Quagmire

Chicago’s orgy of violence continues, claiming a nine year old girl:

Chastity Turner, 9, was sitting on her grandmother’s porch washing her dog when someone opened fire from a van in the 7400 block of South Stewart Avenue.

Chastity was shot in the back or neck and later died at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital. Three other people, including her father, were wounded in the shooting.

A 31-year-old man and 17-year-old boy were taken to Stroger Hospital of Cook County with gunshot wounds to the back. A third male, whose age was not immediately known, took himself to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

And again – isn’t it a good thing Chicago has the toughest gun laws in the country?  Because ONLY GOD KNOWS how bad this would have been if law-abiding civilians would have the right to discomfit criminals busy with this sort of thing.

It’s been almost a year since the Heller decision.  There’s hoping those Chicago lawsuits work their way through the system fast.

16 thoughts on “Quagmire

  1. Local news reporting blood shortages because of the gang bangers (this girl is the exception) coming in with bullet holes in their stomach. Which brings up an ethical delimna. If you live in Chicago, do you donate blood, knowing that it may be used to keep a gang member alive after a shootout?

  2. Well what we really need is a law requiring gang members to have health insurance – they should be able to qualify for group rates so the individual gang members would not have to provide detailed medical histories and run the risk of rescission the way individual subscribers do.

    I can’t verify this but a friend of mine who works at HCMC claims that the average cost to patch up a gang member who has sprung a lead induced leak is >$30k and the county usually picks up the tab. To think that money could be used to provide much needed health care to illegal immigrants.

  3. Chuck,

    Yeah, sad to say, the ethical imperative is to give blood (innocent people need it too) and hope the legal system takes care of the rest.

    Hope.

    Kel,

    Yep. Oooh – and make sure we tax the benefits they get!

    Pen,

    The point isn’t so much that armed citizens would have stopped this killing, or would even end the violence that has made Chicago just about the most dangerous city in America (although there were some stories of gang shootings being disrupted by armed citizens in Phoenix, years ago). The point is that the most draconian gun ban around hasn’t done any good (and that’s leaving out the presumption that it’s actually done harm).

    But yes, thanks for the link! Both the Twin Cities are great for biking.

  4. Couldn’t we just get Americorps to go in and train all the gang bangers to be community organizers? It’s obvious Chicago needs more community organizers.

  5. They already do that, Kerm. “Nice little community you got here. Shame if something were to happen to it. “

  6. Mitch,
    It’s great that you respond to Peev’s comments as if he honestly believes what he says. Who knows… he probably does.

    But don’t you think it might be time to operate under the theory that he’s not trying to understand your point?

  7. “Nice little health care system you got here. Shame if something were to happen to it. “
    “Nice little bank you got here. Shame if something were to happen to it. “
    “Nice little car company you got here. Shame if something were to happen to it. “
    “Nice little nation you got here. Shame if something were to happen to it. “

  8. Community organization has worked quite well in Chicago; the gangs are prolific and well organized.

  9. Badda,

    I give Mitch a lot of credit, a lot more than I do you, or you me.

    Mitch – I think you cannot conclude a. leads to b. or rather a. has not lead to b. in a vaccuum.

    First, gun crime did fall in Chicago, and rose, and fell, and rose, mostly in alignment with a. rates of joblessness and b. cops on the street. I concur that armed citizens or a strong anti-handgun ban has done little to nothing (Badda – note, I did in fact read MITCH’S comments – I don’t always because I have to sift through drivel like yours to find it) .

    The point is, you simply can’t conclude that stronger gun laws won’t have any effect simply from this situation, nor can you conclude that they WILL tamp down crime when crime rates fall. I think the two are MOSTLY disjointed, but armed citizens also have no effect. Crime is rampant in many citizens with NO gun laws too. I know you said that in your reply to my first post, but the tenor of your original post clearly carries an implication that Chicago is suffering due to a lack of armed citizenry imho. vis a vis the comment about “And again – isn’t it a good thing Chicago has the toughest gun laws in the country? Because ONLY GOD KNOWS how bad this would have been if law-abiding civilians would have the right to discomfit criminals busy with this sort of thing.” I think the word ‘discomfit’ clearly implies an armed, law abiding citizenry would have been able to inconvenience criminals (at worst), don’t you?

  10. “Right, free gun access would have stopped this.. I’m sure.”

    Peev, what do you have against law abiding citizens exercising their 2nd Amendment right to have and bear arms?

    That attitude is typical of Liberal Fascists and their sheeple.

  11. I dunno about what Kermit and Joel are talking about. Everyone knows that it’s too dangerous for the Mob anymore in Chicago, which is why they go to Springfield to make sure that the concrete is poured too thinly on Illinois roads, and work that way.

    Pen, I did a post or two on the Chicago gun ban, and it clearly shows gun killings going up in Chicago as the rest of the nation had a reprieve. While policing and other factors are also important, it should go without saying that if bangers knew that their prospective victims might be packing, too, they might think things through a bit more.

    Besides, being shot by an armed bystander qualifies as a bit more than an “inconvenience,” don’t you think? The NRA and GOA do have fairly long lists of examples of armed citizens making things more than inconvenient for criminals. Maybe you should look them up.

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