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Community activist Andrew Holmes (courtesy suntimes.com)

“I’m totally upset because if that gun is on the street, that assault rifle, with a 30-round magazine, that can do some damage within less than a minute. At any given moment, even tonight, 30 to 40 people can lose their life in one spot.”  – Community activist Andrew Holmes, quoted in ‘Assault Rifles Stolen from South Side Chicago Rail Yard’ [via nbcchicago.com]

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62 COMMENTS

  1. I have to keep my AR chained up. If I don’t it will load itself and run around shooting people. /sarc

    • Shocking, isn’t it? I saw mine trying to steal my car keys last night so it could run around on the streets shooting people. I had to speak very harshly to it, and even gave it a time-out!

    • He has a point.
      He was specifically referring to stolen rifles in this case, multiple rifles. Stolen rifles are much more likely to end up in the hands of violent criminals, who, as we’ve seen many times, are unable to hit their rival gang targets without killing at least half a dozen bystanders.

      Of course the solutions to this sort of situation: end the war on drugs, end the prohibitions/restrictions on civilian firearm ownership, and stop ignoring the scourge of gang violence, are completely foreign to a Chicago community organizer.

      • However, as has been noted on TTAG numerous times, more people are bludgeoned to death in the U.S. every year than are killed with rifles (of any description), stolen or otherwise.

        And the whack job in CT, with a stolen scary black rifle, essentially all the time in the world and plenty of ammo in a target-rich environment, only killed 26. As usual, the solution is not more scare tactics about how dangerous the RIFLE is, but how dangerous it is to have no defense against the person(s) willing to use one to murder.

  2. I imagine what he really meant to say was “damn it, you just know one of these ignorant little thugs lookin like a fool with their pants on ground is going to shoot somebody!”

  3. The Vice documentary TV-series has covered this dozens of times. This is a common occurrence in Chicago land. That this surprises the community organizer, then he is out of touch. This is how many guns get into Chicago land. The guy must have his head in a hole. He has also been will versed in the civil disarmament language and will repeat it because that is all he knows.

    • He might be versed in the language, but he got the talking point wrong.

      Isn’t it supposed to be

      “30 caliber clip can disperse 30 bullets within half a second.”

    • I’m not certain if it was the same Vice Doc or another one, but they even had a short Q&A with a gang member in the back of a car who openly said that the politicains have it wrong, they don’t USE ‘assault weapons.’ They prefer handguns (so they can be concealed, gasp without permits), with low recoil, and ‘large ‘clips’, not to shoot more people but because “We try to eat up the body.”

      • I believe they had two segments, but I remember the one you are talking about. Not sure if it was in the same documentary, but the reporter actually went out to some train tracks and talked about how the trains have secret stops where gangs get on/off to ferry guns around. They showed a location and showed some people getting off a train car and then told by gang members to stop filming. The gangs have been smuggling guns for years

  4. He should be far more concerned that there’s someone out there walking the streets willing to do something like that. How someone goes about killing people is completely irrelevant, the fact that we release violent criminals from prison or give them plea deals should be what keeps him up at night.

    • I don’t know…he might be right to fear a rifle that can kill 40 people with a 30 round magazine.

      Actually, I think the military would like to hear more about that one as well…

      Oh wait, I guess I misread. 30-40 people can lose ONE LIFE. One dead out of 30 round mag? Is that what he meant?

    • Especially how Chicago has given repeat felons 4 months of ”boot camp” as opposed to actual jail time. They dont punish their criminals, they train them to be more effective.

    • what is worse is we take nonviolent offenders and send them to a state or federal penitentiary on marijuana possession charges and turn them in to violent criminals who have no chance of reintegrating into society

      • We absolutely need to keep the pot heads off the streets! Could you imagine if they were allowed to run wild? We might experience the great white castle burger shortage of 2014! How would I be able to experience self induced dysentery without those delicious little rat burgers? Not to mention the stink of the stoners roaming around blowing pot smoke and releasing the intestinal aftermath of a crave case. Oh the horror!

