I’ve got a switch across my *ss, as my father used to say. It’s gangs. It strikes me as ridiculous that gun control advocates are focusing on gun control when gang control is what this country needs, and not just because of firearms-related violence. Gangs are a cancer on society, preying on our most vulnerable (i.e. economically deprived) members.
Check this out [via dnainfo.com]:
Police received calls of shots fired and a person shot inside Midwest Memorial Chapel, 5040 S. Western Ave., [Chicago] around 11 a.m. Thursday. But an employee of the funeral home said no shots were fired, but guns were brandished and a large fight broke out.
Just before the funeral was to leave for the cemetery, at least two people at the memorial began fighting, the employee said. The employee asked not to be named because they did not have authority to talk about the incident.
The employee saw guns on the people who were fighting but could not say if the guns were pointed.
“I cant for sure who it was. It happened so fast,” the employee said.
Sure. I believe that. No one has ever been intimidated into silence by the threat of gang retribution. [/sarc]
Anyway, the chances of disarming gangs wreaking havoc on our streets is somewhere between slim and none and Slim just left town (as former TTAGer Brad Kozak might say). The answer to America’s gang problem lies within law enforcement, education, economic development, a cultural shift within urban communities and maybe drug legalization. Gun control? Not at all.