Interesting that I’m not the only one that thought it worthwhile to track homicides in Chicago. I just really hope that people take the time to understand the violence instead of just jumping on the knee-jerk “gun control” band wagon to “save our kids”.

Map of shootings in the City of Chicago during the first warm weekend of the year (May 17th) – might be a good idea to steer clear of these areas.

At least 10 people were killed, including a 6-year-old girl, in shootings over the weekend in Chicago.

The slain were among at least 49 people wounded in shootings from 5 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday, according to information compiled by the Chicago Tribune. (source)

It goes without saying the fact that a 6 year-old girl was shot and killed in a gang related shooting is both tragic and pathetic. What is interesting though is that even though Illinois scores better than 44 other states on the Brady State Score Card, illegal gun use is a significant issue. You’d think with a score like the one Illinois got gun violence wouldn’t be such an issue. How about we accept the fact that criminals will continue to commit crimes regardless of what laws are in place (criminals by definition ignore laws).

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Aliyah Shell
3100 block of South Springfield Avenue, Chicago, IL

Anthony Scott
6300 block of North Oakley Avenue, Chicago, IL

Joel Sanroman
5200 block of South Troy Street, Chicago, IL

Equilla Coleman
5300 block of South Loomis Boulevard, Chicago, IL

Bert Lindsey
7600 block of South Winchester Avenue, Chicago, IL

Adrian Cruz
5900 Block of South Fairfield Avenue, Chicago, IL

Jeremy Anthony
6300 block of South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL

Vincent Fitts
800 block of East 79th Street, Chicago, IL

George Marrero
1300 block of North Pulaski Road, Chicago, IL

Andre Pierce
2500 block of West Lexington Street, Chicago, IL

Woot Woot a citizen of Chicago was able to legally defend themselves in the actual city of Chicago – in the past he would have been arrested as a criminal.

A convenience-store clerk stopped an armed robbery in his store Thursday night by firing a gun from behind the counter to scare off the intruder, police said.

It’s the second time in less than a year that such a scenario has played out at Hometown Pantry, 201 South Grand Ave. W. (source)

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Fast & Furious – you decide if Eric Holder knew about it and if it really was just an attempt to help raise crime on the border in turn making it easier to convince people that we ‘need’ more gun control. When you reread that sentence you might think “that’s a paranoid stretch”, but it does align with his overall ideological perspective.

“What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns” Eric Holder

“In the way in which we’ve changed are attitudes about cigarettes……now we have people who cower outside of buildings and kind of smoke in private and don’t whant to admit it and that’s what I think we need to do with guns” Eric Holder

He mentions Maryor Barry (yep the one that smokes crack)

“We need to do this every day of the week and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly difffernt way” Eric Holder

Here’s the source from the above quotes and sure there is context around them (illegal gun use by youth), but his approach, choice of words, and reference to a substance abuser is interesting. Rather than focus on the criminal activity, morals, and responsibility Holder is reverting hoping change attitudes with psych opps experiments (OK that’s a dramatic statement that isn’t entirely true). It’s just that the language he’s using is very ‘convenient‘.

Again I’ll admit the quotes above might seem “out of context”, but lined up next to other facts it really does become an interesting perspective.

Gun-tracking operation caught top suspect, then let him go

Seven months after federal agents began the ill-fated Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation, they stumbled upon their main suspect in a remote Arizona outpost on the Mexican border, driving an old BMW with 74 rounds of ammunition and nine cellphones hidden inside.

Detained for questioning that day in May 2010, Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta described to agents from theBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosiveshis close association with a top Mexican drug cartel member, according to documents obtained this weekend by the Times/Tribune Washington Bureau.

The top Fast and Furious investigator, Special Agent Hope MacAllister, scribbled her phone number on a $10 bill after he pledged to cooperate and keep in touch with investigators.

Then Celis-Acosta disappeared into Mexico. He never called. (source)

Sounds like IGOLD 2012 was pretty successful-

The Illinois State Rifle Association is the primary sponsor of the event, but other organizations also participate. Each year since its inception, the attendance has grown. This year was no different. People from all over the state come to lobby their state legislators to persuade the last holdout, Illinois, to grant its citizens rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, specifically, the right to keep and bear arms. This event is always held on a week day when the Legislature is in session. But most people work on week days. Even so I heard estimates of between 7,000 and 10,000 attendees. I would estimate it at closer to 7,500. (source)

Here is video of this years sepcial guest  (from the past) and some commentary from Penn

That video then kind of led me to these videos…..so take a look if you’ve got the time

» Continue Reading

Since prisoner number 40892-424  started serving his 14 year sentence in a Federal Prison in Colorado I wanted to take a little look at Illinois politics. After a little research I realized there were just too many corrupt politicians from Illinois to document (I do have a job) so I’m only going to focus on the State’s Governors.

There have been 31 Illinois Governors from 1853 – 2009 (156 years) and six of them were/are criminals. Let’s take a look at the numbers.

If we breakdown the criminals by political party we see that 33% of the crooks were Republicans while 67% of the crooks were Democrats. Overall 19.4% of the governors during this time period were criminals.

