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By Johannes P. 

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg isn’t a fan of the fact that citizens in the Land of Lincoln will be able to legally carry a concealed firearm. Of course, that’s after jumping through numerous hoops such as undergoing a background check, paying a rather significant chunk of change, obtaining a Firearm Owner’s ID and enduring two days of training. And as long as they don’t try to do it in an area that’s on the long list of places that the Illinois legislature has banned concealed carry for ordinary proles. “Guns are about perception, fear, fantasy,” he says in a recent Sun-Times column . . .

As Steinberg sees it,

Anything that encourages someone to take that gun and stick it in his pocket by definition increases the danger of guns.

The question is: Do people need those guns? If you ask any police officer, unless he or she is in the most crime-ridden district, they can count on one hand the times they’ve had to draw their weapon. It doesn’t happen that much, even to most cops.

For civilians, it happens far less. That’s why we keep hearing these stories about fearful mopes blowing away minority teenagers and hardly ever about grandmas getting the drop on bad guys stealing their purses, then marching them to the police station. And you know if it ever happened, the NRA would engrave the story on a coin and badger Congress into issuing it. [Emphases added.]

First, that’s probably the most heart-wrenching use of the word “unless” since the conclusion of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.

Second, Mr. Steinberg misses the mark by apparently discounting any sort of tally of defensive gun uses in which a firearm was displayed or drawn, but not fired.

Third, it’s a good bet that Steinberg isn’t a regular reader of American Rifleman, so it’s quite possible that he isn’t aware that the NRA actually does trumpet defensive gun use stories (though, to be fair to him, I haven’t seen them actually engrave them anywhere). Still, even though times are tough for print media, I expect that they have access to the internet at the Sun-Times, and I was able to find a map that the Cato Institute maintains showing defensive gun use in the United States. And look what I found!

Category: Senior
Name: 87-Year-Old Woman Fatally Shoots Man in Her Home
State: IL
Description: East St. Louis, Illinois: On February 7, 2006, Jacksie Mae King used a revolver to kill Larry Tillman after Tillman cut her phone lines and pried the iron bars off her windows to gain entry. The 87-year-old woman was given a .32 Colt revolver for self-defense by her daughter, a police officer, after she became the victim of a home invasion beating and robbery. Even though the woman didn’t have proper Illinois credentials to own a gun, police declined to charge her with any crime.

  • Incident Categories:
  • Senior
  • Home Invasion

Date: February 7, 2006

That’s a fascinating case on many levels, no?

Now, I don’t want to be too hard on Mr. Steinberg – we all have our own particular ideological blinders, and it’s pretty clear from the language he uses that the column is an emotional reaction to his side’s political defeat more than a well-reasoned argument:

We don’t need to argue — not that anybody for sane gun control has the heart or the guts to pipe up anymore. All we have to do is sit back and watch the future unfold, which is all we’re going to do. It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.

Still, I can’t help but wonder…what is it that Mr. Steinberg is really worried about? If constitutional carry has somehow not resulted in rivers of blood flowing in Vermont (home to Bennington, Woodstock, and the Hon. Bernie Sanders, no less,) and licensed carry is available in urban areas as diverse as Philadelphia, Cleveland, Miami, Houston, Phoenix, Denver, Portland, and Seattle, what horrors does he see in store for Chicago?

Ultimately, what was the point of his column? Other than to vent his spleen at the fact that his downstate rural political opponents — whom he clearly views as his social and intellectual inferiors — got the better of him here, it’s hard to tell.

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149 COMMENTS

    • The last paragraph pretty much says it all, “Ultimately, what was the point of his column?”
      Exactly.

      Before becoming rabid over issues he obviously knows NOTHING about, perhaps Mr. Steinberg should make sure his butt plug is fitting properly.

        • Any columnist whose publicity photo shows him grinning slyly from ear to ear or from out of the corners of the eyes, is usually a lefty jerk.

          Unfortunately, downstate Illinois is ruled by big city liberalism.

        • He looks like a bad magician. I know that is an ad hominem attack but sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, just look at Adam Lanza or Jerry Sandusky.

        • OMG! I just wrote that two minutes before I read your post. So it’s NOT ad Eminem! Great minds…..

      • Apparently butt plugs in Chicago are supplied by the lowest bidder with no sense of quality control. That, and the inherent inability of libtards to differentiate between butt plugs and cock rings often lead to rather unfortunate situations.

