Chicago stunned by outbreak of weekend shootings

They need their community organizer back.

Rather ironic that the city with the highest number of murders is also the city with America't strictest gun control laws.

Let me try again....The gang culture in the inner cities is extremely destructive to the community. When will the majority stand up and point the fingers and topple this terrible waste of effort and time. The lives lost to the total lack of any sort of respect for anything other than your pride!

The big 'O' should have made this one of his priorities in '08' legally prosecuting the idiot shooters and those caught with an illegal firearm. No doubt silly infractions in prosecution lets off some up and coming killers.

Sadly most of the American inner cities are filled with a violent and dangerous sub culture mostly ethnic in origin. Poor and largely iliterate and unmotivated people sponging off welfare and prone to anger and violence in gang type activities and crime, Chicago is likely to go the same way Detroit went without any serious changes in national and regional leadership that does not use racial favoritism to hide the facts of the degenerate nature of many city residents who have no hope, no self control and are prone to act violently in all sorts of ways. Not a happy picture but the US is not alone as it is happening all over Europe too.

Rather ironic that the city with the highest number of murders is also the city with America't strictest gun control laws.

As Chicago is not a walled city with airport-style security at all its entry points, this argument against gun control was stillborn when it was first screamed by the morally bankrupt gun lobby.

When will the majority stand up and point the fingers and topple this terrible waste of effort and time. The lives lost to the total lack of any sort of respect for anything other than your pride!

Precisely. Most Americans don't have anything to do with guns. Man up and melt 'em down!

Wow! Stunning and shocking,,, I doubt Tokyo gets 50 shootings in a year.

Fifty? I believe Japan had six murders committed using firearms during all of 2013 -- nationwide. I haven't read of any so far this year.

Sadly most of the American inner cities are filled with a violent and dangerous sub culture mostly ethnic in origin.

For a second there I thought you were going to talk about Washington D.C.

sangetsu03Jul. 08, 2014 - 07:53AM JST

Rather ironic that the city with the highest number of murders is also the city with America't strictest gun control laws.

I suppose you have been brainwashed by websites financially supported by the NRA. It is not so.

Here is a study done by Yale University. If you are open minded, you may want to spend a few minutes, so that you may get some facts associate with the issue..

I accidentally droved into a bad poverty stricken community in Chicago , and I thought I moved into a war zone. The strict gun control does not decrease the violence in Chicago.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/11/14/gun-violence-significantly-increased-by-social-interactions

Gun Violence Significantly Increased by Social Interactions

I think John Oliver said it best, "One failed attempt at a shoe bomb and we all take off our shoes at the airport. Thirty-one school shootings since Columbine and no change in our regulation of guns."

Rather ironic that the city with the highest number of murders is also the city with America't strictest gun control laws.

Still not strict enough evidently!

I agree, take the guns away from all the gang-bangers, who are already ineligible to own firearms.

In Boston, bombs went off, blame the bombers. Same here. Blame the violent offenders.

John Galt:

I agree, take the guns away from all the gang-bangers, who are already ineligible to own firearms.

If that were the gun control the Left would implement, then I would be in favor of it. Sadly, the gun control they promote would only make currently legal gun owners into criminals. And the gun-free zone of Chicago is a prime example. (Also, Connecticut, D.C., New York...)

SenseNotSoCommon:

As Chicago is not a walled city with airport-style security at all its entry points, this argument against gun control was stillborn when it was first screamed by the morally bankrupt gun lobby.

Ironic that the same people who promote gun control are the same people who promote an open border with a third-world country that is essentially run by drug cartels.

This is what happens when you glorify the thug life and gangs.

The media has been glorifying these thugs for decades with gangster rap being pushed on our youth.

It only added fuel to the already smouldering fire in Chicago, with its long history of gangs and violence.

OldHawk, I know what you mean, and that's my position as well. But the grabby-nutters want to grab all.

SNSC, build a wall around the dangerous part of Chicago, then, and send in the Illinois Militia to patrol the new "gun-safe zone". You'll be safe there, too.

Guns kills tens of thousands of people in the US every year. We should make guns more easily available and put more of them on the streets.

As Chicago is not a walled city with airport-style security at all its entry points, this argument against gun control was stillborn when it was first screamed by the morally bankrupt gun lobby.

As a former law enforcement officer with more than a decade of experience working in one of America's largest cities, I have a little firsthand experience with crime and violence. The city where I worked had a very large inner-city area, actually larger in size than Chicago's, as well as an old (and famous) drug and gang culture. Yet, the city where I worked had a significantly lower rate of violent crime than Chicago. But the city and state where I worked had, and still has, little in the way of gun control laws. In fact, my state was one of the earliest to allow citizens to obtain concealed-carry permits with a minimum of red tape. At the time this law was passed, law enforcement was concerned that the increased number of guns would increase violence, but in fact the opposite occurred. Though there had been a slow, general decline in violent crime prior to the concealed-carry law being passed, the decline became much steeper after the law was passed.

