“Gun violence has reached almost endemic levels in Chicago,” thinkprogress.org declares, after another ballistically active Windy City weekend (22 people shot in 24-hours). Adam Peck meant to use the word “epidemic.” “Endemic” means “(of a disease or condition) regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.” “In epidemiology,” Wikipedia informs, “an infection is said to be endemic in a population when that infection is maintained in the population without the need for external inputs.” That’s the exact opposite of Peck’s excuse for his gun control-crazy town’s shootings . . .
While Chicago has passed numerous measures in an attempt to make it harder for people to purchase deadly weapons, the rest of the state has lagged far behind. Forty three percent of guns seized in the Chicagoland area were purchased elsewhere in the state, while most of the remaining guns were brought to the city from out of state.
In other words, it wuzzn’t me. Or, look at that baby!
An 11-year-old girl in Chicago was shot and killed late last week when a stray bullet flew through a window and struck her in the head during a sleepover at a nearby friend’s house.
Blaming surrounding states’ gun laws for Chicago’s epidemic of “gun violence” or, indeed, Shamiya Adams’ death, is like Rhode Island blaming Massachusetts’ car dealerships for the Ocean State’s drunk driving fatalities. Or the death of a little girl at a drunk driver’s hands.
Simply put, criminals get guns. The idea that you can choke off their supply to reduce gang-related shootings is beyond ludicrous. It’s a ruse. A justification for limiting Chicago residents’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Which helps maintain the status quo. And puts Shamiya Adams and other innocents in harm’s way.
So what could be/should be done to quell Chicago’s “gun violence”? Longer prison sentences? Federal anti-corruption task force? How can you stop the shootings?