  2. Those Framers! What a bunch of kooks, enumerating the right to keep and bear arms as the second Amendment. What were they thinking? Thank goodness we have newspaper columnists to second-guess them. Everyone recognizes the inherent brilliance of newspaper columnists, right? Wise men, every one of them. Steinberg — he’s not another Ashkenazi Jew, is he? Because they appear to act as a clique regarding gun control, which is curious, at best. Was that not a PC question? My apologies.

    • Bingo.

      Also: When he asserts that “guns are about perception, fear, fantasy,” I think he is really engaging in projection… About his beard. His beard is about perception, fear, fantasy.

    • If Jews were the only constituency for gun control in the US, there would be no gun control in the US. So, PC or not, the question was an irrelevant one.

    • “Steinberg — he’s not another Ashkenazi Jew, is he? Because they appear to act as a clique regarding gun control, which is curious, at best”

      I’d imagine so. The issue is SO clear-cut, that we ignore it at our own peril. Der Gun-Kontrol Gang? Fact is, it’s Ashkenazi Jew after Ashkenazi Jew… after Ashkenazi Jew. Might there not be a pattern here? The fact begs for our attention, the People of the Gun, no matter what our race or background may be.

      Some things just can’t be ignored, and Political Korrectnezz be damned.

      • Murphy, O’Malley, McCarthy, Brady, Toomey, Casey — look behind any tree and you’ll find an Irish gungrabber. Irishman after Irishman after Irishman. Even New York City’s hated gun law, the Sullivan Law, was named for an Irishman.

        Right, Burke? Say, you wouldn’t be one of them, would you?

        • If you mean Irishman… well, what do you think?

          However… Schumer, Feinstein, Emanuel, Metzenbaum, Specter, Kohl, Lautenberg, Boxer, Celler, Levin, Lantos, Nadler, Rothman, Cantor….. I get your picture. Do you get (14) of mine?

        • sorry but William is right. Jews OWN gun control in the US. Look behind every major push for gun control or civilian disarmament and you will find a jewish politician or businessman in the shadows.

          “never again”? huh? what’s that?

        • WB: I think it is rather one-sided to pick on the prominent anti-gun few and ignore the pro-gun side of the coin: Don’t forget “Dutch” Schulz (nee Arthur Flegenheimer), or Murder Incorporated’s Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, Harry “Pittsburgh Phil” Strauss, Abe “Kid Twist” Reles, Irving “Puggy” Feinstein, Martin “Buggsy” Goldstein, Irving “Knadles” Nitzberg, Albert Tannenbaum, Mendy Weiss, Philip Cohen, Hyman “Curly” Holtz, Louis “Shadow” Kravitz, and Samuel “Red” Levine. Samuel “Red” Levine (December 27, 1902/1903(?) – April 7, 1972) was an American mobster, described as head of Lucky Luciano’s hit squad of Jewish gangsters. (Wikipedia)

          For every very rich Jew you can find a poor one if you look. For every anti-gun Jew you can find a pro-gun Jew. However, since it is usually the rich and powerful who are anti-gun in regard to the masses, it is those whom you will most see and hear. I could tell the same story for the Irish, Italians, or, lo, the Anglos. Quite a few people in any group are no damned good, you see, whatever their ethnicity. Laugh.

        • No, Jeff, Burke isn’t right. I once posted a very lengthy list of Irish gungrabbers on this site and will do so again. Jews write about it, but the Irish make the laws. And when the cops show up at your door, they aren’t going to be Jews. They’re going to be Irish.

          Like McCarthy in Chicago, Kelly and now Bratton in New York City, Evans in Boston — I can do this all day long.

        • I’m sorry; I was talking about politicians at the federal level. I didn’t realize the subject was Irish cops.

        • If someone can point to an ethnicity that produces neither heroes nor criminals, neither lefties nor right-wingers, I’ll be surprised. I haven’t come across one.

      • I read somewhere that the IDF messed around with Ruger 10-22s as “lower lethality” weapons. I guess they wanted to have some dirtbags that they could patch up and interrogate. Turns out that .22LR is just as lethal as anything else, though it might not be as immediate.

        No matter how much they say a caliber sucks, they’ll never volunteer to be shot by it.

