Closing gun store won't stop crime

[hammAR]

While this is Chicago, the same thing IS happening here too................

It's election time in Cook County, and once more Chuck's Gun Shop in Riverdale has become a straw man to beat up for one of the candidates for state's attorney.

Larry Suffredin, a lawyer who has served on the Cook County Board of Commissioners since 2002, is riding the anti-handgun horse into this battle, saying "Chuck's Gun Shop and similar stores in suburban Cook County are the source of guns that are used in violent crime throughout Cook County."

My challenge? Prove that Chuck's is selling guns illegally, then close it. Or shut up.

But until and unless that happens, stop using the shop to bolster a lack of ability to put the bad guys away for serious time or ask why people buy drugs in the first place.

Chuck's is located in a high-crime area about a mile from a Chicago Housing Authority project known to be a breeding ground for gangsters and a supermarket for drugs.

Unfortunately for the majority of law-abiding people who live there, they cannot legally have a gun to protect themselves.

A gun bought legally at Chuck's can be stolen or illegally resold. Shutting Chuck's would only drive the problem elsewhere. You think no one from Chicago ever comes to Northwest Indiana to score a gun?

Chicago has probably the toughest gun laws in the nation. No one may own or carry one in the city except law enforcement. There are no gun shops in Chicago.

Chicago experienced a drop in murders last year to its lowest point since 1965. In 2003, it led the nation in homicides -- not per capita, but in raw numbers, outgunning New York City, which has more than three times Chicago's population.

So please save the stats for the baseball season.

Still, Suffredin is right when he says there is too much gun violence in Chicago.

In 2000, the city had 22.1 murders for every 100,000 people. But when the city was at its population peak in 1950, the rate was 7.9 per 100,000.

Maybe it's an increased lack of respect for life. Maybe it's overcrowded prisons. Maybe judges put violators into a revolving door and back out on the streets.

And if they're out on the street doing their business, the least of their worries is a slap on the hand for violating the gun possession law.

The only people who worry are those law-abiding citizens of Chicago who have turned in their guns and are now prisoners in their own homes while those who flout the law rule the streets.

And his proposal, however well-intentioned, does nothing to help them.

[EAJuggalo]

HammAR, can you cite your source for this please. While I agree with the sentiments I believe the author glossed over a couple key points that should have been mentioned, Illinois requires a Firearms Owners' Identification Card which links the citizen to all the firearms that person has purchased legally in IL, you can't even buy ammo if you have an IL driver's license without the FOID and some stores won't sell to you at all even if you're from out of state. Indiana won't sell to anyone from out of state, I know, I've tried. You may legally own firearms in Daleystan, they have to be registered, but the Daleystan Police haven't accepted any new registrations since I believe 1986.

[prushin]

Where did you try to buy ammo in Indiana that they told you couldn't buy if you were from out of state? I purchased ammo last April in Lafayette, IN and they did ask to see my DL. Not even a funny look when I showed them my MN DL.

IIRC, Illinois restricts out of state purchases of ammo everywhere except gun shows now. When I was younger we used to run to Danville, IL for really cheap deals on surplus ammo. That dried up in the early 90's when we were told that without the FOID the state would crucify anyone who sold to out of staters outside of a gun show.

[cmj685]

This sort of article brings up another issue which, it sometimes seems to me, we don't take very seriously, maybe because it is uncomfortably close to home, but our failures here have given alot of ammo to these kinds of anti-gunowner sentiment: the whole issue of stolen guns. And I am talking about guns stolen from people like us--guns left in vehicles, guns left lying around the house, and so on. I realize that stealing a gun is a crime but I think that is too easy an answer sometimes for us to say that we are completely innocent as soon as we can say the gun was stolen, regardless of how careless we may have been. The fact is that thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands (I don't have any hard statistics but just reading the crime reports in the local newspapers indicate that it is happening everywhere every day) of guns every year are stolen from us good, law-abiding citizens. The fact is that many, many violent crimes are committed with stolen guns. And the fact seems to be that we--you and me--don't always seem to take very good care to ensure that violent criminals don't get guns from us to use in their crimes. I am blaming myself here. If I were going to have several guns placed strategically around, it is possible that at least one of them might be found very easily by almost anyone within a fairly short time if they had any experience or brains at all. How about at your place? In your vehicle? How easy would it be for an experienced criminal--or even a couple stupid drunk kids--to break in and grab a gun within a very few minutes? With just a few minutes thought, provoked by this article, I have already figured out how, if I were ever to have guns in my home, to much better conceal them and still leave them accessible. I hope we will all take a few moments to think about that and do the same! The life we save may be one of our brothers...or our own.

[justaguy]

I see what you are saying but where do we draw the line. You have a lock box in your car they steal the whole car. Don’t have one in the car (this is easy let me carry everywhere)? You don’t have the $1000 or so dollars to buy a safe, so don’t have guns? If vermin want something they will get it. You skimp on a safe they will be able to carry it out. They will steal a car crash into a building and take an ATM that weighs as much as a safe with cameras running. If every gun owner buys a quality safe (hypothetical) and guns start to dry up they will start breaking in when you are home and make you open your safe. If they want them they will get them. Just because they are vermin doesn’t mean that they won’t change their patterns if we do. They need to make it legal for me to protect myself. Right now they are protected. They really don’t have a lot to loose if they go to prison. I on the other hand will have to spend a boat load of money because my life and freedom mean something to me and my family.

I am not the problem, and that thinking is what has got us to where we are. If we would do this then they wouldn’t do that. If we had more social programs they would look for jobs. If we ban guns then the stupid gun owners that get robbed/beaten/killed wont give the vermin guns. We need to make sensible gun laws that make people have a safe house for guns. It isn’t my fault and will take no responsibility for some peace of **** killing/raping/robbing people.

[Dick Unger]

It's a good idea to lock up your guns so kids won't play with them, or so you won't lose the guns to a lazy thief. But so bad guys won't be able to get a gun? That's the same line of reasoning that the gun control laws are based on. Bad guys will always have guns, as long as guns exist.

Somebody who is willing to go around murdering people is determined enough to find a gun, or invent a better way.

Don't spend more on the safe than the gun.

[EAJuggalo]

I should have been more clear, Indiana won't sell firearms to out of staters, I have purchased ammo in Gary, Valpo, Portage and Michigan City without incident.

[Fast351]

No FFL should sell a gun to an out of stater (there are some long gun exceptions, but any pistol sale across state lines is strictly verboten).

Gander Mountain here won't sell you a handgun and let you walk out with it unless you have

A) MN DL
2) Permit to carry or permit to purchase
iii) pass a NICS check