Ban Hammers, Clubs, Fists and Feet

Perusing the FBI crime stats reveals this info:

• According to the FBI annual crime statistics, the number of murders committed annually with hammers and clubs far outnumbers the number of murders committed with a rifle.
  
  This is an interesting fact, particularly amid the Democrats' feverish push to ban many different rifles, ostensibly to keep us safe of course.
  
  However, it appears the zeal of Sens. like Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) is misdirected. For in looking at the FBI numbers from 2005 to 2011, the number of murders by hammers and clubs consistently exceeds the number of murders committed with a rifle.
  
  Think about it: In 2005, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 445, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 605. In 2006, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 438, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 618.
  
  And so the list goes, with the actual numbers changing somewhat from year to year, yet the fact that more people are killed with blunt objects each year remains constant.

But don't let the facts get in the way of a good old panic-pushing agenda that has no basis in reality.

Hypocrisy 101

If you've been following the gun "debate," you may have heard of a paper called the Journal News that obtained the gun registration list and published an interactive map showing the location of all houses that may have weapons inside.  The "journalists" claim it's a public service to let everyone know where the so-called "dangerous firearms" are.

Citizen outrage at this is palpable as many pointed out this is a road map to criminal seeking locations where they might actually steal guns. The clearer thinking folks realize that this map to where the gun aren't is actually making is safer for the criminals to break into homes that don't have the means of defense.

In an ironic twist though, the editors and reporters at the Journal News have been the subject of massive letter writing campaign, paper and e-mail. One website published the names, addresses and Google street-views of reporters' homes on their website in an ironic twist. This led the editors to file complaints with police over the contents of certain e-mails that made them "uncomfortable." The police investigated and found their claims to have no merit, so what did the Journal News do?

• Guns are good for the goose but NOT for the gander.
  
  A Clarkstown police report issued on December 28, 2012, confirmed that The Journal News has hired armed security guards from New City-based RGA Investigations and that they are manning the newspaper’s Rockland County headquarters at 1 Crosfield Ave., West Nyack, through at least tomorrow, Wednesday, January 2, 2013.
  
  According to police reports on public record, Journal News Rockland Editor Caryn A. McBride was alarmed by the volume of “negative correspondence,” namely an avalanche of phone calls and emails to the Journal News office, following the newspaper’s publishing of a map of all pistol permit holders in Rockland and Westchester.
  
  Due to apparent safety concerns, the newspaper then decided to hire RGA Investigations to provide armed personnel to man the location.

So men and women with guns will keep you safe from unsubstantiated threats? Hmmmm.

Quiet Down Peasants!

An unjust tax?  In Cook County?

• With gangland shootings becoming an every-day occurrence in Chicago, the Board of Commissioners in surrounding Cook County is trying anew to tackle the deadly problem -- with another tax.
  
  But already, some are questioning whether the move is more about making a statement than addressing the violence.
  
  Under the new law, Cook County is charging an additional $25 tax on every handgun sold inside county lines.
  
  Gun shop owner Fred Lutger said this fee targets legal gun buyers, and not the gangsters responsible for many of Chicago's homicides.

Well, you know Preckwinkle wouldn't want to actually tax gangbangers. They don't have jobs, they don't have futures, and they have a lot of guns, so it wouldn't make sense to ask them to come up with money.

But Joe Schmo taxpayer? Get the money from him.

Of course, Econ 101 comes into play here - something Preckwinkle never studied:

• Opponents of the law, though, warn that the tax could backfire -- by driving buyers and even businesses out of Cook County.
  
  Preckwinkle said she would be "astonished" if businesses actually left Cook over the tax.
  
  But County Commissioner Tim Schneider said: "I think we're astonished many times when businesses leave the county, but they do."
  
  Cook County has been down this road before. There is a tax on bottled water -- one of the highest sales taxes in the country. An increase in the cigarette tax fell dramatically short of projected revenue because tobacco store owners hoarded up the tax stamps before the increase went into effect.

