What 'works' in Chicago . . . ?

      Oleg Volk photo (click to enlarge)

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Gun blogger Thirdpower notes that it has been a busy Memorial Day weekend for "gun-free" Chicago trauma centers, with dozens shot, and at least four killed--and that was before we were very far into Monday.

Two summers ago, in the immediate wake of the Supreme Court's Heller decision, the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) immediately (the same morning the decsion was announced) filed suit (now known as McDonald v. Chicago) to overturn Chicago's handgun ban.  When asked about the Constitutionality of the ban, then Senator and presidential candidate Obama's answer was something of a hedge.

He included a cryptic reference to "what works in Chicago" in his Thursday statement on the DC gun ruling.

"I know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne," said Obama.

But Obama's spokesman says that the reference to "what works in Chicago" does not indicate his view on the constitutionality of Chicago law.

That "answer" isn't particularly helpful (and was clearly not intended to be) with regard to Obama's views on the Constitutionality question, but it does perhaps shed some light on what it takes for him to determine that something "works."

Clearly.

Not.

Very.

Much.

And now this weekend's carnage.

Meanwhile, an 80-year-old Korean War veteran demonstrated what does work--good people ready and willing, whether legally or not--to take responsibility for their own security.  Chicago's preferred way of doing things would certainly have worked a lot better for the armed career thug who committed his last crime that day.

That old man's successful defense of his family, his life, and his home, of course, made Mayor Richard Daley quite unhappy.  "Guns is not the answer," he tells us--ironically, only days after Daley's answer to a reporter who annoyed  him was a gun--and a proposal to do something rather . . . personal with it.

If there's anything to be said for Chicago's handgun ban, it's that it demonstrates--for those of us who needed the demonstration--that mandated defenselessness does not "work," except to produce serfs for those who would rule, and prey for those who would be predators.