- Mayor Rahm Emanuel today said he wants state lawmakers to approve a statewide handgun registry.
The request immediately ran into staunch opposition in Springfield, where gun control issues are often as much about geography as partisanship.Rep. Brandon Phelps, who has championed efforts to pass a concealed weapons bill in Illinois, said the mayor’s office called him Thursday morning to let him know the registration proposal would be introduced.
“Number 1, my first response was I don’t know why you’re trying to do this statewide because we don’t want your policies on us downstate,” said Phelps, a Southern Illinois Democrat from Harrisburg. “Number. 2, it’s never going to work. They’re trying to go after criminals. They’re never going to register their guns. They won’t pay the fee. “
Phelps called Emanuel’s initiative a “slap in the face of every law-abiding gun owner.”
The mayor said requiring handgun owners to register particular weapons would reduce the flow of illegal guns into Chicago from around the state by making it easier for police to figure out where they came from.
It isn't law abiding citizens whose guns are being used in crimes, so once again, instead of enforcing the laws on the books, increasing the penalties on criminals, and actually housing the lawbreakers in prisons, Rahm advocates further penalties on the people who merely want to be able to defend themselves in the absence of police.
A gang banger isn't about to register his gun. And that gun isn't going to be in any database so "police can figure out where they came from." The last figures we saw from the FBI said something under 10% of guns used in crimes were actually stolen from private citizens. The figure may have been as low as 5%. How about those couple of hundred guns that the boys from Englewood stole from gun shops across the midwest - those were all registered, right?
Watch the pension legislation boys and girls, this has all the hallmarks of a classic Rahm misdirection play. But be sure you click on the NRA and ISRA links on the right hand side of the page. No reason we can't have gun rights protected as we fight the pension battles, too.
A gang banger isn't about to register his gun. And that gun isn't going to be in any database so "police can figure out where they came from." The last figures we saw from the FBI said something under 10% of guns used in crimes were actually stolen from private citizens. The figure may have been as low as 5%. How about those couple of hundred guns that the boys from Englewood stole from gun shops across the midwest - those were all registered, right?
Watch the pension legislation boys and girls, this has all the hallmarks of a classic Rahm misdirection play. But be sure you click on the NRA and ISRA links on the right hand side of the page. No reason we can't have gun rights protected as we fight the pension battles, too.