Chicago’s Mayor Daley beats the drum for more gun-grabber laws.

[jody]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1481012,daley-quinn-tax-increase-031709.article

Flanked once again by parents of innocent victims of gun violence, Daley outlined a Springfield agenda dominated by, what he calls “common sense gun laws.”

They include familiar proposals that have gone nowhere for years: limiting gun purchases to one-a-month; licensing gun dealers; closing the private sale loophole and a statewide ban on assault weapons along with a new proposal to raise the penalty for shooting students.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

But, after another 14-year-old was gunned down Friday night, Daley argued that gun control trumps all of the other issues on the city’s plate.

“I had a child died of spina bifida. But, when you have a child gets killed by some unknown person with an AK-47 or with a pistol and your son or daughter is at home or on a bus or just walking down a street innocently, you’d better believe this is more important. It’s a child’s life. That is more important than all of the things put together,” he said.

Looks like Daley is touting for another politician with Chicago roots, "They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent."

[TheWraith]

1. "raise the penalty for shooting students"?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that already illegal? If you can't convict people based on the current laws against shooting people, what the hell good do you think it's going to do making the penalties worse? Are they going to send people to "extra-jail"?

[jody]

2. IMO sentences for using a firearm when committing a crime should be served sequentially

not concurrently and prison time for using a firearm should be minimums.

Today in many courts if a convicted felon gets 20 years for murder and 10 years for using a firearm to be served concurrently the punishment for using a firearm is not effective.

[TheWraith]

6. Grandstanding.

Like mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession: a way to make it look like the people in charge are doing something about the problem, without actually having the work of trying to fix it. I wonder how much time and effort they're going to waste on this when they could be doing things which would actually decrease violence: increased police officers, drug treatment programs, neighborhood programs. Oy.

[jody]

7. IMO add decriminalize drug use. The things you list would effectively fight Domestic Terrorism. n/t

[TheWraith]

8. Few people seem to appreciate poverty as the root cause of violence.

Poverty feeds all the major causes of violence in America: drug addiction, gangs, and petty robbery. I think if we were able to seriously fix poverty in this country our murder rate would probably drop by 75% overnight.

And yes, drug prohibition is a big part of it too. Like with alcohol prohibition in the 30s, we've created a massive and intensely profitable black market to which the law doesn't apply. Like bootleggers, drug dealers are already operating outside the law, and so have nothing to lose by engaging in violence. Not to mention the whole situation makes the use versus abuse question worse, because fewer people have access to treatment for addiction, and they're more likely to conceal the use of drugs recreationally until it becomes a problem.

[jody]

10. Also consider population size because crime rates in large cities are much higher than in smaller

communities or rural areas.

[pipoman]

11. I live in a rural

area and have lived in a major metro. The rural areas social services are not nearly as overwhelmed as those in major metro areas. This accounts for the difference, IMO.

[Callisto32]

14. I'll see that bet and raise you one.

How about all VIOLENT crimes have their sentences served consecutively?

edit: and non-violent actions be considered non-criminal.

[jody]

15. Sounds good to me. n/t

[rrneck]

4. More like "double secret probation" nt

[virginia mountainman]

3. What a buffon...

He can wish in one hand, and crap in the other, and see which gets filled first.

When he opens his mouth on this subject, he ONLY PROVES what most of us, already know...and that is he does not know his ass from a hole in the ground.

He should take lessons from Caroline McCarthy, to really know how to look like an dumbass, on this subject.

[DonP]

5. Typical Daley rhetoric

It's easy for him to call for "tighter gun control" in a city and county that already has a total ban on handguns and ridiculous restrictions on long guns, including required yearly registration.

Otherwise he'd have to admit that he and his new $360,000 a year police chief have lost control of many city neighborhoods to the gangs.

He's using millions of tax $ to fight the Heller decision all over again, after all but one other Illinois city dropped their unconstitutional gun bans.

He might as well tell the residents of Englewood, Chatham, Pilsen and other neighborhoods to shut up, vote for Daley and keep burying your children.

Obviously a child's life is not more important to Daley than extra funding for his 2016 Olympic bid, because he's cut the police budget, refused to negotiate a contract with the firefighters for over 3 years and moved the money to buy a few more "Police Cameras" and put the rest into his Olympic bid program.

For the record, no one has been shot with an AK-47 in Chicago. They found an SKS and that's the same thing to Daley.

[spin]

9. Daley has big problems in Chicago so he has to blame someone else...

A new political corruption trial has attention focused on City Hall; the city budget deficit could grow to $200 million next year; street violence is claiming the lives of Chicago Public School students and the one bright spot, the city's bid for the 2016 Olympics, has hit some new hurdles.

*******snip*******

For his part, Daley, 66, has blamed the media for focusing on the negative rather than the good works he's done for the city. He launched his own YouTube channel last month to promote the city, unfiltered by the media.

"In Chicago, the press has to find always negative things. That's how it is," Daley told Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

*******snip*******

But Daley's problems extend beyond his political image. Street violence is claiming the lives of Chicago Public School students; 28 of them have been killed so far this academic year, already two more than the number slain last year.

The uptick in violent crime is just one of the knocks against the police chief Daley brought to clean up a department embarrassed by a string of brutality cases.

Daley and police Superintendent Jody Weis also have had to try to explain how a a 14-year-old boy was able to pose as an officer for hours in January, assisting in an arrest and even driving a squad car. And Weis got a stinging rebuke from a federal judge last week for initially defying a court order to release a list of names of officers with repeat complaints from civilians.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jJ5h4pT7xRwrXJ5dxX4fApoJWV3wD96VBH3O0

Maybe someday, the voters in Chicago will decide to throw the bums out and try a new administration. Or maybe everyone in Chicago benefits from the corruption in some manner.

[raimius]

12. Daley...

I suspect he will leave office at the time of his death or health-trouble related incapacitation.
(I hope he lives a long and healthy life...just not as the Mayor of Chicago.)

[jmg257]

13. 90% of his citizen gun offenders have criminal histories, and he thinks the easy &

proper thing to do is add more laws and ban guns for every one else?

Brilliant! :crazy:

[benEzra]

16. In 2007, there were 463 murders in the entire state of Illinois.

Guess how many involved ANY type of rifle, including "assault weapons."

4.

Tell me again how rifles are such a homicide problem in Illinois...

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_20.html

[DonP]

17. As soon as I figure out ...

... what his infant son dying of Spina Bifida 35 years ago has to do with gang members shooting each other and killing some other young people in the crossfire in Englewood or Chatham last night have to do with each other?

He knows damn well rifles, assault or my Marlin Model 60 (an Assault Rifle in Chicago) aren't the problem.

I guess it's the closest Daley is able to come to trying to identify with the people he has victimized for his own political gain over the years. He has pulled more police from the minority neighborhoods and does political stunts when there is another round of deaths, visible roll call in the street etc. But he won't fund more cops and keeps buying the blue light cameras to "monitor neighborhoods". You don't have to pay a camera benefits and pension.

I don't know why the unions keep supporting him? Our firefighters have gone without a contract for 5 years.

He lives in a gated community with 24/7 armed guards. All his alderman are deputized so they get to carry. The rest of us are on our own.

The Chicago motto ought to be changed; what's the Latin for - "Shut up, vote for Daley and keep burying your children".

[rq4a]

18. Daley doesn't need to be against guns.

Why is he doing this? He doesn't need to be against guns. All he needs are food, water, shelter, and clothing. He doesn't need to be aginst guns.