As Chicago’s police deal with a decline in active sworn officers, dramatic changes to policing policy and procedures and an apparent aversion to prosecuting known criminals from the George Soros-backed DA Kim Foxx, the city’s law enforcement seem less and less able to protect citizens of the Windy City. Meanwhile, Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) and other anti-gun politicians are doing little to correct the situation while they push for more restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.
Incredibly, as violent crime continues to rise, arrests in Chicago have hit an all-time low. The disintegrating situation has made things more convenient for armed criminals, but much more dangerous for average citizens trying to live their everyday lives. Consequently, many Chicagoans have chosen to rely upon themselves for their safety.
Consider these episodes of armed self-defense in Chicago over the past few months.
On Dec. 15 of last year, a concealed-carry permit holder and his companion were walking to their vehicle at a Chicago mall when three men surrounded them and began to assault them. According to police, the victim drew his gun and fired multiple shots at the attackers, hitting two of them and ending the assault.
The injuries to the two criminals were non-lethal, and one was later charged with battery. Following an investigation, authorities decided not to charge the armed citizen, who was just saving himself and his companion from the thugs.
On Jan. 30, an 80-year-old Chicago man used his legally owned handgun to save his life when two home intruders burst into his house. According to media reports, the victim was sitting in his recliner while recovering from a recent prostate surgery when the duo forced their way into the home and knocked him to the ground.
The octogenarian was able to get to his pistol and shoot both intruders. One, a 13-time felon, was struck in the chest and remains hospitalized. He faces charges of home invasion causing bodily injury, aggravated battery of a victim over the age of 60 and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm. While a judge ordered him held in lieu of $500,000 bond, he is being held without bail on a warrant from the Illinois Department of Corrections, which is reviewing his parole status.
Just a week earlier, a Chicago concealed-carry permit holder used his firearm to protect himself from an armed robber on a train. According to media reports, the robber, who has been arrested 32 times in the last 10 years, pulled a gun, approached the victim on the train and tried to rob him.
Fortunately, the victim was carrying a concealed firearm and knew how to use it. He fired several shots, hitting the would-be robber in the leg, who was arrested a short time later. Since the armed citizen was an off-duty security guard, he won’t be facing charges for bringing a concealed firearm on the train.
Of course, we could go on and on with examples, like two other December incidents—one in which a concealed-carry permit holder used his gun to protect himself from a car full of armed robbers, and another where a permit holder shot two armed robbers, ending a robbery spree that had already terrorized at least nine citizens that same day. Or the 23-year-old Chicago woman who, last November, faced down four armed carjackers, shooting one of them and likely saving her own life.
If nothing else, Chicago is proof of one thing: In places where politicians work to make criminals safer and citizens less so, freedom is more important than ever. Saving oneself from armed, dangerous criminals isn’t “vigilante justice”; it’s the very essence of freedom, and one of the things our Founders were thinking about when they wrote the Second Amendment.