A few years ago I visited the city of El Paso in Texas to take a training class. At the time, El Paso enjoyed the lowest violent crime rate of any large American city, despite being located just across the river from Juarez, which is said to be the most violent city in North America. I was picked up at the airport by a sheriff's deputy, and jokingly I asked him why his city's crime rate was so low. His exact reply was "because everybody has a gun." I laughed at his answer, but he said he was serious. In fact, not "everyone" had a gun in El Paso, but most people did.

If you look at a list of the American cities with the highest rates of violent crime and murder, without exception, these cities have the strongest gun control laws. Every single state which has allowed freer carrying of weopons has seen a decrease in crime, without exception.

2013 - 415 murders in Chicago 1964 - 390 1928 - 399

1964 was the lowest number for all the years between 1964 and 2014. The highest was 970 in 1974.

The murder rate took a drastic drop in 2004, out of the 9-8-7-6-hundreds (in the hey days of crack cocaine), into the 4-5 hundreds.

Most of these big cities will never recover, the worst sections should be depopulated, destroyed, and turned into farm land, one block at a time. The US has enough land to provide 40 acres and a mule to lots of the city dwellers. If they want to eat, let them farm it. Otherwise, US cities are gonna resemble a scene out of Soylent Green, Escape From New York with a touch of RoboCop to keep the suburbs safe.

If you look at a list of the American cities with the highest rates of violent crime and murder, without exception, these cities have the strongest gun control laws.

As politely as I can put it, Sangetsu03, you're full of it. Cf: http://nypost.com/2013/11/02/nyc-on-track-to-be-nations-safest-city/

From which I quote: Murders of New York’s youngest victims — those between the ages of 13 and 21 — have dropped by 50 percent since the NYPD launched Operation Crew Cut, a program for disarming small neighborhood gangs.

“They are responsible for 30 percent of the shootings in the city,” Kelly said, pointing out that victims are often innocent bystanders.

Ironic that the same people who promote gun control are the same people who promote an open border with a third-world country that is essentially run by drug cartels.

Thanks for going off-topic and cussing the messenger, Old Hawk. Let's explore this tangent, shall we:

Would those drug cartels exist without the USA's huge demand for drugs: a market facilitated and perpetuated by the easy availability of guns?

Would Mexico even have drug cartels and the horrors they have wreaked, without the tons of weapons shipped illicitly (including by Fast and Furious) south from the USA?

Not surprising at all. On a lot of Holidays, the thugs come out and decide to try to off one another. Chicago has been a pest hole for quite sometime, in spite of it's gun laws.

As to drug cartels being armed without the US? well they could simply bribe the local Mexican LEO's. They pretty much run the northern mexican states anyway, protestations to the contrary not withstanding. But I will agree on the drug problem funding...we DO have a problem here in the States

America had the money for centuries, it invested in war at the expense of the poorest classes who were subjected to racism. unemployment and the ghetto instead of alleviation for the wrong of slavery. The investment they saw was for the government created problem and solution of the war on drugs. Black America had it's commerce and industry, it's "Black Wall Street", which you all don't know about, that was destroyed by White racism. Economics, not the people, has created the ghetto and ghetto culture, which is this implosion you are seeing. The middle classes don't, normally, shoot the place up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwood,_Tulsa,_Oklahoma http://www.ebony.com/black-history/the-destruction-of-black-wall-street-405#axzz36sQF7gC4

Chicago is ONLY the tip of the iceberg, but we can go on and on about only blaming the inner city black and latino youths, but WHO is buying all of these drugs?? My guess, the kids that have that much $$$ are always from the suburbs and not really that black or really that latino, meaing?? Yes, white kids, asians, but mostly richer, middle and upper class white kids who want to get high and I really doubt that they worry about Latin Kings killing each other, Crips and Bloods etc..there in Chicago or anywhere, AS LONG AS YOU CAN GET HIGH. IMHO.

GG:

From which I quote: Murders of New York's youngest victims - those between the ages of 13 and 21 - have dropped by 50 percent since the NYPD launched Operation Crew Cut, a program for disarming small neighborhood gangs.

Thanks for reinforcing my previous point about focusing on disarming criminals instead of the general public.

SNSC:

Thanks for going off-topic and cussing the messenger, Old Hawk.

You're welcome. I do what can to help out around here. ;)

Would those drug cartels exist without the USA's huge demand for drugs: a market facilitated and perpetuated by the easy availability of guns?

Again, focus on the black-market guns traffickers instead of passing yet more gun control laws that will only disarm legal gun owners.

