NPR sympathetic for those illegally packing guns???

DaleA

New member
Had a hard time believing I was listening to Minnesota Public Radio. Apparently Chicago is cracking down on those carrying guns. I though Public Radio would agree with this but instead they seem to be sympathetic for those being arrested. There was a statement from Sharone Mitchell, director at the Illinois Justice Project arguing that

in a high-crime city, many people will end up carrying a gun, even if they aren’t legally allowed. She says this is particularly true in Chicago where the vast majority of murders go unsolved by police, leaving people feeling as though they have to protect themselves and carry a firearm, even if they never use it.

Like this, breaking the law and packing heat, is okay?

Public Radio pro-gun??? A sign of the apocalypse!!!

The article is here:
https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-new...-chicago/dcaadc3d-150b-4f59-8bec-9a3ce75d70b9
 
DaleA said:
in a high-crime city, many people will end up carrying a gun, even if they aren’t legally allowed. She says this is particularly true in Chicago where the vast majority of murders go unsolved by police, leaving people feeling as though they have to protect themselves and carry a firearm, even if they never use it.
Like this, breaking the law and packing heat, is okay?

I think it is, and I don't disagree with the quoted opinion. A Chicago law that tells me that the mere act of possessing a weapon is something they should have the power to prohibit is deeply flawed and unjust.

It's an interesting article that seems to be mostly about bail reform. That message may be the sugar that helps the modest gun rights medicine go down for a lot of the public radio audience.
 
Well, they aren’t wrong. Aside from a lot of gun control laws being written/enforced in a way that disarms the poorest and most vulnerable to violence, we have a lot of laws that disproportionately punish people who are just scraping by at the “peaceable; but not strictly law-abiding level.”

Like a lot of gun control, it is one set of consequences for those with money and another set for those without.
 
DaleA said:
Public Radio pro-gun??? A sign of the apocalypse!!!
Not pro-gun, just pro-anarchy. Guns are still bad, but if good guys can carry them legally, then bad guys should be able to carry them illegally. Equal opportunity, and all that.
 
This comes directly from the despicable Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
However, Preckwinkle said their numbers show something completely different and wants to know what data Lightfoot is referring to. She said some of the debate is also about what you call a gun crime.

"There is a big difference between simply possessing a gun and being accused of shooting someone or being accused of murdering someone with a weapon," Preckwinkle said.

She said people who carry guns for their own protection in dangerous neighborhoods should not be treated the same as those who get involved with shootings.
https://wbbm780.radio.com/articles/issue-preckwinkle-challenges-mayor-lightfoot-gun-violence-stats

The problem, of course, is it's the very people who are doing the shootings who are being slapped on the wrist, and this policy has a growing body count.

Yesterday, 18-year-old Antwane Lashley was in bond court, accused of shooting a man to death on Aug. 23. Prosecutors say he also shot and seriously wounded a woman at the same time. Lashley has been free on his own recognizance with electronic monitoring since prosecutors charged him with possessing a handgun illegally this spring.

...Around 7:30 p.m. on May 20th, cops in Humboldt Park saw Antwane Lashley walking quickly on the 3800 block of West Chicago. He saw police nearby and began running, holding his right pocket as he fled, a police spokesperson said last night.

Lashley took a handgun out of his pocket, threw it, and kept running, the spokesperson said. Officers caught him nearby while other cops retrieved the gun he allegedly threw.

Prosecutors charged Lashley with felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He appeared in court the next afternoon and was set free on his own recognizance with an order to go onto electronic monitoring, according to court records.

Then, last Friday, Neal Sumrell and a woman were sitting in a car on the 4200 block of West Iowa in Humboldt Park. Around 8:15 p.m., someone walked up to their vehicle and opened fire. Sumrell, 34, was shot seven times in the upper body. He died. The woman tried to run away, police said. She was shot three times throughout her body, but managed to survive.

Lashley—on juvenile probation for aggravated battery causing great bodily harm—was arrested at his home Thursday evening, just one block from the murder scene. Police say he’s the gunman who killed Sumrell and injured the 28-year-old woman who tried to run away.

Prosecutors yesterday charged Lashley with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and aggravated battery by discharging a firearm. Judge Mary Marubio ordered him held without bail.

...
In May 2018, Daryl Williams was charged with fatally shooting a man in the back of the head. He was free on a recognizance bond at the time while awaiting trial for allegedly possessing a stolen firearm the previous November.

In June of last year, Carnell Morris was charged with being an armed habitual criminal after police said they found a gun in his car. He posted a $1,000 bond. Six months later, while awaiting trial for the gun case, Morris was charged with attempted murder after he allegedly shot a 51-year-old man.

Just three months ago, repeat gun offender Antawan Smith was charged with murdering a 15-year-old. He was free on a $6,000 deposit bond while awaiting trial for allegedly being an armed habitual criminal.
http://www.cwbchicago.com/2019/09/man-fatally-shot-one-victim-wounded.html

Illinois Democrats love to pass new gun laws, but they hate to enforce them because they see the very gun laws they pass as being racist because they have a "disproportionate impact on communities of color". So they ride the middle ground and simply refuse to apply the legal consequences to the perps. Charges for felony possession of a gun with a defaced serial number, for example, get dropped in a plea deal where only misdemeanor gun possession gets a guilty plea resulting in no prison sentence.

This is why Chicago murders spiked out of control in 2016 to levels not seen since the early 1990s. Thankfully under Trump the feds have gotten involved (the Northern District of Illinois ranked dead last in gun crimes prosecutions under Obama) and killings have been down every year since Trump took office. For example:
Officers were searching the Near West Side neighborhood for a man who fled from police when they came upon Robinson as he sat in a car around 11:15 a.m. on April 9th.

Officers who began questioning him saw an AK-47 style weapon with an extended magazine on the passenger side floorboard, state prosecutors said at a subsequent court hearing. Robinson allegedly rolled up his car window and drove away with police in pursuit.

Two traffic accidents and a foot chase later, police captured Robinson in the 1600 block of West Van Buren and took him into custody.

Police said the 24-year-old was talkative after being read the Miranda warning: “When you saw me, I already had a plan to get out,” Robinson allegedly said. “I ain’t crazy. If I would’ve started shooting, I would have sprayed down that whole parking lot. You guys would have been f*cked. But I ain’t crazy. That why I rolled out.”

“I’m 130 and 0 in getting away with what I do,” he reportedly bragged.

When cops asked if he was working security for a local gang, Robinson allegedly replied, “Somebody’s got to keep an eye out. That gun isn’t a one-shot. It’s full auto. It’s been modified.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago decided to pursue charges against Robinson. A federal grand jury returned a true bill charging him with being a felon in possession of a firearm that traveled in interstate commerce.

State charges have been dropped and Robinson is now in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
http://www.cwbchicago.com/2019/08/man-who-allegedly-bragged-he-was-130.html

Looks like the feds ended his 130-0 winning streak!
 
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