The government of the City of Oak Park, Illinois, a year or so after losing in McDonald et al. v. Chicago et al. (they were one of the al. on the Chicago side), is finally sitting down  to revisit their gun laws. In view of the possibility of more litigation, the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA, one of the al. on the McDonald side) urged its members to attend the meeting. And the village staff knew just how to handle them. . .

From chicagotribune.com:

Members of the Illinois State Rifle Association arrived in gold hats, t-shirts and other identifying clothing and were directed by village staff to sit in the back.

That’s right; back of the bus with you -um-  folks (merely adding further weight to John Aquilino’s pithy observation). I will admit that this approach did provide some refreshing openness to the meeting. Normally government officials try a little harder to hide their antipathy for certain constituents. But there was plenty of distaste to be found among the villagers as well. For instance, Oak Park resident Jim Kelly’s had this comment regarding the opening of a new gun shop in town:

“We should create a zoning code to position firearm sales away from parks, schools, playgrounds and daycare centers,” Kelly said. “That’s a safety measure that must be in place.”

Safety measure? Really? What the devil is unsafe about a retail store? Is Kelly worried that the guns will run out of the store on their own and start shooting people? Is there some sort of formless evil associated with firearms? Well, okay, the answer to that question would be a resounding YES. You’ll find pretty much the same miasma of ignorance and prejudice around a gun store that you find at KKK meetings or Neo-Nazi rallies. The main difference being that the hoplophobes reserve their hatred for inanimate objects instead of people.

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43 COMMENTS

  1. “That’s a safety measure that must be in place.”
    Really? REALLY????
    Someone is gonna see a playground with children and think “I gotta shoot up them kids”, the walk to the nearest gun shop and buy a weapon and ammunition, and then go back and attempt a mass murder.
    Really? I don’t see it happening, but I suppose it is possible. Better safe than sorry I guess. Ban all firearms sales within 1000 ft of a playground will stop that. We all know that would be mass killers do not have a car and do know they can drive across the state line to Gary Indiana and get any kinda gun they want.
    Chicago is an independent city-state that does not follow the rules of law, the constitution, nor the supreme court.
    “We should create a zoning code to position firearm sales away from parks, schools, playgrounds and daycare centers,”
    That is the only way we can be sure of protecting our children.

    • “And then we should make a law that requires a force field will cover all parks and schools that only lets people without weapons through. Yeah!”

    • I am actually amazed that Oak Park or any suburb of Chicago has any legitimate firearms dealers. My impression was that the area was a communist no gun zone. That Oak Park wants to limit gun shops within a certain distance of daycare facilities is a good thing in that it means there are such establishments (I mean firearm retailers, not daycare baby herders).

    • closed on Mondays…. rimshot!

      (hint: Boomtown Rats). sorry folks, sometimes I gotta laugh at insane actions by our gov’t.

  2. Does this meen that there needs to be new zoning in the city to keep Taco Bell, KFC, McDonalds and all the other unhealthy fast food places away from schools and playgrounds. After all it’s a safety measure to keep them from getting FAT

    • And Cuba was Papa’s home away from home. Now they’ve both gone Commie.

      Actually, Hemingway would have bene alright with that.

  5. “We should create a zoning code to position firearm sales away from parks, schools, playgrounds and daycare centers,” Kelly said. “That’s a safety measure that must be in place.”

    Sounds like Mr. Kelly is trying to lump gun shops into the same moral category as adult
    video stores. Nice little bit of low-key suggestion.

  6. “It’s quite clear firearms, violence, accidents and crimes are costly to our village in a myriad of ways.”

    Firearms are an object, not an verb describing an action.

    Violence can be perpetrated without the involvement of a single gun.

    Accidents exist outside and within the world of guns and those who use them, thus they cannot be prevented via gun regulation policy.

    Crimes can be accomplished without using a single firearm.

    The first sentence illustrates that such people do not care about firearm safety or preventing crime;those terms are justifications used to support the restriction of inanimate objects that bring mental discomfort to Oak Park’s residents.

  7. Go ahead and ban the guns and then station cops 24/7 to provide security you deny to those who enter the gun free zone. Problem solved. Expensive, but solved.

  8. Exactly what are these people afraid of? Do they honestly think that……….never mind, you can not go the rational route with irrational people. To live in constant fear must be a bitch.

  9. Well, come on, obviously we can’t have gun stores next to schools. When children are at recess, taking a break from their tax-sponsored liberal indoctrination, we don’t want them catching glimpses of gun stores. They might get the impression that they live in America.

  10. You’ll find pretty much the same miasma of ignorance and prejudice around a gun store that you find at KKK meetings or Neo-Nazi rallies.

    Well, it does look like they are having a meeting of similar policies at the local Reich Stag.

  11. “We should create a zoning code to position firearm sales away from parks, schools, playgrounds and daycare centers,” Kelly said. “That’s a safety measure that must be in place.”

    If it saves just one child……

    • Because God forbid two children have a fight on the playground and one shoots another.

      Imagine a world where a fifth grader could cross the street, buy a new Smith & Wesson revolver and shoot the other fifth grader. Oh the horror!

  12. There aren’t many guns on the street in Chicago and its environs.
    And Barack Obama is going to give Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom.
    FWIW:I ws a Federal law enforcement agent on the street in Chicago for almost 8 years in the 70’s and 80’s and it was bad then-now it’s unbelievable.
    And no-I wasn’t with ATF or IRS.

  13. You guys ever go to OakPark.com, and check out the rhetoric from a few anti gun zealots lol! That idiot Ken Trainor is as bad as Paul Helmke & Dennis Hennigan combined into one person!

    Almost as bad as MikeB!

    A review of the Suntimes article on the meeting is interesting as one can compare who made comments, to the pseudonym names in the blog,!

    Those few antis were very upset many more pro-choice people live in Oak Park than they cared to admit.

    One blogger suggested Gun Free Homes signs for those who made such anti comments in the Suntimes article. go figure!

  14. And what is the primary purpose of the Second Amendment?

    Why, to ensure that the People will always have the means to violently overthrow oppressive government.

    Y’all seen any oppressive governments in your area?

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