So the state with the most draconian gun restrictions seems to also have the highest percentage of corrupt governors.  Now, I’m not a rocket scientist nor do I play one on TV, but it does seem odd that the state with the highest number of corrupt governors is also the state that tramples on its citizens Second Amendment Rights! “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

• Rod Blagojevich 2003-2009 (Democrat) Convicted of numerous corruption charges, including allegations that he tried to sell or trade president Barack Obama’s old Senate seat. Serving 14 years
• George Ryan 1999-2003 (Republican) Convicted of racketeering for actions as governor and secretary of state.  Serving 6.5 years starting in November 2007
• Dan Walker 1973-1977 (Democrat) Plead guilty to bank fraud and other charges in 1987 related to his business activities after leaving office. Spent just over a year and a half in federal prison.
• Otto Kerner 1961-1968 (Democrat) Concivted of bribery related to his tenure as governor. Sentenced to three years in prison.
• William G Stratton 1953-1961 (Republican) Indicted after leaving office on income-tax evasion charges
• Joel Matteson 1853-1857 (Democrat) Sangamon County court ruled that he owed the state more than $253,000 in connection with a scheme to pay government contractors. His property was sold at auction.

source

More info on House Bill 5831 &  House Bill 5167 Rahm Emanuel and Cook county need to secede from Illinois and become their own little fiefdom!

A separate bill (House Bill 5167) creating a new two percent tax on ammunition — the revenue generated by which will support a trauma facility serving gunshot victims — was also advanced by the same committee, according to the Associated Press. State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) is pushing the ammo bill.

Of the ammunition bill, Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said “the lawful firearm owners of this state are under no obligation to pay medical bills racked up by gang bangers, druggies and other violent criminals.” (source)

So law abiding citizens should be forced to pay for victims of crimes committed with illegally obtained guns and ammunition – here’s and idea bring back chain-gangs! I would also question what percentage of gunshot victims are innocent civilians (I’m not talking about innocent kids shot in drive-byes). I’d like to understand the demographic makeup of individuals shot in Cook County.

Earlier this year, state officials announced that the number of people registering for state firearm owner’s identification (FOID) cards was on the rise statewide. The state is currently home to some 1.4 million FOID-carrying gun owners and, even if each FOID holder registered just one gun each, the state would stand to take in an estimated $91 million under the proposal.

The revenue generated by the registry, proponents contend, will go toward crime-fighting efforts. (source)

So rather then do something which is statistically proven to reduce violent crime, like allowing law abiding citizens the right to conceal carry, our answer is simply to generate revenue in a state that has proven itself incapable of managing it’s finances.

From the video – “This bill doesn’t effect hunters, only handguns”, isn’t there a handgun deer season in Illinois?

Mayor Emanuel Proposing Statewide Gun Registration : MyFoxCHICAGO.com

It’s not ironic that the State with the most draconian gun control laws also struggles with First Amendment Rights too!

The eavesdropping law prohibits citizens from making audio or visual recordings of others without every recorded person’s explicit consent. Sixty-year-old artist Drew audio-recorded his interaction with a police officer who was arresting him for selling art patches at the side of the road. A police officer found the tape recorder and Drew found himself with a Class 1 felony charge, which carries up to 15 years in prison. “That’s one step below attempted murder,” Drew said in a January interview with the New York Times. (source)

A citizen is caught recording a police officer in the great state of Illinois could be charged with a Class 1 Felony and face up to 15 years in prison. Take the time to read that statement again – if you are recording an off duty police office who just happens to have pulled a gun on a citizen in the WalMart checkout aisle you could be charged with a Class 1 Felony and be sent up the river for 15 years. If you were documenting this LEOs overreaction to a man shoving him after the officer intimidated his pregnant wife – yep he pulled his weapon and pointed it at the short fat mans chest.

Makes one wonder if ‘gun zealots’ that argue the First Amendment rests on the Second Amendment are that far off the mark.

That Rahm Emanuel is a tricky guy, don’t be fooled

House Bill 5831 deals with state wide gun registry, proudly touted by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as his initiative. You go Rahm, it’s your baby, but I’m sure you expect (and you will receive) a real fight from both sides of the aisle. Cleverly written at the bottom are the words, “The sponsor will consider lowering the fees by amendment.”

If you ever follow any type of negotiations you know that the first proposal is ridiculous. In this case $65 per weapon! That’s your red herring; it’s not really expected to fly. Here’s the deal: they’ll waive nearly all or all the fees in return for registry. If that passes Ol’ Rahm will high five everyone he meets because that’s exactly what he wants. (source)

Maybe the citizens of Cook County are naive enough to take Rahm’s proposal at face value, what Rahm needs to understand is the rest of the citizens of Illinois understand his proposal is unconstitutional! There are no statistics that support gun registry as a method to reduce illegal use of firearms. Maybe he’s simply trying to generate revenue, but more likely it’s his effort to take guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens to pacify his misguided liberal supporters.

The article also discusses conceal carry and the ammo tax -

House Bill 5167 increases sales tax on firearms ammunition. Of course it’s an initiative of the city of Chicago and the Illinois Coalition Against Handgun Violence. It increases the tax by 2 percent over the existing 6.25 percent or whatever your community is, if higher than that amount. It is touted as preventing handgun violence as people will buy less ammunition.

How does one even respond to that? Let me see, if I’m bent on shooting someone I won’t because the tax on the ammo will be 2 percent higher. And we wonder why this great state has issues? (source)

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