The gun lobby can be defeated

[SecularMotion]

By Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Each Monday in Chicago, we gird ourselves for the most recent score. Not on how well the Bears, Bulls or Blackhawks, Cubs or White Sox have fared, but on how many new victims of guns have been racked up. Two weekends ago, three were killed with 17 other shooting victims, according to CBS News.

Victims of gun shootings are spiking in Chicago and in cities across the country. From 2014 to 2015 to date, the murder rate in Milwaukee is up 76 percent. In St. Louis, it’s up 60 percent, in Baltimore up 56 percent, and in the nation’s capital, up 44 percent. Chicago is up “only” 20 percent, but the numbers are staggering – from 244 to 294 to date.

Someone in Chicago has been shot every 2.84 hours this year, a total of 2,349 shootings from January 1 to October 6, according to the Chicago Tribune tally. Over five years, Chicago police report 12,814 shootings and 2,583 murders, according to a chart provided me by the Chicago Police Department. We lost nearly as many people in Chicago alone as we lost on 9/11.

Nearly nine of 10 murders (89 percent) are from gunshots. Eight of 10 victims are African-American males. The guns are not made in Chicago. The Chicago police recover about 7,000 illegal guns annually – more than any other city.

http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2015/10/25/the-gun-lobby-can-be-defeated/

[hack89]

1. Some excellent ideas there

the AWB is somewhat of a red herring but the focus on illegal gun trafficking is right on the money.

But the murder spike represents more than simply too many guns. The violence stems from the growing misery of too few jobs, too many guns and too little hope. Any sensible plan against the spike in murders and shootings will include jobs for the young, increases in the minimum wage, guaranteed paid family leave days and more. The culture of drugs and guns has to be challenged with an economy of jobs and opportunity.

Jesse Jackson gets the root cause.

[TexasTowelie]

2. Locking thread.

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[TexasTowelie]

3. Unlocked thread.

Lack of consensus among forum hosts.

[etherealtruth]

4. Kicking

[ileus]

5. You'd think they'd pass some tighter gun laws in Chicago.