  4. Again, another idiot that does not understand that the human predators just DO NOT CARE about the laws and morality. The depend on the fact that people will be unarmed and unprepared.

  5. While we are asking police officers to recount how many times they have drawn a gun, perhaps we should go on to ask how many support concealed carry… The overwhelming majority of Leos do.

    • Yes. Except in high crime areas, as mentioned, police are responding to crimes already committed in most cases, not still in process. Under those conditions the victim of the crime would have a great deal more likelihood to draw and/or use a defensive weapon than a responding police officer. Definitely comparing apples to oranges.

      • Yep. Steinberg blithely spoke about the high-crime district exception, but apparently forgot that many people actually live in those districts or need to enter them for work or transit.

        He also seems to think he has summed shootings as mostly “fearful mopes blowing away minority kids,” which is as far from the facts as one can get. The murderous shootings are mostly minority kids shooting minority kids, if ‘kids’ includes those in their twenties.

        As for the cops not needing to draw their firearms, of course: What perp does his business in front of a uniformed cop with a gun on his hip? Approximately none, and so the cop has no reason to draw.

        • …and clearly Steinberg does not consider merely drawing a pistol to be using it, which is absurd. Most beneficial uses require no more than the presentation.

    • And he says you can ask ANY officer in all but a high crime area (by his personal definition) and they will tell you they have cleared leather 5 times or less. With that non-science he is still incorrect. It takes so very little justification for some cops to clear leather here in Texas in what this guy would consider the lowest violent crime areas The cop most certainly doesn’t even have to be in ANY DANGER WHATSOEVER to point a loaded firearm at someone, WITH HIS DAMN FINGER ON THE TRIGGER. I know from experience. Even if he was correct it has absolutely no bearing on the RKBA but he ISN”T correct on top of everything.

  6. this guy’s got some real kahonas! He’s part of the problem with the liberal media they never cover any story and less it bleeds! This guy on to take a walk to some of those neighborhoods in Chicago rated more dangerous than Afghanistan! He’s a pompous ass!!! Of course he doesn’t need a firearm he lives in a secure building that the rent is probably seven thousand dollars a month! Just another Bloomberg asshole!!!!

    • I have to confess that I would be somewhat nervous to be in Chicago in the weeks/months between the time law-abiding residents first begin exercising their right to self defense and the time the criminal element actually takes to heart that they are now facing armed opposition. I suspect this is when Mr. Steinberg will see plenty of the defensive gun uses he can’t seem to find right now.

    • Thank goodness he didn’t have a picture of a gun in that article otherwise we’d habe lockdowns galore and category II firearm whatevers all over creation!

      That was a close call!

  10. Lets think about why cops aren’t having to use their weapons……..Oh, possibly because the criminals aren’t willing to risk attacking and armed person???

    Let’s use common sense Neil. You don’t have to carry a gun….I want force you, but as a citizen of the US I reserved the right to carry and use mine…..DONT TREAD ON ME!!

    • That was my thought. Do uniformed cops get mugged a lot up there? If so, all the more reason for non-uniformed people to carry. 🙂

      • I was about to write that same thing. Thugs may be stupid, but they are not so stupid that they try to mug armed police officers. And I would think that most of these CPD earn enough that they don’t live in neighborhoods where home invasions happen nightly.

      • OMG! You NAILED him!! Nice work. Thanks.

        How telling IS it that he wanted a JOURNALIST for his attorney?

      • Actually, what he is guilty of is envy… It’s clear to me now,

        I dont want to be stereotypical BUT…. the only men that don’t like guns are the ones who are prohibited from possessing them.. Guns, Women,Sports,Fast Cars,Motorcycles,Trucks… these are guy things brought upon us by the good lord himself…What guy is going to come out against the toys that god has hardwired in our DNA unless he is prohibited from ever playing with them??… You don’t hear Guys ever coming out against Cars with too much horsepower..or women who are so beautiful that they Must be contained…
        I say it’s jealousy.

    • Yep. We’re supposed to take seriously the foolish writing of a guy who went through most of his adult life as a drunkard, arrested (but convicted?) on domestic abuse charges, and very late to the game of “I’ll behave now!” He can’t be trusted with a gun and therefore thinks no one should be. He lives in a leafy safe neighborhood and seems to think everyone does. Classic.