  5. Didn’t the ATF lose at least one real M-16 assault rifle last year? Don’t tell this guy, he might stroke out.

  6. “thugs lookin like a fool with their pants on ground is going to shoot somebody!”

    Do you realize that such “fashion” was used in prison to indicate homosexual availability?

    • Tom,

      I respectfully disagree with your assment.

      Belts are taken from prisoners when they are booked. The lack of a belt makes their pants sag.

      Some continue this practice on the outside because it proves that they have been in Jail and have street cred.

  7. Typical Chicago…let’s address imaginary problems rather than real ones. Those 13 rifles have probably already made it across the border to Mexico by now. Meanwhile, 30 people in Chicago will be shot every weekend (none by “assault rifles”).

    • Yeah when is the truth going to come out that the train load of guns was left in the black neighborhood so that the black people would kill each other…oh yeah, they used that story already.

    • Don’t laugh. You may not believe this, but a Community Activist is eligible for upgrade to Community Organizer if he or she has sufficient education and has a well-defined portfolio of attractive issue positions. Once recognized as a Community Organizer a smooth-reading good-smelling Organizer who can speak Standard U.S. English has a credible shot at a run for State Senator. As far fetched as it sounds, I predict such a résumé will one day be considered adequate entry-level training for a long-shot U.S.Senate run, even, one day in the distant future, an possible entry into a Democratic presidential primary, if only to gain some name recognition. Scoff if you will.

  9. Just so we’re straight on the facts here, should they end up in a crime, they were stolen in transit to a destination other than Chicago, not a straw purchase, not purchased in another state and brought to Chicago, not stolen from a gun owner that didn’t store them properly, not the result of a law abiding gun owner who legally purchased it using the laws in place now. None of these…it was a crimal act that put these firearms in play regardless of type, capacity or any other factor.

  13. This story is fishy to me. I cant quite put my finger on it, but this reeks. Seriously. The guns were stolen in Englewood, a not very nice place. And I get theft, but this almost seems like an inside job or a setup or they were planted.

    • More likely a crime of opportunity. Thieves have been raiding in-transit rail freight since it’s invention. One day it’s diapers, another day guns.

    • Shocking! Corruption, inside jobs, etc…in Rahm’s Workers’ Paradise?

      This looks like a job for Mayors Against Illegal Guns! Somebody shine the 32 oz cola signal in the sky!

    • It was stolen from a rail yard. Trucking companies and railroad yards are very seldom in upscale neighborhoods. They steal from largely unprotected containers of various goods and sometimes get lucky with a catch of M & P AR’s. According to the police report, they left behind other weapons in the same shipment. Those must have been some real ugly guns…..

  14. As long as Mr. Miculek didn’t steal the rifle and all of a sudden lose his respect for human life in the south of Chicago, I don’t think that 30-40 people in a minute are at risk.

  15. Considering that you’re more likely to die due to severe weather than from being shot by any kind of rifle in the entire US and its territories…

    http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/tables/20tabledatadecpdf

    http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml

    …I’d say Andy here has his priorities in the wrong place. Maybe he should concentrate on dealing with the criminal element in his city rather than blaming an object for the way some would misuse it. Especially considering that the criminals in his city account for a huge percentage of violent crime statistics for the entire country.

  16. So are rail car burglaries just incredibly common in Chicago or did somebody know about this shipment and target it specifically?

    • Sadly, it’s a fact of life in Chicago. There was a major rail line that passed through my old neighborhood just before crossing the Eisenhower expressway. The bridges were old and the trains slowed down before crossing. My cousin and his gang-banger friends used to run alongside and steal from the trains. He was chased home on several occasions by detectives. He’d be hiding in bed with his clothes on when they came knocking.