Not to mention the thousand of people who just end up going over the border into Indiana or surrounding counties.  Moron politicians.

Feinstein Says What Now?

Does anyone on the left actually read the playbook?

• Democrats are most eager to renew the federal ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004 with little opposition. Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said this week that she will reintroduce a ban on the weapons when the new Congress begins in January.
  
  “We must take these dangerous weapons of war off our streets,” Feinstein said, noting that she has been working on reintroducing the ban for more than a year.

Of course she has. She's a hypocrite of the highest order, arming herself while forbidding just about her entire constituency from exercising their God-given Right to defend themselves appropriately.

And the outrage? Leftists do outrage on command:

• Perhaps the angriest comments came from Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), whose district is just south of Newtown. Seething with anger, he labeled Republicans calling for more Americans to buy and carry weapons and for teachers and school administrators to carry firearms in schools “testosterone-laden individuals who have blood on their hands for making those comments.”
  
  Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had similarly tough words for gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, which has said little since the schoolyard shooting.
  
  “I think they’re overrated,” she said of the group Wednesday, noting that she has “big time” opposition from the NRA in their reelection races and still wins handily.
  

This guy Himes is obviously an asshole of the highest order.  Republicans have "blood on their hands" for advocating defending our children, but democrats who would claim a "gun free zone" protects kids from being slaughtered in school is a "hero" to be admired.  Maybe he missed something in his home state of Connecticut the other day, but a primary school principal charged a lunatic holding a loaded rifle while armed with nothing more than her bare hands.  Brave beyond words - and futile beyond belief.

So what proposals did Barbara Boxer introduce? Her being outraged and all:

• Boxer unveiled two proposals Wednesday to bolster school security. The first would require the Justice Department and Education Department to draft new school safety guidelines and provide up to $50 million to help schools implement new security plans. Another proposal would provide federal reimbursement for up to 4,000 National Guard troops to be used by state governors to protect schools.

New security plans? You mean like the NRA proposed? And.....what the hell is this? Federal money for National Guard troops to protect schools?  And the media reports it with nary a dissenting voice pointing out that these Guardsmen would most likely be carrying their basic armament, i.e. a rifle, most likely an M4 variant, possibly the fully automatic version that the United States military fields. But the NRA is full of idiots for suggesting armed officers and qualified concealed carry permit holders be allowed to protect what everyone agrees are our most valuable (and vulnerable) treasures?

Not Interested in a Solution

Once again, Rahm proves he's not interested in actual solutions, just cheap political shots: And he takes his shots from behind a wall of armed cops - 26 at last count?

• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the NRA's desire to have an armed officer in every American school is "outrageous and unsettling."
  
  "That is not the right answer for our society, our schools and most importantly our children," he said in a statement issued Friday.
  
  The mayor said the answer to America's gun violence is a reduction in the number of arms in society, not adding more guns to schools.
  

Really? Because what has stopped many school shootings? Oh yeah, someone armed, often times NOT the police, showing up on the scene and confronting the shooter. In fact, there are entire studies done since Columbine that show when confronted, school shooters either surrender or suicide themselves. It led to a complete revamping of how police respond to active shooter scenarios, including our own response plans.

• "People across this country, from small towns to big cities, are united and ready to pass common-sense gun control legislation. The time has come for the NRA to get on board or get out of the way," said Emanuel.

That's how the left handles debate - our way or the highway. Any objections are met with "get out of our way." Meanwhile, Rahm tells lies about people "united," while the NRA has nearly 10,000 people a day joining their organization.

And Gallup, a polling company not exactly known for leaning Rightward, shows more people agree with the NRA proposals than Rahm's:

The left argues illegal immigrants can't be deported because there are 12 million to remove. They argue you can't outlaw illegal drugs because 25 million people use these substances. The question becomes, how do they plan on removing 250 million guns from 80 million people?

Hypocrisy From the Top Down

Once again, the left says guns have no redeeming value....unless you count the ones in this picture:

Anyone want to guess what might be hidden in those SUV's?  We're guessing fully automatic weapons, sniper rifles, tactical shotguns and a few thousands rounds of ammo for each.