Would Mexico even have drug cartels and the horrors they have wreaked, without the tons of weapons shipped illicitly (including by Fast and Furious) south from the USA?

Yes. Because they actually get most of their weapons from Russia, either directly or through the black-market.

As Chicago is not a walled city with airport-style security at all its entry points, this argument against gun control was stillborn when it was first screamed by the morally bankrupt gun lobby.

Which begs the question why are the surrounding communities around Chicago not as violent as Chicago? They are not walled communities with airport-style security and they have weaker gun control laws. No one is asking why there is so much "demand" to hurt people in Chicago than there is in the surrounding communities or even the rest of the state or nearby states.

And once again, the liberal wing on JT are just screaming for every gun to be taken away as if that would help stem the violence, Chicago has a very deep gang infested culture for years and years and that is the main root cause of what is happening on a daily basis, fatherless homes, high dropout rates from schools, not enough police force. The president NEVER in 6 years has ever tried to tackle the gang problem in Chicago, he completely abandoned it. I would be more for supporting the community, which it seems most people here know nothing about or don't care. Chicago is suffering from real social problems and it's going to take a heck of a lot more to resolve these issues than to just simply take away the guns. The city is way passed that point.

So if we reduce gun restrictions and flood Chicago with guns we shoukd see a drop in shootings.

No, we go to the root problem and those would be the problems I have outlined above.

bass4funkJul. 09, 2014 - 06:23AM JST

And once again, the liberal wing on JT are just screaming for every gun to be taken away as if that would help stem the violence

Screaming for every gun to be taken away? huh?

Where do you read that, bass?

Literally, most libs want guns to be taken away, banished from society or are you implying that they are advocates for gun owners?

bass4funkJUL. 09, 2014 - 06:23AM JST

It’s really too bad that the only part of you post that anybody seemed to pick up on was the opening sentence about liberals and gun grabbing. The rest of the post was a pretty accurate description of the situation in Chicago and that situation has a lot more to do with the culture of violence then the local gun laws.

Maybe one reason that the gang problem in Chicago is such a hard nut to crack is that so many people profit from it in one way or the other. The gang system in Chicago is an enormous and well regulated pyramid scheme. At the bottom you have the street warriors; the guys selling the dime bags and enforcing the territorial boundaries of their enterprise. Above them you have another tier, and above them another and another and……….. so on, until you reach the top dogs. Each tier represents an increase in power, influence and income. The problem with Chicago is that the top dog is the city government and its political machine. In many respects, the Chicago city government is little more than an organized crime organization; and has earned Chicago the dubious distinction of the most corrupt major city in America. Kick backs, bribes, influence peddling, intimidation and control; those types of things are ingrained in the very fabric of Chicago politics. In that town, very little goes down that they don’t profit from in some way, shape or form. In order for the street level gangs to prosper and thrive (as they seem to be doing) they need help from above and of course that help is never free. Somebody’s pocket is getting lined, for sure. One strategy that has worked in other American cities has been to just ratchet up the pressure and keep pushing until the bad guys find it easier and more profitable to do business somewhere else and move on. Nobody seems to be pushing all that hard in Chicago, unless it’s for a bigger percentage of the take.

But more to the point of your post; one aspect of a corrupt government is that it spends a lot of money on things that can easily be rigged. Giant construction projects, government and police expenditures are some examples. At the same time, they spend much less on less corruptible things like social services, education and health care. So you tend to see situations like we see in Chicago. Actually it’s a win/win for them; the less they spend on social services etc., the more to steal and it’s better for them to keep the bottom right where it is. The bottom is the labor pool for the foundation of this aspect of their criminal enterprise. And as with every corrupt system, it’s the ones on the bottom that bleed to feed the beast on top.

@OldHawk

Ironic that the same people who promote gun control are the same people who promote an open border with a third-world country that is essentially run by drug cartels

Ironic and of course nonsensical. If the Left somehow is able to re-interpret the US Constitution they would ban all guns with very few exceptions, similar to Chicago. So just as guns can come in from outside the city limits, guns will almost assuredly come into the US over the countries virtually wide open borders. Smugglers will expand their business from illegal narcotics to include weapons. If the US cannot stop illegal immigrants and drugs from flowing over the countries borders essentially unimpeded, there is little likelihood that guns would be kept out either. I also agree that in the Left's dream scenario otherwise law abiding citizens will be harassed and penalized while criminals will continue to get guns and the public will be defenseless.

If the Left somehow is able to re-interpret the US Constitution they would ban all guns with very few exceptions

Ridiculous. America's love of guns is bipartisan - many liberals love their guns as much as republicans. Acknowledgement of the ridiculousness of America's gun laws is also bipartisan - many republicans realize that arming the populace leads to the populace being killed for no good reason.