[GUNS] Re: a comment

Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Mon, 7 Jun 1999 09:13:37 -0700 (PDT)

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From: "Joe E. Dees" <joedees@bellsouth.net>

>There is an article in the July issue of Playboy about a squad of
>Chicago cops masquerading as bikers and gang members and
>asking to buy guns with which to commit crimes. The firearms
>dealers were most helpful, and in just two months, the police had
>purchased 171 weapons for $65,000, all for the explicit purpose of
>aiding in the commission of criminal acts.

Now your source of scientific evidence is Playboy? Sorry, even as a subscriber I can't agree. ;)

The Chicago Police story is full of holes. First to buy a gun in Illinois you must present a valid FOID card, and then are subject to InstaCheck. You must then wait three days. This was followed in all purchases made, but not reported in the press.

Second, you can't refuse to sell based on how someone is dressed, or the color of their skin, this is racist, and officially known as profiling, the Supreme Court ruled it is illegal.

>One particularly enterprizing gun shop, nestled in the midst of a
>suburb with a population of 14,000 souls, sold 6500 weapons which
>were subsequently confiscated by Chicago police after being used
>in the commission of crimes.

Did they mention the name of the shop? I thought not....

>One out of every five handguns purchased in the US is used to
>commit a crime within four years of purchase.

I've searched the NERA site and found no trace of this...

From: "Joe E. Dees" <joedees@bellsouth.net>

>The shops are located in outlying suburban towns, out of Chicago's
>jurisdiction and strategically based to take maximum advantage of
>their citywide handgun ban. Unable to touch them any other way,
>Daley is suing them under the same regulations one would use
>against upstream river polluters, claiming that their toxic flow
>of handguns into the municipality is largely responsible for its
>unfortunate position as the murder capital of the US (536 of the
>700 people killed in Chicago in 1998 died from bullet wounds).

I don't know where you got 1998 numbers, since the Chicago Police Web site doesn't have them yet. But you fail to mention that 33% of murders are gang related, 22% are altercations, 14% robbery, and 13% narcotics, 66% of the murder victims knew each other.

The gun shops are not strategically located for maximum advantage, Chicago is ringed with suburbs because of geography. I live in one of them.

So explain how the suburbs, with the gun shops and a much greater population don't have a gun problem?

Why did the Mayor and City council exempt themselves from the handgun ban?

Why did they in fact pass special legislation that allows them to conceal carry?

15,000 weapons are seized in Chicago each year, yet almost zero prosecutions..... Why?

Why do 97%+ of all gun crimes in Chicago take place in certain neighborhoods?

Brian
Member, Extropy Institute
www.extropy.org
Member, Life Extension Foundation
www.lef.org
Member, National Rifle Association
www.nra.org
1.800.672.3888

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