Last weekend, Chicagoans witnessed a weekend that saw at least 72 people shot. Tragically, nine of the victims died from their injuries. Just two weeks ago, Chicagoans survived a weekend that saw at least 44 people shot. Tragically, at least eight of the victims died from their injuries.
In a city where criminals know they can get away with violence and criminal shootings – even when police are involved – it’s not surprising that law-abiding Chicagoans would consider arming themselves and, God-forbid, having to use their firearm for self-defense or to protect their families.
That’s just too much for The Chicago Tribune editorial board. The media masters there went out and did the most editorial board thing possible and decried such a trend.
“Worryingly, we’re seeing more signs of that phenomenon in Chicago, with three separate episodes over the last weekend in which would-be victims proved to be both armed and willing to fire at their assailants,” the board chose to write.
It must be nice to live in such an Ivory Tower.
Is Anyone There?
So far in 2024, the crime situation in Chicago is so bad residents are relying on themselves for safety. In fact, according to NSSF-adjusted NICS data, nearly 200,000 Illinoisans have purchased a firearm during the first five months of the year alone, including in Chicago. They have no other choice.
Police and law enforcement have been hamstrung by “defund the police” politicians who cut budgets in recent years, including 400 police officer positions that were eliminated in 2020. Even if any would-be victims in the Windy City called 911 for help, there’s a better than even chance their call won’t be answered. More than 50 percent of high-priority calls to emergency dispatchers go unanswered, according to recent reports.
So as crime remains a serious concern for Chicago residents, they’ve turned to legally purchasing a firearm. As a competitive shooter and past History Channel Top Shot champion Chris Cheng told U.S. Senators during a 2021 congressional hearing, “If I can’t have law enforcement there, then it is a rational conclusion that individual citizens like myself would opt to utilize my Second Amendment right to purchase a firearm and use that firearm in lawful and legal self-defense.”
Cue the Chicago Tribune’s disapproval of that notion.
Surely Not!
The Tribune’s enlightened ones decried that Chicagoans have had it with the criminals running the city and are now standing their ground. They referenced four criminals who police said were attacking the lawful gun owners and were shot and wounded, all of them critically, according to a report. One would-be victim shot three criminals who were attacking him and another shot a man who was breaking into his home.
“We’re seeing more of these cases… But the majority of Chicagoans, we’re convinced, don’t feel any safer when they read stories of good-guy-with-a-gun responses to street crime… Overall, it’s not a healthy environment in a city — where by definition people live close together — when gun-packing citizens become more the norm than the exception.”
They even recognized that the “defund the police” effort has decimated the city. “Surely, it doesn’t help the narrative, either, when the Chicago Police Department has more than 1,000 openings for officers that it’s struggling to fill,” the newspaper’s editorial board wrote. “Surely, our public officials…can agree that the growing risks of more ordinary citizens taking responsibility for their own safety at the point of a gun isn’t a healthy development.”
Once again, if law enforcement can’t be the ones to provide basic public safety to keep Chicagoans safe, what do they expect city residents to do?
NSSF Standing for Illinoisans
Regarding the editors’ question about “agreeing” that ordinary citizens possessing and using firearms “isn’t a healthy development,” NSSF disagrees. It is a natural right to defend oneself against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm. Using a firearm in a bona fide self-defense situation is lawful.
If criminals are going to continue illegally obtaining and using guns to commit acts of violence against law-abiding citizens and law enforcement has been reduced to the point of being unable to adequately provide for the safety of communities, then more law-abiding citizens possessing firearms and getting trained to responsibly use them in self-defense is good.
That’s why NSSF petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in Barnett v. Raoul to consider the Constitutionality of Illinois’ ban on commonly-owned firearms and standard-capacity magazines.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act in January 2023, and it is among the nation’s most expansive gun control laws. It bans the sale and possession of over 1,000 models of rifles, including commonly owned MSRs – of which there are more than 28.1 million in circulation since 1990 – and certain semiautomatic handguns and shotguns as well as rifle magazines with a capacity greater than 10 cartridges and pistol magazines with a capacity greater than 15 cartridges. NSSF challenged the law within days of the governor signing the bill into law.
NSSF argues that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit previously erred in upholding the state’s ban, which blatantly violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision chastised states that would reduce Second Amendment rights to a state-government privilege granted by bureaucrats and the Bruen decision’s “history and tradition” test rejected state attempts to inject “interest-balancing” tests. Previously, states and courts would justify gun control laws by placing a thumb on the scale to rationalize infringing on rights protected from infringement by the government.