  17. I’m upset with his apparent lack of concern for the causes of violence in his city. It’s not the gun running around wreaking havoc. It’s primarily gang bangers. And why are they causing trouble? Single parent homes, where the father thought it “cool” to get a girl pregnant and then leave. Lack of parental involvement in the children’s lives, see previous statement. An attitude that trying to do the right thing is akin to “trying to act white”, a taboo in that community. Poverty, causing an attitude of entitlement. Government, putting poor against rich, rather than helping the poor succeed. Entitlement programs, keeping people poor.

    I could go on and on. This guy is a coward for not willing to address the REAL issues.

  18. From the linked article:

    “Hopefully they’re not used in a crime”

    Too late. They have already been used in a crime. Theft is still a crime in Chicago, isn’t it?

  19. Let’s all give a hand to Mr. Holmes and NBC for that great soundbite.

    A few questions that require investigation beyond the agenda to only arm the elite that I would like to know. How many rifles were stolen? Who would know that a shipment of arms was in a Southside Chicago railyard? What was the ultimate destination of the shipment? How often are these types of shipments stolen in Chicago and other cities (say Atlanta)?
    Isn’t there a trend here that would indicate organized crimes?

  20. Andrew Holmes is Chicago’s most prominent poverty pimp. Now that Jesse is getting old & Jesse Jr is in prison. Correct if I’m wrong but I seem to remember him being arrested for beating up his wife. I do agree this was a crime of opportunity. 50AR’s would have been a really great score. On the way to Mexico. Or not.

  22. So lets blame the gun, not the people who stole it OR the people who were negligent enough to allow it to be taken. Those damn guns wanting to be stolen so they can carry out their evil master plans /facepalm

  23. If rifles are capable of snapping their chains and terrorizing the populace without human intervention, then how come John Carpenter hasn’t produced a move about one yet?

  24. “I’m totally upset … that gun is on the street .. . At any given moment, even tonight, 30 to 40 people can lose their life in one spot.” – Community activist Andrew Holmes

    Mr. Holmes, a scumbag could plow into a crowd of people with a car or truck at any given moment and kill dozens of people. Or a scumbag could use some chain, locks, matches, and gasoline to kill dozens of people in one spot. It is utterly and totally impossible to control all the readily available items that a determined violent spree killer can use to kill lots of people.

    Rather than waste resources on an impossible mission (“controlling” everything that a spree killer could use to kill people), let’s all prepare to respond effectively to such violent spree killers when they attack … because that is the only response that is guaranteed to reduce the body count.

  25. Why the hell was an “assault weapon” allowed anywhere near a train? According to Jesse Jackson, those things can “blow up railroads”!

  26. More stupidly from Stupidville Chicago,and “the military grade,black and evil,self firing,assault by them selves,used by 12 time offerders(who are out on bail or parole),uncommon sense ,nobody needs or should have,cause we said so,only police and gangbangers should have,Mom’s demand to be Victims oppose,Everytown should get Raped endorsing,evil,evil,evil,will kill you if you look at them,you are a bad,bad person to want one AR doesn’t mean Armilite(what’s that?) it means assault rape!,and I hate you Gun!! I am going to my room now and locking the door and turning up the music.I hate you,you are evil so there!!!

  27. Let’s not forget that any AR-15 variant is already illegal to own in Chicago. So, what more do these people want, aside from a total national ban and confiscation of every known semi automatic rifle in existence in this country?
    Oh, wait.

  28. Oh, come on, Community activist Andrew Holmes knows who stole the guns and to what purpose they will put the few they keep after selling the rest. He’s right, ‘those people’ don’t need to have guns, but what he wont dare say is that ‘those people’ are inner city gangs. There is a massive systemic problem going on in the African-American community and guns are sure part of it, but the willingness to do violence to each other is the larger part of it. Let’s see him say that guns are statistically safe in the hands of some but not of others and we’ll see if he is an honest man. In the mean time he simply seems to be offering that those of his race from his neighborhood can’t be trusted. It’s an interesting position.

  30. Perhaps the police should try some “No Knock Warrants” on the Chicago gangs. Lol. See how brave those cops think they are vs all the other places they’ve been doing it.

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