As you may have read in our earlier post today, the reaction to Guns Safe Life’s Chicago gun buyback windfall – they turned in a bunch of broken-ass junk and raised over six grand to fund an NRA shooting camp for kids – hasn’t been entirely positive. Some people in the gun-free paradise on Lake Michigan have taken exception to GSL’s inventiveness. To wit, GSL honcho John Boch got an angry missive from one such Chicagoan, Holly B. We don’t have permission to re-print her email, but as she wrote, she’s so angry she can’t see straight and can’t figure out how the GSL folks can sleep at night. We’re pretty sure they’re snoozing like babies these days in the knowledge that this summer’s shooting camp is fully funded. We do have permission to print John’s reply, though. Make the jump for his retort . . .
Holly,
I’m so sorry you are disgusted by our most recent trip up to the Windy City to take advantage of your city’s program to “buy back,” something the city never owned in the first place.Apparently you read about it in today’s Tribune…
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-gun-buyback-backfire-0702-20120702,0,6431615.story
Yes, we gleefully traded rusted clunkers like these (photo attached) for perfectly good cash in this artificial market your city’s leaders created.
Yes, some of the guns, as you can see, were literally held together with duct tape or electrical tape. While a few would actually fire, many of those would pose as much of a danger to the shooter as anyone down range.
We’re using the money to educate the next generation of gun owners in responsible firearm ownership. We buy ammunition to teach them to shoot (and potentially, so they may save innocent life from predatory criminal attack later in their lives) and then give a few lucky winners firearms with which they can continue to grow as firearm owners.
With decisions come consequences. You and those like you in Chicago have chosen to ignore the role of firearms in deterring violent crime. You reap the consequences of that decision each day.
I will muse that if Chicago’s leaders spent less money paying criminals to “prevent” crime (kind of like paying tribute to the Barbary pirates or paying mob enforcers to avoid being victimized) and sponsoring feel-good efforts like this guy buy back, and instead simply got out of the way and allowed law-abiding FOID-card holders to possess firearms kind of like we do in the rest of the state, your crime rate would be substantially lower.
Instead, you advocate disarming victims. You seem utterly clueless of the relationship between your city’s Draconian firearm laws and its utterly appalling rate of violent crime you yourself lament.
You deserve your city’s leadership and the environment they’ve helped create and foster.
You have helped make your bed. Enjoy sleeping in it, Miss Bergren.
I look forward to publishing your screed in next month’s issue of GunNews.
John