With the Supreme Court expected, in McDonald v. Chicago, to strike down Chicago's handgun ban (the decision is expected as soon as next month), rabidly anti-gun mayor Richard Daley is exploring options. Resigned to the likelihood of losing his beloved handgun ban, he seeks the consolation prize of gun laws even more restrictive than those that have replaced Washington D.C.'s handgun ban.
As we've discussed before, D.C.'s gun laws are such that to come up with laws even more strict, short of an outright ban, will require some truly creative gun-hatred on the part of the Chicago government. Fortunately (from the perspective of the forcible citizen disarmament advocates), Daley and his minions seem up to the task.
ABC 7's Paul Meincke asked the mayor if the city is looking into a package of laws that would deal with many of those things Washington DC is now doing.
"Yes, we're looking at that and maybe looking at expanding that for the protection of first responders, and neighbors as well as liability," Daley said.
On that score, the city is considering requiring gun owners to carry a level of liability insurance.
Yep--he's planning on "expanding on" D.C.'s draconian gun laws (which impose fees that end up doubling the cost of an average-priced handgun), for, among other things, "the protection of first responders" (more on that in a minute). He also wants to mandate liability insurance for gun owners.
"You'll have to show that you have insurance before you can purchase and register a gun, somewhat similar to what you do before you buy a car," said Prof. Harold Krent, Kent College of Law dean.
That's actually been proposed before--last year as a state law in Illinois (the bill, thankfully, went nowhere).
Video (just over two minutes) of that interview with Mayor Daley can be seen below:
Oh--about Daley's reference to "first responders"--the head of Chicago's "first responders," Superintendent Jody Weis, is so overwhelmed by Chicago's violent crime that he is proposing to track "indoor" and "outdoor" homicides separately, because he apparently thinks it's unfair for the Chicago Police Department to be expected to do anything about the "indoor" ones. That's the kind of situation in which the mayor wants to make an effective means of self-defense as close to unobtainable as possible.
If Daley can't have his gun ban, he'll settle for the next "best" thing: making gun ownership as difficult--and expensive--as possible. If he can't, in other words, ban effective self-defense, he hopes to at least price all but the wealthy out of the (legal) self-defense market.
Chicago's wealthy, of course, tend to be white. Another take on "no guns for negroes"?
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Comments
Ya know if the good citizens of Chicago are dumb enough to keep voting that yahoo into office then they deserve everything he does to them. For those not dumb enough to vote for the idiot, perhaps the best thing to do is vote with your tax dollars and move out of that sh-t hole of a city. Same goes for those who live in the other sh-t holes with similar laws, DC, LA, SF, NY etc. Vote with your tax dollars,and move, they understand that.
GunOwner: Remember this is Chicago, the votes cast and the ones counted are two entirely different animals.
As for Prof. Krent of Kent with his "You'll have to show that you have insurance before you can purchase and register a gun, somewhat similar to what you do before you buy a car" is somewhat misleading. You don't need insurance to buy a car, you need insurance if you finance a car. If you pay cash on the barrelhead and don't drive it on the public streets (i.e. carry the gun in public), you do not need insurance.
If they cannot by SCOTUS decree charge a Poll Tax in order to exercise a constitutional right to vote, why are we letting them get away with assessing taxes, fees etc in order to exercise our INDIVIDUAL, FUNDAMENTAL RKBAS?.
Why isn't the 2nd Amendment Foundation, NRA, GOA, NSSF etc. joining together and filing suit against D.C. again to overturn their unconstitutional schemes to circumvent the Heller decision?
Come Gun Rights Advocate Organizations, quit acting like the Native Americans and fighting amongst yourselves over who gets credit etc. and join TOGETHER to defeat our enemies!
The greatest benefit of all this will be to the increased volume of business for the insurance brokers.
Likewise to what Bruce W. Krafft said about Mr. Daley's comments on auto insurance, you only need to buy homeowner's insurance if you mortgage your property.
How does insurance increase the safety of first responders or neighbors aside from providing a recognized source of funds available to their lawyers if a weapon is negligently discharged and they have been harmed? As it is now, the illegal carriers of weapons in Chicago are not insured, and it would a violation of their 5th Amendment rights to compel them to identify themselves and to be insured. After all, are people who steal cars compelled to buy auto insurance before they steal a car?
I have NO, absolutely NO sympathy for the people in Chicago when they complain about their Mayor Richard Daley. The people/citizens of Chicago keep re-electing arrogant stupid people over and over again to govern their city. So the people are victims of their OWN stupidity. STOP YOUR WHINING, QUIT LOOKING FOR A HANDOUT AND RE-ELECT A NEW CITY GOVERNMENT.
2outspoken, the main reason people keep sending Daley back to the mayor's office in Chicago, is that they don't want Jesse Jackson lurking around, by pulling the strings on a black mayor. They saw what happened in 1983, when they elected Harold Washington.
THey don't want to go through that again.
Daley is a criminal, liar, and a dictator. He likes the victoms, because they make very emotional voters. Like all dictators they they use fear to manipulate.
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