More Hypocrisy

As the "debate" rages, more and more examples of the leftist hypocrisy come to light:

• SCC, check this one out: WLS radio 890am: Jim Johnson, station reporter, reported that Mayor Emanuel was " outraged" that the NRA suggested putting trained armed security/police officers in all schools in response to the recent shooting at the Newtown elementary school.
  
  Oh, outraged huh? Gee, if he's soooo outraged, then why doesn't he pull his kids out of the LAB School at the U of C campus. Guess the 2 U of C armed police officers that work the Lab School everyday just make for such a scary and unsafe environment. Oh wait, if he did that then he just might have to enroll his kids in the local CPS school by his house!?!?! Wait, that can't happen. CPS is just good enough for the peasants kids but not for his little angels. Double standard hypocrite.

Not to mention the armed security taking them from door-to-door. Are they using Rahm's SUV? You know, the black one with the bulletproof glass and armored chassis?

We thought it was "for the children," not just Rahm's children.

Inconvenient Facts

Stubborn things, those facts.  Especially when they run against the message being pushed by the left and their tame media sources:

• A few things you won’t hear about from the saturation coverage of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre:
  
  Mass shootings are no more common than they have been in past decades, despite the impression given by the media.
  
  In fact, the high point for mass killings in the U.S. was 1929, according to criminologist Grant Duwe of the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
  
  Incidents of mass murder in the U.S. declined from 42 in the 1990s to 26 in the first decade of this century.

That from a criminologist - one who actually studies criminals and criminal behavior.

Or this:

• Economists John Lott and William Landes conducted a groundbreaking study in 1999, and found that a common theme of mass shootings is that they occur in places where guns are banned and killers know everyone will be unarmed, such as shopping malls and schools.
  
  I spoke with Lott after the Newtown shooting, and he confirmed that nothing has changed to alter his findings. He noted that the Aurora shooter, who killed twelve people earlier this year, had a choice of seven movie theaters that were showing the Batman movie he was obsessed with. All were within a 20-minute drive of his home. The Cinemark Theater the killer ultimately chose wasn’t the closest, but it was the only one that posted signs saying it banned concealed handguns carried by law-abiding individuals. All of the other theaters allowed the approximately 4 percent of Colorado adults who have a concealed-handgun permit to enter with their weapons.
  
  “Disarming law-abiding citizens leaves them as sitting ducks,” Lott told me. “A couple hundred people were in the Cinemark Theater when the killer arrived. There is an extremely high probability that one or more of them would have had a legal concealed handgun with him if they had not been banned.”
  
  Lott offers a final damning statistic: “With just one single exception, the attack on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011, every public shooting since at least 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns.”
  

A couple economists - people studying cause-and-effect.

And finally:

• There is no evidence that private holders of concealed-carry permits (which are either easy to obtain or not even required in more than 40 states) are any more irresponsible with firearms than the police. According to a 2005 to 2007 study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Bowling Green State University, police nationwide were convicted of firearms violations at least at a 0.002 percent annual rate. That’s about the same rate as holders of carry permits in the states with “shall issue” laws.

Two-thousands-of-one-percent.  We like those odds.

Concealed Carry End Around

If anyone ever questioned aldercreature Burke's credentials for carrying a concealed weapon, don't worry.  Eddie has a back-up plan that should cover everything:

• It might surprise some citizens that, in addition to being Chicago’s most powerful alderman, Ed Burke is a private eye.
  
  Ald. Burke (14th), who chairs the influential City Council Finance Committee is, according to state records, a licensed private detective, trained and authorized to carry a semiautomatic weapon.
  
  Burke also is a licensed private security contractor.
  
  He is approved by Illinois statute to carry a gun while “in the performance of his . . . duties” and carry it “to and from” his place of employment.
  
  Where is that place of employment?
  
  Burke’s application is silent on that except to say that Ed Burke employs Ed Burke.
  
