Mind you, the gun in question did its best to stop the unnamed teenage shooter from murdering her Facebook rival. “The unnamed teen perp whipped out a stolen .38-caliber handgun about 4:50 p.m. and tried to shoot into a crowd of people, nydailynews.com reports. “The gun jammed and the girl handed it to someone else, who cleared the piece and gave it back. As she sprayed the porch with gunfire, she struck Endia Martin [above] in the back, killing her and grazing a 16-year-old girl in the arm.” Needless to say, Chicago’s top cop shares my opinion that the gun is to blame for Ms. Martin’s demise . . .
“What would have been, under any other circumstance, probably a fistfight between 14-year-old girls, because they were fighting over a boy, turned into a murder,” Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy told reporters Monday, according to the Chicago Tribune. “You introduce a firearm and you have a murder.”
The gun used in the tragic crime was stolen from a car April 13, and the girl’s 24-year-old uncle and a 17-year-old boy also face charges related to the incident, according to the Tribune.
Note: /sarcasm. I do not really blame the gun. But I will concede that guns make murder easier. I mean, I guess they do. I carry a gun every day of my life (when I’m legally able to do so). And yet I find it impossible to murder someone. It’s just not my bag. When I was a teen, if a genuinely murderous thought crossed my mind — and I don’t remember it doing so — I’m sure I dismissed it immediately.
These days, I’m confident that I could shoot someone who posed an imminent and credible threat to my life or other innocent life, and imminence was imminent. But murder? Nope. Of course, the gun on my hip makes it easier for me use my gun for self-defense if need be. As it would for anyone.
Which kinda makes me think: if you pass laws to limit the ability for law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms you might stop some Chicago teens from mowing each other down – I doubt it but I’m putting it out there – but you’d definitely make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from, say, murderous teens.
Setting aside the fact that all Americans have a natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, where’s the sense in that?