In the first 24 hours since the Chicago Cubs clinched a berth in the World Series for the first time since 1945, 21 people were shot, seven fatally in Windy City violence. Yes, Chicago – home to decades of the strictest gun control in the nation – has a criminal violence problem. According to HeyJackass.com, Chicago has seen 3564 people shot and 619 homicides thus far this year.
The city’s leaders blame a ready availability of guns, but that doesn’t square with the real world. In Florida, nearly one in five of the state’s adult residents has a concealed weapons permit (1,818,917 to be exact). The Sunshine State has lots of guns and it isn’t awash in Chicago-style violent crime. In fact, Florida’s firearm violent crime rate is near record lows thanks to that state’s recently repealed 10-20-Life law.
In Chicago the good guys with guns are few and far between — which emboldens the bad guys to ply their trade without fear of resistance. Even if criminals are caught by police, they”re often released on electronic home monitoring instead of being held in jail (including those arrested for armed robbery).
Even if prosecutors nail the perp, the bad guys don’t spend much time in jail. Like the young man who nearly stabbed a good Samaritan to death charged with misdemeanor battery. Or the three gang-banger juveniles who tried to murder people in a drive-by shooting at a public park, firing dozens of rounds at a crowd of people. Those suspects got caught red-handed after a high-speed chase and faced only one to three years in prison for a Class 4 felony.
Is it any wonder why violent crime continues to spiral out of control in Chicago? Chicago’s finest will be working a lot of overtime in an effort to keep World Series fans safe from Chicago violence in the coming days. How great is that?