Daley again blames firearms for his city's meltdown

[bg]

I don't know why he doesn't blame the "people" who are
causing all this death like the gangs, etc. Why blame
firearms ? Doesn't Chicago have some of the strictest
firearm laws in the nation ? I guess this is going to
sound racist, but it appears that one group of people
are the ones looking to kill each other. How do you
blame a firearm for this ?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080426/ap_on_re_us/chicago_violence

excerpt

CHICAGO - Police planned to increase patrols and put SWAT officers and specialized units on the streets over the weekend, a show of force aimed at deterring violence like the three dozen shootings that left nine people dead last weekend.

"Weather permitting, we will have our helicopter up," said police spokeswoman Monique Bond, who said Thursday night was relatively quiet, with only four shootings, none fatal.

Meanwhile, religious leaders said they had persuaded some churches to open their doors in the afternoons and evenings to protect people from gunfire.

"We just picked up about four more churches in Austin (a neighborhood on the city's West Side) that's going to open their doors as a safe haven," said Ira Acree, an activist and pastor of the Greater St. John Bible Church.

On Friday, Mayor Richard Daley took the unusual step of calling together more than two dozen officials from the police department, schools, social service agencies and religious groups for a City Hall summit on the violence. Afterward, he said it was just the start of a continuing dialogue about how to combat violent crime.

A fired-up Daley blasted the gun industry and called on parents and adults to do their part by intervening to help troubled youth and by working to keep others on the right path.

[Fjold]

Because Daley doesn't know what he's doing. Look at it, the guy is probably not very intelligent and has been drinking the liberal kool-aid his entire life. He doesn't have a clue about the real world so he just deals in sound bites.

[dustoff31]

I don't know why he doesn't blame the "people" who are
causing all this death like the gangs, etc. Why blame
firearms ?

Because guns don't vote. Can you imagine a politician standing up in front of people he depends on for his paycheck telling them they are the problem?

[battleship]

Handguns are band inside the city limits of chicago, which is completley stupid as the criminals dont give a crap about bans.

Its so easy for Daley or anyone to blame it on the weapon, because they have no clue as to how to actually stop the gangs and genneral crimminals who cause the crimes, so they take the easy way out, which realy does not open the possibility of finding a realistic solution to fighting that kind of crime.

[Harrison_Bergeron]

Sounds to me like Heller will be very important to Chicago, from the articles it sounds an awful lot like the powers that be are itching for disarmament, registered or not. If Heller goes bad I think Chicago looks like the place that we can expect to see the first major repercussions.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Because politicians are control freaks

Politicians by definition think they are better than every body else. When you have the mindset that people are stupid and need your guidance, you also stop thinking of them as people who might just be responsible for their own actions. Let's face it -- if people were responsible for themselves, they wouldn't need politicians running their lives. Politicians have to blame something else, whether it be guns, drugs, hookers, money, morals; whatever they can distract the voters with.

[bulgron]

It's also really really great for police budgets if people are scared and so start demanding more police service and a faster police response time.

People who are armed aren't as likely to give a damn about that stuff, because when bad things happen they reach for their gun, not for the phone and 911.

[dfletcher]

I wonder, would Dick Daley suggest taking away someone else's car if their neighbor were caught driving drunk? Taking guns away from people who have done nothing wrong with them because other people don't know how to behave makes about as much sense.

[dixieD]

Just saw on the news that Daley has approved the M4 full auto carbine for Chicago's police force to combat this rise in gun crime. They are still going to be minutes late to the shootings.

[kermit315]

yeah, cant wait to see how many of them come up "missing"

[elroy]

illinois polititans are the most corrupt in the nation , the former gov is in prision and the current gov and dailey both are under investigation for pay to play scandals and soon obama will get caught up in this with his rezco connection ,,,, and daily insists on referring to teenage gang members as public school students to witewash the real source of trouble , who have been recently displaced from the housing projects wich were wisely torn down but they now terrorize the neighborhoods they moved to