Do you see a goblet or two faces? What you see depends on your frame of reference. Your judgement of a situation is colored by your experiences and your values. Mayor Daley of Chicago looked at the shooting by an 80 year old Navy Veteran of an armed intruder in defense of himself and his wife quite differently than most of us do. He is wedded to the notion that guns cause crime, and that there should be no guns anywhere. With that viewpoint, he fixates on the gun in the hands of the defender and ignores the gun in the hands of the intruder. He is truly stuck right now, because if he seeks to prosecute the veteran under existing Chicago law, he will be outside the will of just about everybody, and politicians really hate being in that place.
My experience with folks who seek to legislate from the heart is that they only see the good that will flow from their new law. They refuse to weigh the existing envionment that their law seeks to change. They refuse to see any secondary or tertiary effects that will flow from their law. They see the good in mankind and the good that will be elicited by guiding their behavior with a new law. They refuse to consider the ways their law will twist incentives and do battle against the natural rights of men.
The Chicago law banning all guns all the time from everyone is a lovely idea. The last time it worked reasonably well was in Japan in 1588. After Lord Oda Nobunaga reluctantly used muskets to vanquish his enemies and unite most of Japan, his successor announced "the sword hunt" which took every gun and sword away from anyone who wasn't a nobleman. Such was the control over the people that that edict led to the successful disarmament of the islands.Of course, there were no civil rights to get in the way in Japan in 1588. It hasn't worked in England, surrounded by water. It won't work here in the US, and it certainly won't work in one state or one city.
Given the world we have, the Chicago gun law is untenable, and this recent defensive use of the gun is such a clear demonstration of that fact the mayor cannot bring himself to defend and enforce his own law. His view of the facts isn't shared by nearly enough Pollyannas. Perhaps this will be the final brick on the stack to crush this irrational law.
Atlanta: Ed Stone | Austin: Howard Nemerov | Boston: Ron Bokleman | Charlotte: Paul Valone | Cheyenne: Anthony Bouchard | Chicago: Don Gwinn | Cleveland: Daniel White | DC: Mike Stollenwerk | Denver: Dan Bidstrup | Detroit: Rob Reed | Fort Smith: Steve D. Jones | Grand Rapids: Skip Coryel | Knoxville: Liston Matthews | | Los Angeles: John Longenecker | Minneapolis: John Pierce | National: David Codrea | Parkersburg: Nicholas Arnold | Phoenix: Douglas Little | Pittsburgh: Dan Campbell | Seattle: Dave Workman | St. Louis: Kurt Hofmann | Tucson: Chris Woodard | Wisconsin: Gene German
Comments
I would doubt that Daley will let rational thought dictate his views on whether or not to prosecute this man who was only defending his life and the lives of his family. In my personal opinion Daley is a coward of the greatest magnitude and seeks to make all others over in his image by force including men like the one he hopes to prosecute. Mayor Daley clearly cannot provide protection all the time (any of the time) for his citizens but he lives under the illusion that by denying them the most effective means possible of defending themselves he is making them safe from predators he cannot catch. at best the Mayor is mentally ill and should be committed and at worst he is guilty of being an accessory after the fact to the murder of every citizen/victim who was killed since this law took effect. Daley set these people up to be murder by denying them the right to the most effective protection they could buy. Their families should be suing the city since citizens did not vote on this law.
You are far too charitable to Daley. If he truly believes guns cause crime, then he must be in the crime business himself as he surrounds himself with them. And arms most of his employees and associates, therefore if he believes guns cause crime his propensity to crime reveals itself. If he does not believe it, which I suspect is the case, then he has revealed his criminal nature by attempting to maintain a helpless victim pool.
His are not the actions of an honest and honorable man, not even thoses of a misguided loon. He is simply evil and will play the fool to avoid that admission.
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