The Chicago government is very consistent

[dan_bgblue]

One of the very few good things I can say about them

New $25.00 Sales Tax (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/28/new-25-per-gun-tax-stirs-debate-in-chicago/)

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.

"They make it sound like it's a tax but it's actually a fight against the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms," he said.

The new tax was sold to the public with the idea that it would offset the public cost of medical care for shooting victims.

According to Board President Toni Preckwinkle's own numbers, that cost was just shy of $35 million.

Yet the estimated revenue for the new tax will be roughly $600,000.

Still, the tax might not be just about the money. Laurence Msall, president of The Civic Federation in Chicago, said "it's clear that the motivation for the tax is not revenue."

[CitizenBBN]

I'm not a conspiracy guy, but when a leadership so blindly pursues a policy that has failed so miserably I begin to wonder.

They are the most anti-gun group of politicians in the country bar none and they have the highest rates of gun violence in the nation, bar none. A complete ban on handguns yet they average 2 murders and a dozen woundings by handgun a DAY.

You'd think they would figure out the people pulling the triggers aren't the people they're regulating. It's so obvious, so glaring, I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't still old school Chicago where the gangs run the politicians and they want the law abiding citizens disarmed.

It's to the point of being bizarre. It's not a situation where there is a lot of gray. They have had a complete ban on handgun ownership of any kind and will have around 700 murders and many thousands wounded this year by handguns. The evidence their anti-gun policies are utter failures is beyond dispute, yet they continue with the same blind fervor.

This is just another in a growing line of attempts to get around the SCOTUS ruling in McDonald which ruled their complete ban on handguns in the home unconstitutional. They put in a $100 per year per gun tax, now the $25 purchase tax, they require a class to get a permit to own one that includes a live fire exercise but there is a ban on gun ranges inside the city limits so the only way to even get the permit is to be able to go outside the city.

All of it is set up so the rich white folks in Hyde Park and the Near North Side can afford guns and the poor folk in the projects (who can't afford the fees and don't have cars to get to gun ranges and get the classes) are SOL even though they need to defend themselves the most.

So not only are they foolish anti-gun zealots (or criminals) they're also elitists and borderline racists.

[suncat05]

Note to self: DO NOT MOVE ANYWHERE CLOSE TO CHICAGO OR EVEN ILLINOIS! And scratch NEW YAWK & CALIFORNIA from the list too! :sAng_soapbox:

[jazyd]

They had their 500th murder last night so they try to limit those who want to protect themselves and do nothing about the criminals. Smart. Real smart. Like Sunday I won't ever move there nor will I visit. Every gun owner and hunter should avoid Chicago. Better yet every hunter should tell all those Ill farmers they will no longer pay the high leases, will not buy out of state hunting license, no more gas, no more going to restaurants, no more groceries. Take all the money spent in Ill to hunt and spend it in friendly states

[dan_bgblue]

The pheasants of Illinois thank you.:winking0011:

South Dakota and Nebraska are a heck of a lot more fun than Illinois

[CitizenBBN]

The pheasants of Illinois thank you.:winking0011:

South Dakota and Nebraska are a heck of a lot more fun than Illinois

I've been to Nebraska pheasant country. You couldn't see fun from there with the Hubble telescope. :) They'd roll up the sidewalks at dusk if they had any in the first place. They do have an obsession with potatoes however, specifically french fries.

[CitizenBBN]

500? Wow, slowed down for winter. They were on track for over 600 back in the summer.

The 500 doesn't even tell the story. Two other factors are important:

1) This is the 2nd time they've topped 500, now and 2008, at a time when national murder rates are plummeting. Most states have dramatically loosened gun laws and allowed concealed carry and their violent crime rates are dropping. Chicago has the toughest gun laws in the country by far and theirs is growing. So it's not just 500 murders, it's these insane numbers contrasted against the rest of the country becoming safer that shows an even more stark contrast.

2) Those aren't the number of people wounded by guns in Chicago. Quick google shows articles where over a weekend or just one day there were "5 killed, 24 wounded", or "8 killed, 46 wounded" or "1 dead, 13 wounded in Christmas Eve shootings". I'd conservatively guess at least 5x more people were wounded based just on those headlines, which means 2,500 wounded by guns. It makes it clear Chicago isn't just a murder capital, it's a shooting gallery.

THOUSANDS of people are being shot every year in Chicago by guns that are illegal to possess there in any form and their solution is to try to prevent any law abiding ownership of them when all those policies have seen as results is massive gun violence.

It's just bizarre. I get that it's counter-intuitive to say "we have lots of gun violence and we need to liberalize gun ownership". I get it, I do. It sounds crazy. The fact remains however that many truths are counter-intuitive when considered on such a simplistic level. You have GOT to go past the one liner joke on the Tonight show and think through it in a more complex way.

When you do you quickly realize all their laws only end up applying to those who weren't going to shoot anyone other than in self defense and those doing the shooting are going to ignore those laws no matter how many you pass. All you're doing is helping the criminal element and in no case are you in any way discouraging or limiting them.

