down on legal gun sales, the more opportunity profits you create for them. If you want to hurt them, you are simply going to have 11) to go with laws designed to keep them off the streets as if they were themselves pulling the triggers of their products combined with efforts to make the guns themselves harder to move without leaving a trail. The paper trail is the black marketeer’s enemy. Use it against them.
Porkchop,
I wa trying to say respectfully, not erect!
Porkchop,
I erect fully disagree with your reading of the Helller case.
Bob Kauten,
I agree that we have to start somewhere. The assault weapons ban with a ban on large magazines would help that start. Stopping the private sales without background checks is essential.
Yes, due to the strenuous efforts of the NRA, there is an enormous oversupply of guns in this country. Criminals, or any “law-abiding citizen,” who becomes angry or fearful, have no problem getting one. More guns equals more firearm deaths. A very large percentage of our population is delusional and paranoid. Giving them guns to act on their fantasies is beyond foolish.
We need to start somewhere. The first step is to stop the insane increase in distributed guns. Forty-percent of gun sales are private, without background checks. Ending unrestricted sales will slow the distribution of guns to criminals and the insane.
Then restrict the sale of ammo. Don’t just register it.
There is no one answer to this problem. If we are to get out of this hole we’ve created by providing too many guns, we need to at least stop digging the hole deeper.
My right not to be shot trumps your right to indulge your fantasies with a firearm.
1. Politicians take note when white kids in Newtown are gunned down, but ignore black carnage in Chicago and elsewhere.
2. Criminals do not obey laws and don’t care what gun laws are on the books.
3. Current laws are not enforced so why do we need more of them?
4. When there is no consequence for a behavior, the system becomes the enabler.
5. Prison doors are referred to as ‘revolving.’ There is no fear of incarceration. It’s a coffee break.
system failure
I agree Blouise.
I’m finished talking about this issue and I am now actively working to bring strict accountability to gun ownership. Strict and expensive.
About regulating ammunition, let me point this out: when the 1968 Gun Control Act was passed, it required everybody buying ammunition to show a photo ID, and the store selling it had to keep a record of the person’s name, address, amount & type of ammunition, etc. In 1986 this was repealed. I believe I remember hearing that some official of the BATF was asked in a congressional hearing or something whether that ammo record-keeping requirement had ever played a part in solving any crimes, and he responded by saying that as far as he could tell, not one single time had that ever happened. So I think we could expect similar results if somebody tried to regulate ammo again. And then of course you have thousands of shooters who load their own ammo.
I am totally against banning guns at all. There are too many out there and banning them for those who buy them legally would do nothing to stop the tens of thousands and possibly more that are illegally owned.
That being said, I have no problem regulating the sale of ammunition. Photo ID, registration, tracking of purchases, the whole lot.
As far as the mental health issue, for me that is a no brainer. Mental health needs to become a priority in this nation. I mean no offense to all you ACLU supporters out there, but if a violent, mentally ill person who will not take their medication needs to be confined…permenantly if necessary. There need to be more laws to protect the general public from violent, unpredictable individuals whose families can no longer or will no longer handle the situation.
http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp
If truth maters.
The military take soldiers out of the combat zone after 2 have been KIA. Maybe the Teeny Tiny Mayor should have moved this family to Iowa, Wi., Mn, after the first 2 losses. But, he can still admit failure of his strict handgun laws and move this poor family out of his depraved and failed innercity. The white neighborhoods and Mag Mile are doing just fine but they wouldn’t allow “THIS TYPE” to move onto their enclaves. This is Chicago, and anyone who denies it is either stupid or a liar.
One is too many.
Jeso.