    • This was a blast from the past–went to school with him, actually not a bad guy–spent most of his time running the NU humor mag. But mind you pretty much all the Medill-does (Journalism school) were seriously left. But the real irony is that ,if memory serves correctly, he ran for student government one year under the campaign slogan “Pound a Heinie (ken) and vote for Steinie”.

  12. Oh, I’m sure he’ll write a retraction next year when there are no “rivers of blood in the streets” as has been predicted time and again.

    Yeah, I crack me up sometimes.

  14. Of course most cops don’t draw their guns. They mostly get to the crime scenes after the fact and take reports and make notes–why do they need to draw their guns?

  15. I love how he take the example of police officers. It forms no logic at all. Only a delusional crack-head would go at it with a uniformed police officer willingly. Criminals do their best to AVOID police and run from them once detected. On the other hand…criminals do their best to FOCUS on every day residents….seriously, where is this guy’s logic?

  16. I’m glad to hear Vermont mentioned finally. Constitutional carry for as long as we’ve been around (as a state AND an independent republic) and a large amount of firearms…but last time I checked the 2+ feet of snow outside was not stained red.

    Unfortunately, there still was 2+ feet of snow outside…

  17. “It doesn’t happen that much, even to most cops.”
    I would think, given that most cops are armed, uniformed, as well as protected by a slew of additional potential charges should you decide to attack one, that the rates police are accosted on the streets would be far lower than they are for the general population….or am I missing something that only this writer is privy to?

  18. and licensed carry is avaialble in urban areas as diverse as … Phoenix

    Phoenix is in AZ, so it must be even “worse” than that.

  19. I really don’t know where to start. I was expecting Neil to hold his breath until they repeal the law or something. The fact that, he can’t even be bothered to search, just a little for such answers tells me, as you concluded. He is having a hissy fit. He can’t comprehend what freedom and liberty, self reliance looks like. So he is going to kick and scream and hold his breath until something is done.
    This is really about as far as he gets.

    • And unless something has changed since I grew up in Chicago, the Sun-Times is the local Liberal/Progressive dead-tree organ. So, no surprises, editorially.

    • Dear Megan,Good for you to be on top of your finances. The only area that I seem to be fbmnliug with are my business finances. This being my first year selling, I find if it weren’t for my quarterly sales tax reports that I must submit to our government here in Canada, I would just ignore the chore until year end.. and we all know what that does to our sanity! I pretty much operate my business solo & I find it hard to keep on top of everything. My book keeping sit way back there in the trunk of my caravan.. I completely agree that the information gained from up to date financial data is by far one of the most crucial elements to running a profitable business. I am looking for someone to do this chore for me.. and to supply pie charts, profit/loss statements.. I love looking at all this information as it is invaluable.. But I have come to the conclusion that I need to hire someone to tabulate things for me, as this is the only way I will get it done. How often do you sit down to crunch the numbers and how much time do you spend entering data every week/ month? Anne

  20. Let me see if i am gonna mug someone, is it gonna be the guy with the badge or the guy who looks like an easy mark w/o a gun? hmmmm choices, choices, tho sometimes they are dumb enough to choose the wrong person.

  21. I can count on one hand the number of times the US has used nuclear weapons. See, they are useless! The US should unilaterally dismantle all of them because they are never ever used!

    It’s a good bet Steinberg missed deterrence on the SAT. Maybe the reason the police rarely draw their weapon is because they have it. A rare igit indeed goes out and intentionally pokes a bear.

    • And it was utterly without good reason. Japan had already made surrender overtures. They were dropped on Japan to scare the p*ss out of the Soviet Union and China. Well, they weren’t scared for long, were they?

      • If the war had continued on into 1946, estimates are that some several millions of Japanese ( the numbers 4 and 6 stick in my mind, can’t recall which it was) would have died from malnutrition and related diseases alone–not to mention additional combat casualties. Those bombs saved literally millions more Japanese lives than they took.

        • Good point, but why would the war have gone into 1946, if the Japanese had already made back-channel peace overtures?

          And the better question: WHY NAGASAKI? Neither city was especially involved in the Japanese war effort, and the fire-bombing of Tokyo killed far more people, and Einstein, Szilard and other atomic scientists had been publicly critical of the use of nuclear weapons against Japan.

        • Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were major military targets. Both cities had major military installations, and he majority of the work force in both the cities were involved in direct war efforts. 90% of Nagasaki’s workforce was employed by the four largest military plane ship an armament companies.

      • Burke, that is a garbage claim. It would have been millions and millions of casualties of US and Japanese in Japan alone. About a million and a half people per month were starving in Japanese’s occupied areas as well. More people would have died of starvation if the surrender had been delayed a week than were killed in both bombings.

        The bombs, and only the bombs caused a surrender. Otherwise it would have been six months and a contested invasion with net invasion plus starvation elsewhere casualties of about 10 million

        • Your “garbage” claim is a garbage claim. Does it help you to feel like you “won” something? Because everybody loses with nukes loose in the world.

        • Your ignorance doesn’t make you right. 10 million more deaths were prevented.

          And the “lots of nukes” in the period since created a profound deterrence and ended global war.

        • My dad had actually just started training for Operation Olympic when the bombs dropped. Anyone who thinks the Japanese were on the verge of making peace might recall even the first bomb itself didn’t quite convince the people who were running things.

        • “Convince”? Seeing as how there were only 3 days between the bombs, and there were no direct channels of communication, that doesn’t sound very realistic.

          I continue to maintain that they were dropped to scare the Soviet Union, and maybe China, and that it had less to do with Japan than is currently understood.

    • Perhaps you have not been watching. Obuma HAS unilaterally disarmed Nucs and conventional. And filled what little remains with girls soldiers.

  22. Point of fact, the NRA does report on legitimate self defense stories all the time. Mr. Steinberg’s lack of awareness does not mean it doesn’t happen.

    http://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/armed-citizen.aspx

    But even if it didn’t, why should my rights be subject to what Mr. Steinberg feels is “often enough?”

    I only have to vote for a president once every four years. Once every four years is pretty infrequent… so perhaps we should just do away with that too… just to save Neil any discomfort.

  23. “That’s why we keep hearing these stories about fearful mopes blowing away minority teenagers…”

    It’s the same two stories, over and over, because the media has sensationalized them with seemingly endless enthusiasm.

    Oh, and “fearful mopes” is a racist euphemism.

  24. Another Liberal” I don’t know anything about guns but I hate them and you should too or you are Stupid not as smart as me cause no one NEEDS one in our wonderful crime free Chicago! OH!!! AND AND THE NRA IS STUPID! And why do you need it and and common sense and ahhh universal checkgroundbacks and and gang members have rights and ahh you are a bully and only police should have them ….I don t like you! Guns are black and evil oh oh oh….military style grade pistol packin grip bullit button assaulting clips, with magic throwaway bullets and and and so there!!! And I really mean it.I hate you.” The door slams and locks as the music starts blaring.Another liberal (teenager) voices their (limited) thoughts.

  25. He seems to be using the liberal medias refusal to run any story contrary to the narrative that guns are weapons of mass destruction, and that gun owners are trigger happy child murderers, as an argument against the second amendment. That’s so cute. The left really is one giant echo chamber. I’m sure that this fellow, when provided with examples of DGUs, will simply shove his fingers in his ears and scream until the offending party stops contradicting his narrow worldview.

  26. I’m a cop, and I can tell you that the number of times I’ve drawn my gun on duty can be counted on one hand. And I’ll continue that count with my other hand. I’ll count after that on my toes, and a piece of scratch paper after that. Done.

    Between stops of stolen cars, burglars, alarm calls (90% bogus, but still), and felony contacts, I’ve drawn my gun on duty quite a bit. Guns are a wonderful deterrent against felons. I recommend one (or maybe a couple dozen) for all responsible citizens. The only time I don’t carry is when I’m in the shower, and on long distance runs. As someone who has personal experience with DGU’s, I can tell you that a gun locked up in a safe won’t do you much good when you’re out and about.

  27. As soon as anyone mentions “need” as as a criteria, let alone basing their whole argument on it, I can’t even listen. It’s not a need. It’s an inalienable right. After all we don’t “need” newspapers do we? Who reads print media anymore? After “need” the rest is all garbage.

    • Yeah, I get the same way anytime someone thinks they can make a blanket statement that covers more than 100 MILLION people across the country.

  28. “Anything that encourages someone to take that gun and stick it in his pocket by definition increases the danger of guns.”

