It can only be Chicago, where some officials are glowing over slight decreases in homicides and shootings in that city in 2018.
All while thousands of citizens were shot and killed as Chicago continues to burn with rampant violence the politicians refuse to fully address.
According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, homicides dropped by 15 percent last year and shootings decreased by 18 percent.
But as of the end of the year, according to the Tribune, more than 2,900 citizens had been shot in 2018, along with at least 570 homicides. Data also shows that in some of the most violent districts of Chicago, the violence continues largely unabated. In fact, an area on the Far South Side of Chicago was hit by a 33 percent increase in homicides and a 21 percent increase in shootings. That is according to the Chicago Police Department.
No matter how hard politicians and the media may try to twist and spin numbers and data, the reality of Chicago is deadly violence.
“We’ve normalized gun violence,” a Chicago teen told an interviewer. Think about that word “normal” for a moment.
For us, normal is dropping our kids off at school and going on to work. Normal is a family dinner at the end of the day. Normal is daily routine in our lives.
In Chicago, normal is violence. Death.
Readers of this space may recall the words of Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. Last August, on the heels of another weekend when at least 60 people were shot, Johnson told Chicago CBS, “I’m tired of it. … People are sick and tired of it, and they should be.”
Johnson pointed to the fact that most of the mayhem in Chicago is committed by the same, repeat violent criminals. “As long as we fail to create repercussions for carrying and using illegal guns, or more importantly hold repeat, violent offenders accountable for their actions, we’re simply going to continue to have these discussions.”
That has been the position of NRA members for decades and, for decades, I’ve fought for tough enforcement of existing laws against violent criminals, drug dealers and gangs with guns. That’s just plain common sense. That works. But that doesn’t fit the agenda of the powerful political and media elites to destroy the Second Amendment and ban civilian ownership of firearms. To these elites, the destruction of our constitutional right to keep and bear arms is more important than making streets in cities like Chicago safer.
To these elites, the destruction of our constitutional right to keep and bear arms is more important than making streets in cities like Chicago safer.
Instead of calling for full, tough enforcement of existing laws to take violent predators off our streets, the political elites cry for more laws that effect only the law-abiding. From gun bans, to ammunition bans, to special taxes on lawful gun owners, to every licensing and national registration scheme they can conjure, their siren call for more gun control is backed and shouted to the rooftops by most in the national media.
But it is just that—a siren call, an outright lie aimed not at cracking down on violent criminals, but upon the honest, law-abiding Americans who own firearms.
As you know, they’re coming after us again. Already, new legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives—more regulation, more bans and more government thumbs down upon our freedom. All of it has been slickly packaged as “public safety” measures, but none of their measures would enhance anyone’s safety. But it would disarm us and make no mistake—their end goal is total disarmament, your gun and mine.
They know—and we all know—that the only force in America that can stop them cold in their anti-freedom tracks are the men and women of the National Rifle Association.
We stand for protecting American citizens by fully enforcing existing federal gun laws against violent criminals with guns, drug dealers with guns and criminal gangs with guns.
We stand for the absolute constitutional right of every law-abiding American to own firearms for any lawful purpose, especially the God-given right of personal protection.
The NRA has always stood with law enforcement and always fought for our personal Second Amendment liberty. The majority of Americans believe in that and we will always stand and fight to preserve both our nation and our freedom.
We must be strong, unwavering and dedicated to that cause, and always stand as Freedom’s Safest Place.
