Last weekend at least 36 people were shot in Chicago, four fatally. chicago.cbslocal.com reports that Police Supt. Garry McCarthy’s getting heat for failing to curtail the “gun violence.” When pressed, McCarthy put the focus on the locus of the problem: Chicago’s gangs and the politicians who protect them. OK, the gangs. And weak gun control laws. “McCarthy said police have identified some gang rivalries at work in some of the most recent shootings, and were moving to intervene; but the superintendent said ‘lax state and federal gun laws’ thwart the department’s efforts.” You mean there aren’t enough laws to charge people who shoot people unlawfully? No, of course not! It’s about . . .
lax laws that allow law-abiding citizens murderous gang members to get access to guns. Because if those laws were tougher, well, gang bangers wouldn’t have guns would they? And then they couldn’t shoot each other. So there’d be less gun violence. They could get honest work tending to the city’s unicorns. Speaking of animal analogies . . .
“At the end of the day, it’s like running on a hamster wheel, when we’re drinking from a fire hose seizing these guns, and people are coming right back out on the street,” he said. “They’re not learning that carrying a firearm is going to have a severe impact on what’s happening in their lives.”
McCarthy actually seems to be blaming the court system and the criminal statutes for the murderous mayhem, not gun control laws [supposedly] designed to limit criminal access to firearms. So what up with the crack about “lax gun laws”? And how come CBS forgot to point out that recent revelations about fudged Chicago police violent crime data undermines McCarthy’s contention that the City’s violent crime rate is falling? Simple oversight? Or lack thereof?