    I dont know if this is an actual quote from Steinburg or if it’s the opinion of the author, But if it’s from Steinburg, it’s the most idiotic Statement used for not Carrying I have ever heard.

    How can My gun In my pocket “increase” ( which means make more ) the danger level of the guns in my Safe?

    the only “anything” encouraging me carrying is self preservation.

    I need to take drugs to figure these idiots out..

    • This is how their “common sense logic works. If you don’t have a gun in your pocket, the risk that it will be used (for any reason) is 0.00%. Therefore, if you put a gun in your pocket, the chance it will be used for a DGU increases to the same percentage as the local crime rate. He didn’t say, “used for the wrong reason,” just “used,” and at least to that extent he is correct. Where he goes stray is that He implies that any use of a gun by a civilian is for “the wrong reason,” or that there Is an increased risk that someone who has a gun will become violent and commit a crime. You see, we just can’t be trusted with guns–we might hurt somebody.

  29. I draw at least once a week, not counting rifles. Mostly for building searches, but also occupied stolen cars, some felony warrant arrests, and every once in a while we find a fleeing robbery or felony assault suspect.

    I had to clear one burglary scene yesterday, and hold perimeter on another a few hours later while the k9 searched it. Both times we had reason to think someone was still inside, and both times the pistol came out.

  30. Guns are about perception, fear, fantasy. Far more so for Steinberg and co. than for those of us who can tag “reality” onto the end of that sentence.

    What a man says about the people he dislikes reveals a lot about himself.

  31. The old woman doesn’t count. She shot him. She was supposed to hold him at gun point and walk him to the nearest PD station. Rookie shit, JP.

  32. “Stand by and watch what happens.” says the Police Superintendent in the murder capital of the US.

    I’m fine with that. Really, I am.

    As for Mr. Steinberg, he would do well to actually spend some time in “bucolic farm counties of rural Illinois.” But he obviously hasn’t been outside the suburbs in a long time.

  34. Honestly, I read a few lines of his wordy garbage and flushed the rest. He asked why we never hear about defensive gun use? The media is why. They distort and manipulate the news. Mainstream media is NOT OUR FRIEND.
    Also, law enforcement are the ones that make media releases. Much of this stuff simply doesn’t make it to a media release and if it does, the media doesn’t further release it.
    People should read the local police and sheriffs dept web sites for media releases and watch how much the mainstream media doesn’t’ report.

  35. ‘The question is: Do people need those guns?’

    Why is it the same people who keep trying to tell me that middle aged men need maternity coverage on their health insurance are the same ones who question why I NEED a firearm?

        • Based on this: http://www.everygoddamnday.com/p/about-neil-steinberg.html

          I suspect this is his home: http://chicago.blockshopper.com/property/04094040240000/2000_center/

          A 2600 sq ft house for him, his wife and two teenage suns and a couple of animals. Clearly he doesn’t need that much space.

          If they have more than one car, they should get rid of them because he could take the Milwaukee Dist North line to Union Station in Chicago on the occasion he actually has to go into Chicago. He then can take the El wherever he needs. Granted, in today’s age of the internet, he only needs an internet connection. Given he submitting content for publication, a dial-up account is all he needs. One land line since he can use an old trs-80 to type his article and dial in for submitting it. His kids and wife can wait for the 2400 baud modem (I’m being gracious here since a 300 baud acoustic will work just fine) to complete before they use it. I’m presuming his kids take the bus to and from school because they will not need a car to go places – Mom or Dad could take them to and from work until they graduate and can share a one bedroom apartment (because bachelors with entry level jobs don’t need any more than that).

          It’s amazing what can be found through a simple google search with his name and the location he gave.

        • How surprising. Yet another anti-gun liberal journalist chooses to live in a neighborhood with approximately zero minorities. And that feature is so important to him that he’s willing to settle for a smallish house on a very small lot. “Just get me away from the brown people!” Nice, Neil. I suppose those seven books didn’t sell so well. I know. I know. They were really aimed at a very small audience….

  36. So IF police rarely need to draw their firearms (which isn’t all that true; it is true that most rarely have to fire them, but that’s sometimes because the threat of deadly force was sufficient) why do they need to carry them?

    Because sometimes they do.

    If your normal citizen would rarely need to think about using a firearm they still need to be legally able to do so… because sometimes they do. Even rarely, even almost never. Because telling someone they need to let someone rape or murder them because it happens rarely is not acceptable.

