CHICAGO WAREHOUSE SHOOTING
As most of our readers know, last week saw yet another tragic workplace shooting. In this case, 6 innocent individuals were gunned down by a former employee of an auto parts company.
As reported by the media, the shooter was no ordinary ex-employee. He was a known drug-user with a long arrest record for weapons violations, assaults, domestic battery, and other serious crimes. Amazingly, and unfortunately, his conviction record was very short - with a sole conviction in 1989 for illegal weapons possession - an infraction that earned him a suspended sentence.
Like most folks, Illinois firearm owners asked, "What was this guy doing on the streets? Why wasn't he in jail? Why were charges against this guy always dropped?"
Of course, we'll probably never know why the people of Illinois were never afforded their day in court with this clown. But we certainly heard a round of excuses coming from the Cook County States Attorney's Office and the Chicago Police Department.
Although most people recognize that the shooter was a product of a broken criminal justice system, the gun grabbers took the opportunity to blame you, us, the NRA, and, of course, guns, for the crime.
Among the notable quotables was Chicago Mayor Daley who urged gun owners to call the cops and have them come take their guns away because, sooner or later, their guns will hurt someone. Hey, now there's a great idea. But, one has to wonder if fellows like the warehouse shooter would be burning up the phone lines asking the coppers to come take their guns away from them before they hurt someone.
Of course, the anti-gun bleaters dusted off their tired old whine about how, if this guy only had access to knives, things wouldn't have been so bad. Wow, why didn't we think of that? Really...how many people can one disembowel in the time it takes the Chicago cops to respond to a 911 call? But, wouldn't the families of knifing victims feel better knowing that their loved ones were merely on the short end of a roll of the dice - and that they spilled their blood so that others could live?
Of course, it's easy for instrumentality theorists like the gun grabbers to yelp about how if there were no guns shootings wouldn't happen. Indeed if there were no guns there would be no shootings. Crime victims would have to settle for being bludgeoned, stomped, stabbed, strangled, or burned to death.
But, to the gun grabbers, those issues are someone else's issue. And, wouldn't it be comforting to know that, when you are out on the street, you'd be mingling with deviants who are whispering to themselves, "Gee, if I had a gun right now I'd kill someone...but I don't - so I won't."
Which brings us back to the question as to why the warehouse shooter was allowed to roam our streets. Guns don't kill people...people kill people.
WAREHOUSE SHOOTING PART 2
In an aside that just boggles the mind, IL Sen. Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago) responded to the warehouse shootings by calling for a police investigation into the manner in which the shooter had been fired from his job. Good try, Sen. Hunter. Sheesh.