Tipping further

July 10, 4:01 PMDenver Gun Rights ExaminerDan Bidstrup

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As a result of the Supreme Court's Heller decision, many cities are being forced to dismantle their anti-gun laws. Chicago still wiggles and twists, trying to keep the rules unchanged in the face of the decision, but smaller cities are simply changing their laws.  One of the first in the nation to ban handguns altogether was Morton Grove, Illinois.  27 years ago they banned all guns from their village and made no provision for legal ownership. Today, that law is rescinded.  What I find interesting is that at the hearing by the town council concerning removing the ban, the reaction was pretty small. Robert Channik of the Chicago Tribune wrote:

" ' The move to repeal the ban attracted little controversy, Village Administrator Joe Wade said. Only a few residents came to a meeting earlier this month, when the repeal was first on the agenda. The opinions were fairly evenly split, Wade said. “Really, there hasn’t been too much interest in the community,' "
 

Other towns, faced with potential lawsuits which probably would prevail in court after D.C. vs Heller have also removed their bans such as Wilmette, Illinois:

"Wilmette, in its unanimous decision on July 22 [2008] to repeal its handgun ban, did not make special provision to restrict handgun use, according to Village Manager Mike Earl. 'Ours is a complete repeal,' Earl said."

Evanston, Illinois also moved to rescind their ban, even skipping an amendment stipulating that guns must have trigger locks on them to be legally kept.  They apparently realize that criminals don't accept "time out" as an excuse for you to find your key and unlock your defensive weapon before they proceed.  In a previous column, the tipping point was mentioned, where enough people have had a change of heart that the prevailing system actually changes.  Most of these cities are changing their laws not because they are sold on the merit of the Second Amendment.  They still don't trust their fellow citizens with a lethal weapon.  They are being forced to comply with the law of the land. They fear the worst.

I can hardly wait for nothing to happen!  More and more people will have the option of arming themselves, and the anti-gunners will find that murders won't go up.  There will be no blood in the streets.  Perhaps the violent crime rate will go down, but all the anticipated chaos of allowing law abiding citizens to have guns in their towns certainly won't come.   This will lead to further hearts and minds being won over to the validity of the thinking of our founding fathers. They knew that regular folks are no threat to society.  They also knew that whether they carry a pitchfork or a pocket knife or a gun, regular folks don't use them to settle arguments in daily life.  Morton Grove and many more cities  will learn that personal responsibility and self reliance are real, and very good for the country.