  37. All right, Neil, there was no DGU. The flash of light you saw was not gunfire. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

  40. “One court has already decided… courts are where the constitutionality of these things are decided.”

    “It’s gone to the court, and guess what? You lost.”

  41. “All we have to do is sit back and watch the future unfold, which is all we’re going to do.”

    Um, MacFly? MacFly?!?! The future has been unfolding since 1987 when Florida started issuing concealed carry licenses, a practice which has since spread to every other state. Yet, we still don’t see the infamous blood in the streets scenario of the antis’ insatiably macabre imaginations.

    People like Mr. Steinberg must take a special pleasure in reassuring themselves that the ultimate proof of just how wise and farseeing they are, is that none of their predictions have ever come true.

  43. The governor of Connecticut would like to share some words with all the panicking statists of Illinois: YOU LOST!

    Ha, Ha!≤/nelson>

  45. What a freakin’ twit. Probably never spent a day working a beat where he had to actually go outside of his office. If he had, he’d know what’s out there and he’d be singing the praises of defensive measures. Twit.

  46. “Guns are about perception, fear, fantasy,”

    Funny… I was going to say the same thing about gun grabbers. Also I would like to point out what i think is important. If there are 100 police officers and only 5 have to use their guns in their lifetime, for a total of 5% usage, but there are 10,000 citizens and 100 have to use their guns in their lifetime , for a total of 1% usage…. according to this Expletive Deleted that means guns are useless, because a smaller percentage used their guns.

    In no way will I ever accept the idea that fewer individual citizens ever have to use their guns than individual cops.

  47. A gentleman should never need a pistol, but should he need a pistol he will need more than anything he has ever needed.

    Unless… He has a personal security force. Or a cop he can carry everwhere piggy-back style.

    • I used to carry my lawyer in a slick Galco Miami Classic under my left arm and a cop about 4’oclock on my belt in a nice Yaqui belt slide but my back isn’t as good as it used to be and a couple of pistols turned out to be lighter. Now I just keep the lawyer on speed dial and mostly the cop is either back home in the safe or in the trunk, you know, in case I really need it.

      Reminds me, I need to get that cop out and make sure it’s not rusting.

  48. Putz. & domestic violence too? BTW I live in Illinois and haven’t looked at the Sun-Times in years. They got rid of most of their,staff last year. The Tribune is almost as bad(early Odumbo supporter). Surprised either paper is STILL around. The so called liberal media has FAR less influence than it used to have.
    n

  49. The data show that the “paranoid” are Steinberg and his ilk. Pew research indicate that the vast majority of gun control advocates like Steinberg thing gun murder is up when it has crashed (as gun owners has increased) to half of levels 20 years ago.

    As far as defensive gun use, yes it is an estimate, just like those saved by vaccines are an estimate. Steinberg parrots the CLASSIC anti-vaccine argument, saying that those saved are not real data as they are estimates

    • A contractor hired by the Clinton administration came to an estimate of approx. 1,500,000 defensive gun uses per year, almost all involving the mere showing of the firearm to stop the aggression. Given his age, I would have thought Steinberg would have been aware of that, but no. He was probably drinking too heavily during those years.

      • Obama’s 23 million dollar CDC report says 500,000 to three million.

        And Steinberg doesn’t understand that his point of cops showing their guns, but not firing, is the same deterrence that occurs in civilian gun use, where in less than .05% of cases is a drawn gun fired. Virtually all the time a gun is used by a good guy, it is to end threat of violence without committing violence

  50. Why is it that the gun grabbers are mostly white and come from affluent areas that rarely if ever see crime? Steinberg lives in an affluent suburb north of chicago. I know this because his arrest for domestic battery made headlines a few years ago. He entered into an alcohol treatment facility as part of his sentence. Under Illinois conceal carry law, he would not be eligible for a FOID card or a conceal carry permit. Maybe this is sour grapes.