Danger Ahead
One thing law-abiding citizens of Chicago will be closely watching is what happens in their city as the Democratic National Convention draws near. Security officials and convention planners are already voicing concerns about safety issues, even proposing moving some events online as “virtual.” Prognosticators seem to have a good idea of what lies ahead, especially when looking back at the violence surrounding the Chicago convention of 1968, with POLITICO writing, “The DNC is preparing for the worst in Chicago.”
There’s plenty to worry about in The Windy City including how officials are handling community safety and crime. Newspaper editors enjoying the comforts of their Ivory Tower should focus on efforts to hold the bad guys accountable for crimes and keeping them from returning to the streets, not what steps law-abiding Chicagoans are taking to lawfully protect themselves.
-Matt Manda, NSSF
Chicago is a perfect reflection of DNC values.
And the locals will let the DNC know how much they are valued.
Cue the rent-a-crowd who will protest anything, anywhere, anytime.
Someone stole my name,
“Chicago is a perfect reflection of DNC values.”
I had the exact same thought. And I want to expand upon it: that makes Chicago the perfect place for the DNC convention.
Why is this even a question? This has been the Chicago way for a hundred years.
It’s tribal warfare, they brought it with them from Africa.
Since before the 1st US Civil War.
Get out before the demtard convention in Aug/let it burn.
1. No worries: Chicago will hire illegal aliens as police.
2. The Marxocrats are stupid for having the DNC there.
“Red diaper doper babies” is a coined term and seems to fit these media types.
Like I’ve said before, defund LE completely.
Good shall prevail over evil.
The judicial system protects criminals.
How so?
He stole my bicycle. *Blam*, — and then,
Off to Prison bicycle owner.
Why?
The ‘Law’ says, You cannot kill someone for stealing a bicycle and the system has hired people to protect that.
?
In the sick mind of a Gun Control zealot everything orbits around the “gun.” All said and done to avoid facing the fact their chicago demoCrap is behind the carnage whether the carnage is with a gun, knife, bat, brick, pipe, fists, feet, vehicle, etc. Content of Character is out the window and the resulting carnage is the cost of doing business. FJB.
TRUMP 2024.
Deb, I don’t think DJT is going to be able to do much about the situation in Chicago even if he is the next president.
Keep Chicago as an example and a warning.
Said it before, I was a historian and a janitor. Wrote it down and cleaned it up. For a long time. You are responsible for your own safety. Act that way because it’s the truth.
Chiraq competes against Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland and the Lou for the leadership in violent crime. And while it doesn’t win on a percentage basis it makes up for it in volume.
Credit is due to the sokialist-democrats and their key violent key constituents.
Need more Kerosene.
“Worryingly, we’re seeing more signs of that phenomenon in Chicago, with three separate episodes over the last weekend in which would-be victims proved to be both armed and willing to fire at their assailants.” — Chicago Tribune Editorial Board
Of course the Editorial Board was referring to the state of mind of violent criminals: would-be victims proving to be both armed and willing to fire at violent attackers does tend to cause those would-be attackers to worry.
On a more serious note, the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board allowed the mask to slip and show their true mindset.
Do not EVER underestimate the propensity for people to be evil and endeavor to humiliate, subjugate, exploit, abuse, and consume others.
Ladies and gentlemen,
When a society decides that:
— We are all just meat sacks and nothing more than the product of random events.
— Families are undesirable.
— Our emotions and passions get the final say on all matters.
Then anything goes.
Are you a 20 year-old man and want to ravage an attractive woman? Why not? After all she is just a meat sack and has no more intrinsic value than a mushroom or a rock. Do you want your neighbor’s awesome car and figure that you might as well murder him in order to take his car? Why not? After all he is just a meat sack and has no more intrinsic value than an earthworm or a snowflake.
In fact why would we even call it “ravaging” a woman or “murdering” a man? Isn’t that just survival of the fittest and therefore nothing more than a superior member of the species flexing his/her muscles?
What we see playing out in Chicago is EXACTLY what we should expect to see in light of the above.
Before we call it a tragedy that these people were shot; who were they and what were they doing at the time? I’ve seen several people who were shot that needed to be shot.
…. and anything worth killing is worth overkilling.
Bring enough gun.
I do feel for the people that live close to the “MSDNC” convention. I know a guy that was a cop in Chicago that worked that 68 convention, Whew! It’s gonna burn.
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Let the dindus run free!
Yes there really are rich white liberals who live in nice neighborhoods. With no crime. Who are terrified of poor people getting guns to defend themselves.
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