We looked yesterday at efforts to spread the draconian gun laws of Chicago and Washington D.C. to the rest of the country--President Obama's "what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne" notwithstanding. Forget for a minute that as president (and in his last position as a United States senator), Obama deals with federal laws, which would apply in both Chicago and Cheyenne. Instead, let's take a look at how well Chicago's gun laws "work."
So well, actually, that the city is literally running out of blood.
There is a real emergency for a county hospital emergency room. The uptick in violence is literally draining the blood supply. And as CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports one specific blood type is running dangerously short.
The hospital in question is Chicago's John H. Stroger Hospital, where many victims of Chicago violence are treated.
The blood bank showed us the eight units of O-negative blood that are left. Only three of the units are designated for trauma patients, though. Any more outbreaks of violence on the streets pose a threat here.
"Tonight we may be in a very tough situation," Dr. Dennis said. "Because we're that short on O-negative blood."
There are, of course, many reasons that have nothing to do with violence that could contribute to a blood shortage. This being Chicago, though, we can mostly rule those out.
Dr. Dennis says the reason for the shortage is the high numbers of victims of shootings and other violent crimes who come to Stroger Hospital for life-saving treatment.
"We see probably an average of between 10 and 15 people who get shot or stabbed every night," Dr. Dennis said.
Ten to fifteen shootings and stabbings every night, at one hospital? Baghdad might be safer than that.
This is the city with the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. All guns must be registered--and re-registered annually--with the Chicago Police Department. The vast majority of semi-automatic firearms, and all handguns, are "unregisterable" (and thus illegal), unless they were already registered in 1982 (and every year since then).
And yet the city is bleeding to death.
The forcible citizen disarmament advocates argue, of course, that the problem isn't with Chicago's draconian gun laws, but rather with gun laws everywhere else not being draconian enough (so much for "what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne"), thus undermining Chicago's laws. The people making those claims tend to try to avoid the question of why the violence is so much worse in Chicago than in the places whose "lax gun laws" supposedly afflict Chicago.
Forcible citizen disarmament doesn't "work" in Chicago or Cheyenne, and the bloody proof of that can be found in Chicago.
Check out other Gun Rights Examiners:
- Atlanta: Armed customer stops robbery
- Austin: Gun banners: rhetoric replaces reality
- Boston: The hunter, Massachusetts’ first and best conservationist (Part II)
- Charlotte: Dangers of gun registration: 'The Belgian Corporal'
- Cleveland: Revisiting the DC v. Heller ruling - Part I
- DC: Under Obamacare, where will Canadians go for medical services?
- Denver: What happens to you when you buy a gun?
- Los Angeles: SoCal Churches welcome armed members: will they regret it?
- Minneapolis: Dirty Deeds in Virginia
- National: Gun snitch and 'buyback' programs may cause unintended consequences
- Seattle: Firearms rights activists are now ‘insurrectionists’ say anti-gunners
- Wisconsin: Gun rights advocates make progress
Comments
We need more social programs and more affirmative action and so forth. That must be the problem. More government. Yeah right.
I live in the "wild west' here in Arizona.
We have open and concealed carry and are working toward Constitutional carry.
We don't have shootouts in the streets, and the news may have a few stories about shootings, but they aren't very frequent.
Compared to Chicago and D.C., we probably have a horrible 'Brady Score' but, I can live with that when I compare Phoenix to Chicago!
An armed society is a polite society.
-MH
Today is the first anniversary of the D.C. v. Heller SCOTUS decision. Maybe this time next year, we'll celebrate a SCOTUS decision incorporating the Second Amendment to the states and cities. Nordyke v. King or NRA v. Chicago, anyone?
Once upon a time, before the State of Illinois existed, a Constitution was adopted and RATIFIED by the majority of states at the Constitutional Convention. This document contained an acknowledgement of certain RIGHTS, which were the Peoples. It also referenced POWERS, which belonged to Governments, both the Federal and the States.
Later in time, various federal territories joined that UNION, and most of them, in their State Constitutions, also cited RIGHTS, including the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Regardless, they joined a UNION, where the citizens had certain RIGHTS.
Now Illinois (and Chicago) say that their citizens don't have that particular Right, as if by voting for Statehood, the citizens extinguished that Right.
Oh, well, live and learn, and we are finally off to the Supreme Court for a Hearing... (see the chicagoguncase dot com)
Will the Rights of the citizens be acknowledged or be extinguished by SCOTUS?
We need a National Bring Your Machine Gun to Work Day
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