  Burke also was trained — and approved — in 1999 to use a shotgun and rifle.

Golly. All that AND bodyguards, too.

And that State Senator Trotter? He has a security guard job that allows him to carry a weapon, too.

And wonder of wonders, outspoken anti-gunner and author of the "assault weapons ban" Senator Diane Feinstein has :::gasp!!!::: a Concealed Carry permit from California.

And Harry Reid, an anti-gun senator from Nevada, carried a gun "everywhere [he] went" while serving on the Nevada Gaming Commission

And Rahm Emanuel, a midget tyrant who succeeded another midget tyrant, traipses around Chicago telling everyone how safe it is, how the should come visit and spend their money here, all while surrounded by how many armed body guards? And his home, over at 4228 N. Hermitage? Surrounded 24 hours a day by marked and unmarked squad cars. And a heavy weapons team. Why all the guns? Why all the guns carried and owned by democrats who claim guns are the problem, guns don't protect you from harm, guns walk around and jack up the murder rate in Chicago on a daily basis.

Anyone sensing a little bit of hypocrisy here? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Overreaction Once Again

Seriously? A lockdown and probably an expulsion:

• A 12-year-old Harvard boy was taken into custody Wednesday morning after he was identified as the student who left one spent shell casing on a school bus and two more on the floor in a boy's bathroom at Harvard Junior High School, according to Harvard police.
  
  The incident in Harvard Community School District 50 in the far northwest agricultural community is not related to a shell casing found by custodians in the cafeteria Monday morning at Crosby Elementary School, school officials said.
  
  "The youth reportedly brought three .30 cal. spent shell casings to school to show friends," according to a press release by the Harvard Police Department. "The youth subsequently realized the consequences of his actions after losing one on the school bus, so he discarded the other two shell casings at school."

Spent brass. Not a whit of explosives contained within. Not a gun in sight that would even have been used. Collected from an exhibition, maybe a firearms exhibition. And what do little boys take from such demonstrations? Souvenirs. Something to remember an event by.

And the words used by the media to describe this?  Scare tactics in the extreme:

• Harvard Police responded to Crosby Elementary School, at 401 Herley Dr. and the Harvard Junior High School, 1301 N. Garfield Road, when they learned ammunition was found at the junior high school and on a bus located at Crosby.
  
  School staff discovered the ammunition at about 8:30 a.m. in a boy's washroom at the junior high school and the ammunition on the bus was located by the driver around the same time, according to police. The bus had carried the boy to the junior high then parked at Crosby, officials explained.
  
  During a thorough inspection, officials said, all district schools were on lock down.
  
  Police, school staff and administration conducted an extensive search that included all lockers. School officials said all students were kept in their classrooms where they remained until the threat of any danger was dispelled.

Threat from what? No primer, no powder, no projectile. And describing the spent brass as "ammunition," not once or twice, but three times? The anti-gun crowd isn't going to waste a moment making this into a giant scare tactic. And the 12-year-old? Just a victim of the liberal propaganda machine run amok.

Gun Insanity?

We've seldom seen a more ignorant approach to the issue of gun violence, but the head of the Illinois Education Association gives all ignoramus's a run for their money:

• The state's largest teachers union Tuesday ridiculed an idea floated by the head of an Illinois gun-rights group to allow educators to carry weapons to makes schools safer and perhaps prevent a Newtown massacre from happening here.
  
  "It's ridiculous to think bringing guns into a school or classroom would somehow make that area safer," said Charlie McBarron, a spokesman for the Illinois Education Association. "It's hard to understand how a sane person could make that serious suggestion."

Really?  Maybe because an actual scary insane person just slaughtered  a classroom full of children.  A single trained police officer, security guard or concealed carry holder may have spared many families unimaginable grief.

• On Monday, the head of the Illinois State Rifle Association said he would favor legislation that would permit school boards to authorize principals, teachers and even custodial employees to carry weapons in the classroom if they underwent training.
  
  Richard Pearson, the group's executive director, told the Chicago Sun-Times that all Illinois schools should have an armed security guard at a minimum and that arming school staff might have stopped the Connecticut shootings.
  