  51. a real man who don’t need no stinkin’ gun would post his home address, pics of his wife, and the times when he won’t be home. . . . . just sayin

  52. The gun grabbers lost….
    So..this gun grabber writes an article filled with falsehoods, non facts and lies……Typical.
    He is a fool. Ignore him and he will go away. Maybe he can go cry with Piers Morgan….:)

  54. Everybody on TTAG needs to send the DGU part of American Rifleman magazine as wellas the dgu video of the Off duty Chicago officer at the gas station shooting the bg and the Michigan mom unloading on the 3 perps kicking in door.Just berage this ahole with examples.Make him eat it.Find out who the competitor to the Sun Times is and give them theInfo and let them embarras the jerk.Publicly in his own land!

    • He would just complain about being “bullied”.

      He is not interested in facts. He made up his mind decades ago. It is nearly impossible for him to change his mind now, he would have to admit that he has made wrond decisions for decades.

      Self delusion is far, far, easier.

  55. Is it wrong that I’m more concerned with why I keep seeing targeted ads that ask me about the best cure for toenail fungus?

    What’s the real danger here?

  56. Direct him to Rationality Rebooted, the website of Defensive Gun Uses. There is a map showing all the DGU’s reported in the papers around the country.

  58. The concept of self-defense does not have time limits, perscriptions, does not follow patterns, and is not predictable. Therefor, you must always be ready. This man will be lucky if he never has to experience a situation where self-defense becomes a primary focus.

  59. Steinberg is a pompous idiot. That being said, a correction to the list of cities you mention in the second to last paragraph, and where you claim licensed concealed carry is legal: Phoenix is not one of them. Arizona does not require a license for concealed carry. Yay Arizona!

  60. Ah yes, the “Blood in the Streets” argument.

    It might not sound so stupid if that very same prediction hadn’t already failed to come true in 49 of the last 49 states that legalize concealed carry.

    • I’m pretty sure they know there won’t be “blood running in the streets”. But that patently false cliché is a touchstone for them, a matter of faith, not of fact or logic. They are helpless to NOT say it, just as I say, “ouch!” when I bump into something. I know it’s not going to hurt. In fact, it didn’t hurt, but I mutter “ouch!” nonetheless, before feeling like a bozo for doing so.

    • He looks like a third-rate magician, the kind you have to settle for for your kid’s birthday party because all the good ones are booked up.

      Whoa! Was that an ad hominem or not?

  62. “… they [police officers] can count on one hand the times they’ve had to draw their weapon.” — Neil Steinberg Chicago Sun Times Columnist

    That is because the violent crime is almost always over by the time the police get there!!!!!

    I can assure you that every single violent crime victim has a definite need to draw a weapon if they have one.

    EPIC FAIL Mr. Steinberg.

  63. N. Steinberg being a self proclaimed expert on self defense sure would not complain that me a pilot, could give him his next colonoscopy. You know,l I claim to be an expert in people with a rectal issues.

  64. Sure cops seldom fire in the line of duty, but consider that a uniformed officer in public is sending a constant visual signal “armed and dangerous.” Here’s a thought. Next survey of police ask them how many would agree to only having access to firearms while on duty, leave the piece at the station, and be just like the rest of the unarmed citizens during off hours. Just like the citizens of Chicago have been for some time now. If self defense truly is a paranoid fantasy I’m sure they’ll all agree enthusiastically.

    • I believe that day is coming, and sooner than many may think. Coppers will have to pick up their guns from a locker at the station house, or even a “centrally-located” armory, and drop them off and lock ’em up after a shift. Then some of them will begin to understand.

      • No, I predict it will be the other way around – the cops will get more militarized until you won’t be able to tell them from a standing army. The streets will be “safe,” but I’m reminded of the time, about 1972-ish, a few neighbors were hanging out on the front porch, and one neighbor lady, who was a kid in Germany before the Big Bad Man of WWII started invading everybody. She’d remark, wide-eyed, “You didn’t have to lock your door!” The people loved him, until it was too late.

        • I maintain the grabbers do not trust cops with guns, off-duty. They can become more militarized on duty. But not outside of duty.

  65. The rag that this buffoon writes for nearly closed down, and it was rescued by The Chicago Tribune, whose presses publish it for the few dozen bigger buffoons who read it at public libraries for the most part. Let him keep at it. The Sun Times isn’t, quite, going to survive, unless it finds a wealthy benefactor who is content to lose money on it. And, when the rag folds, we’ll see who gives old Steinberg another job . . .

  66. Wife beaters do not get a free pass for being Liberal Period. Neil Steinberg is trash. Plain and simple. Beating a woman is a “choice” not a mistake.

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