  "Had there been a teacher who was armed, this wouldn't have happened," Pearson said.

Those are the words of someone looking for an actual solution, Someone who is open to discussion on the issue.  Someone who isn't looking for a "gotcha"-type headline unwilling to discuss the fact that bad people do bad things on occasion and that to actually find a solution, thinking outside the narrow-minded liberal box is a good thing.

• But McBarron said it's vital to ensure that schools are secure, and that means no tolerance for drugs or guns of any kind.
  
  "Schools are a safe place. Bringing weapons into school would make them less so," McBarron said. "To suggest otherwise is disingenuous."

Wow. The disconnect there is fucking amazing. Sandy Hook was not a safe place as demonstrated last week. It wasn't secure enough. And creating an entire building full of victims isn't the way to "win" an argument of this type.

UPDATE: Dear Dumbshit bringing up police station shootings,

Yes, it has happened everywhere, even police stations.

The difference is that police officers are armed and trained to respond......to fight back.

Did you see 20 police officers herded into a corner and executed by a single insane lunatic?  Apples and oranges Asshat.

Now go get your shine box you simple minded tool of the lib-tarded leftist bent on destroying this country.

BTW, how does Rahm's ass taste?

There He Goes Again

Rahm is making noise again.  Anything to distract from his driving the City of Chicago into the ground while he pillages public safety pensions:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel today called for an assault weapons ban at the state and national levels and said it was time for a "vote of conscience" in Congress following the deadly assault on schoolchildren in Connecticut.
  
  Speaking at a Chicago Police Department graduation and promotion ceremony this morning, the mayor did not address the political difficulty of the task. Congress allowed an assault-weapon ban to expire in 2004 and state efforts at gun control legislation have regularly failed in Springfield.

And of course, his McLapdog repeats his bullshit:

• After the ceremony, police Superintendent Garry McCarthy backed the mayor's call for an assault weapons ban, saying large ammunition clips should be banned at the same time.
  
  "If you ban the assault weapons and don't ban the high-capacity magazines, you’re only putting a Band-Aid on top of it," McCarthy said. "You're not fixing it."
  
  McCarthy also said state Attorney General Lisa Madigan should appeal a federal appellate court ruling that struck down the state's ban on carrying handguns in public.
  
  "The answer to firearms is not more firearms," McCarthy said. "Whether it's conceal-carry, whether it's extended magazines, whether it's assault weapons, it's all part of the same bigger picture."
  
  "She should appeal it, absolutely," he added."“Just because 49 states did it doesn't make it right. Does anybody think it's right, the amount of gun violence that exists in this country? What we're doing isn't working."
  

You have to wonder at a mayor and superintendent who are presiding over the largest increase in killings, maimings and armed violence in years telling the rest of the country that what is needed is more Chicago-style gun regulation.

We also heard a whisper of a hint of a rumor that a certain City Hall politico was involved in a large purchase over the weekend, a purchase involving stocks of gun manufacturers and makers of ammunition.  Never letting a crisis go to waste indeed.

McMoron Says What?

Nothing like keeping that tongue firmly planted in Rahm's sphincter while dozens of families prepare to bury their dead:

• Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says a meaningful response to the Connecticut school shooting, and shootings everywhere, would be to hold gun owners more accountable.
  
  “Its got to stop,” McCarthy said. “People are going to have to wake up.”
  
• McCarthy said that there has to be a national recognition that there has to be some sort of tracking and if gun owners were required to report the loss, theft or transfer of firearms, shootings would not occur on the scale that they are today.
  
  Guns are often legally purchased, McCarthy said, and then illegally transferred and used in crimes.

Because what happened in Connecticut was a complete failure of existing gun laws. Let's see...

• MSNBC is reporting that the assassin attempted to buy a rifle just last week, but was denied purchase for an as yet unknown reason.

Gee, that seems like the existing gun laws worked just fine.

• All of the guns were legally purchased and we suppose, properly registered, by the mother of the murderer.

So McMoron is laying the blame at her feet for not reporting her guns stolen.  Of course, the fact that she was lying in her home dead, the first victim of the madman's spree, doesn't seem to make an impression on the Streetlight Marksman.

If it wasn't for the circumstances surrounding this entire episode, it would be amusingly ironic to see the pretzels that the anti-gunners are twisting themselves into, seeing as how this was a kindergarten school teacher divorced mother of a handicapped man who owned not one, two or three legal firearms, but at least five. As it is, we can only shake our heads that improperly secured firearms in the presence of a mentally disturbed individual ended up being the tool with which he performed his mindless evil.

NOTE: information coming out that she was not in fact, a teacher.

Out of Touch? Whoops!

This is rich:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday denounced as “wrong-headed” and a danger to Chicago a federal appeals court ruling that tossed out Illinois’ ban on carrying concealed weapons and gave the General Assembly six months to make it legal.
  
  Emanuel said he has spent his entire public life doing battle against the National Rifle Association and he’s not about to stop now, even though federal appeals court judges have put state lawmakers on the clock.
  
  The mayor portrayed the justices as out of touch and urged them to come down from their ivory tower and experience the terror that Chicagoans feel in neighborhoods held hostage by gangs.

This from an asshole who lives surrounded by men with guns. An out-of-touch dilettante who made millions collecting a crooked paycheck for what was essentially a "no-show" job. A "man" so paranoid that he freaked out and removed members of his security staff over a bag of tomatoes left on his front stoop. This asshat is going to tell judges to experience the "terror" Chicagoans feel in their neighborhoods....

....wait a minute. "Terror...in neighborhoods"?

But Crime is Down. Everywhere. We heard McNumberCruncher saying so the other day. And the other day. And the day around that other time.

Which is it Rahm? Crime is Down? Or Daily Terror in the Hood?

You're a hypocrite either way.

Join Today

Over on the right-hand side, we have a number of links for Right Thinking People.

The top three links are The NRA, The Illinois State Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation.  

All are and continue to be instrumental in restoring the Second Amendment Rights of Illinois citizens.  All are fine organizations and we belong to or have contributed to all three.

If you support the Constitution, and most of our readers have taken at least one oath that does, consider joining and supporting those of a like mind.

Post closed - informational purposes only.

Illinois to Join the United States

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Good news for Illinois:

• In a huge win for gun-rights groups, a federal appeals court in Chicago Tuesday tossed the state’s ban on carrying concealed weapons and gave Illinois’ Legislature 180 days to craft a law legalizing concealed carry.
  
  “The debate is over. We won. And there will be a statewide carry law in 2013,” said Todd Vandermyde, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association.
  
  In a split opinion (see below), the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling in two cases downstate that upheld the state’s longstanding prohibition against carrying concealed weapons.
  

A long time coming:

• Channel 2 - A federal appeals court in Chicago has struck down Illinois’ ban on carrying concealed weapons.
  
  The state now has six months to pass a law that would allow ordinary citizens to carry weapons.
  
  
• Channel 7 (Thieves) - In a big victory for gun rights advocates, a federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down a ban on carrying concealed weapons in Illinois - the only state where it had remained entirely illegal.

Channel 5 takes a different tack, wondering if Illinois politicians are going to continue wasting taxpayer money while fighting a number of losing actions:

• A federal appeals court decided to strike down Illinois' ban on carrying concealed weapons Tuesday, but Illinois leaders are deciding whether to continue the fight.
  
  Maura Possley, a spokesperson for Attorney General Lisa Madigan, told NBC 5 that the court allowed 180 days before the decision will be returned to the lower court to be implemented, so Madigan's office and the legislature will take that time to consider what action to take.

How about instead of worrying about American citizens exercising their Rights to defend themselves, their loved ones and their property and start worrying about how to stop the bleeding from the public coffers?

Someone ought to make a little mark on the crime charts McCompStat has in his office. Because in about 6 months, he might finally see an actual drop in crime stats - the real stats, not the cooked up bullshit he's been feeding Rahm and the media for the past year plus.

Help! Save Me!

A man with a gun is holding another against his will:

• In a strange flip of events, a burglary suspect called 911 early Tuesday to report that he was being held at gunpoint by a Springtown homeowner and his son.
  The homeowner called 911, too, but by then he was in control, holding him at gunpoint and demanding to know what he was doing in his home.
  “Just unlucky, I guess,” the man responded, according to a release from the Parker County Sheriff’s Department.

No, unlucky would have been being shot. This was actually pretty lucky, it being outside of Dallas and all.

Anyone Need a Gun?

We're thinking about selling the Ferrari to grab these:

• The Thompson "Tommy gun" submachine gun may have been good enough for "The Untouchables," but it isn't of much use in modern-day crime fighting, so Tinley Park Police Chief Steve Neubauer would like to put the department's stock of the iconic firearms up for sale.
  
  Of course, that would be only two Tommy guns, along with four Vietnam vintage M-16 rifles, that have been kept in the armory inventory for the department since the 1960s, when Tinley Police got them from the federal government as Army surplus.
  
  Neubauer said he has no idea if they've been used in the decades since, and he's asked village officials to put them up for auction, where they might fetch more than $70,000 from collectors.
  
  "There is no use for weapons like these in 2012 urban policing," Neubauer said.

Says you Chief.  We can name three south side districts that would welcome this firepower tomorrow.

Suburban Gun Turn-In

With all sorts of rules and stuff that make it not-so-much fun to turn in weapons:

• Firearms will be exchanged for $100 cash if the weapon and participant meet the program requirements.
  
  All types of firearms will be accepted, but they must be unloaded and transported in a car trunk or inaccessible area of a van or pickup truck, police said. Participants must enter the turn-in site without the firearm, and police will accompany them back to the vehicle to retrieve it.
  
  [...] To get $100, the firearm must be functional. Pellet and BB guns will be accepted, but no money will be given, the release said.
  
  Only residents of towns belonging to the [South Suburban Association of Chiefs of Police] are eligible to take part. Those unsure whether their town is a member should call their local police.

Police have to retrieve the weapons from your trunk?  Where's the sense of adventure?

No money for BB guns and air rifles?  Now there's no motive to profit.

Fully functional firearms only?  What are those guys from southern Illinois going to do to fund their youth gun safety programs now?

And why would anyone turn in a fully functional firearms anyway?  There's the potential for years of fun, safe shooting sports along with the ability to defend yourself in the event a criminal comes knocking at your door.

.05 per Bullet Shot Down

Someone must have steered Preckwinkle in the direction of an Econ 101 textbook:

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle today dropped plans for a five-cent bullet tax, but still wants to charge a $25 tax on every gun purchase.
  
  The compromise was negotiated over several days with Commissioners John Fritchey and Edwin Reyes, both Chicago Democrats, who had balked at the guns and ammo taxes.
  
  In exchange for their support, Preckwinkle agreed to create a $2 million fund to combat gun violence. Fritchey had proposed dedicating $1.4 million to anti-gun violence efforts. She also agreed to exempt law-enforcement officers from having to pay the tax, which helped convince Reyes to support the plan.

Evidently, she only absorbed half the lesson though. If we can get a gun for $25 cheaper in Kane or Will or DuPage county, we'll be doing that instead and picking up a few hundred bucks worth of ammo while we're there.

And if you thought for an instant that this was anything but a punitive tax on those who dare to own a gun, this ought to make it clear:

• The bullet tax was projected to raise $400,000 in revenue. The gun tax would raise $600,000, Budget Director Andrea Gibson said.
  
  The revenue would help defray the cost of medical care for people who are shot and then treated at county-run, taxpayer subsidized Cook County Hospital. The hospital treats about 670 gunshot victims at year at an average cost of $52,000, Preckwinkle said.

$1 million in new taxes to defray a bill of $34.8 million in gunshot care?  What a fucking joke.