You come down to realizing the problem is the criminals operating in your city, your dire poverty caused by warehousing of your poor for 6 generations and a host of other factors that have nothing to do with the ownership of guns by responsible Chicago residents.

it becomes trite, but the guns aren't the cause of gun violence, gun violence is a symptom.

They are trying to treat the symptom of poverty and crime and drug trafficking, use of guns to commit violent acts, rather than the disease. Given the broad harm done by those root causes and how little of that overall harm is reflected in gun violence I just don't understand the priorities. 500 dead in a year is bad, 1 million suffering every day is even worse.

Combined with the way these laws only protects criminals and leaves those million people at their mercy, their treatment for the pneumonia appears to be to take away the Kleenex in hopes it will stop their runny nose.

I've been through some of the impoverished parts of Chicago, and been to the nicest parts. It doesn't take much to figure out why they have these problems, and the guns don't have a thing to do with them. Ironic that Obama, champion of social "justice", comes from a city that is a textbook contrast between the haves and have nots.

I like Chicago, always have liked it. But I see it for what it is, a city with a corrupt government and deep economic divisions that combine to lead to a cocktail of areas with massive violence and criminal activity.

This tax is just another wedge between those two groups, creating no impediment to Hyde Park homes from having a gun for defense but adding another cost to a struggling home in Joliet.

[KeithKSR]

Note to self: DO NOT MOVE ANYWHERE CLOSE TO CHICAGO OR EVEN ILLINOIS! And scratch NEW YAWK & CALIFORNIA from the list too! :sAng_soapbox:

If I had a 500 page book listing possible places to live Illinois, New York and California would be found on the last line of the last page.

[KeithKSR]

How can Chicago have 500 murders (not all by gun BTW)? It can't be gun related since the liberals have proclaimed that strong gun control laws decrease gun violence. Chicagoans cannot be murdering each other with guns, because we all know that the law abiding criminals of Chicago would not illegally possess guns.

[CatinIL]

I'll be happy when the day gets here when I lock the back of the moving truck and I leave this over taxed state (IL) and head back the Blugrass State...6 1/2 years to go.

[CitizenBBN]

I'll be happy when the day gets here when I lock the back of the moving truck and I leave this over taxed state (IL) and head back the Blugrass State...6 1/2 years to go.

The problem with Illinois is it's held hostage politically by Chicago. Virginia has the same problem with Arlington et al.

[CatinIL]

The problem with Illinois is it's held hostage politically by Chicago. Virginia has the same problem with Arlington et al.

You're not kidding. Our taxes flow right up to Chicago.

[CitizenBBN]

The Illinois legislature turns over on the 9th. Some Senate Democrats (no doubt from Chicago) are trying to push a bill that will ban ALL semiautomatic guns. NRA estimated it was 75% of all handguns and 50% of all long guns in circulation.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/02/illinois-dems-press-forward-with-gun-control-bills-firearms-group-warns-no/

You wouldn't have to turn them in but no more could be bought or sold or transferred. You'd only be allowed to shoot them at regulated ranges

This is nuts. These people are bat crap crazy. that's just a bill to disarm the citizens of Illinois. Of course it flies in the face of the 7th Circuit decision that they have to allow some kind of concealed carry option.

what is wrong with these people? Can they be this stupid or do they have some other motive?


PS - Armalite and some other gun makers are in Illinois and are talking about leaving. Hope Kentucky is on the phone with these guys. He says 2 states have talked to him.

[CatinIL]

I'm in a tough spot right now. Like I said above, in 6 1/2 years I'm out of this state :jumping-smiley-012:.

But I would sell the house in a minute and move across the river to MO if I wouldn't take a finacial hit.

This is the part that concerns me most:
“There would be no exemptions and no grandfathering,” the group stated in its alert. “You would have a very short window to turn in your guns to the state police and avoid prosecution.”
This is what those knuckleheads in Springfield "really" want.

[Darrell KSR]

SURELY there isn't enough momentum for that kind of thing to work, is it?

I mean...that's crazy.

[CitizenBBN]

SURELY there isn't enough momentum for that kind of thing to work, is it?

I mean...that's crazy.

Doesn't seem like it from the tone of the article. Seems these things have gotten out of their committee in the past but die on the floor. Of course then the House and Governor have to agree.

Seems more a show given the time left before they roll over and past votes, but the fact that they propose it and it gets out of committee is very disturbing to me on several levels.

Disturbing that they don't think the 2nd Amendment exists or applies to their state, and honestly even more that they think this makes public safety or any other kind of sense at any level.

It's just nuts. N-V-T-S nuts.

[KeithKSR]

The Illinois legislature turns over on the 9th. Some Senate Democrats (no doubt from Chicago) are trying to push a bill that will ban ALL semiautomatic guns. NRA estimated it was 75% of all handguns and 50% of all long guns in circulation.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/02/illinois-dems-press-forward-with-gun-control-bills-firearms-group-warns-no/

You wouldn't have to turn them in but no more could be bought or sold or transferred. You'd only be allowed to shoot them at regulated ranges

This is nuts. These people are bat crap crazy. that's just a bill to disarm the citizens of Illinois. Of course it flies in the face of the 7th Circuit decision that they have to allow some kind of concealed carry option.

what is wrong with these people? Can they be this stupid or do they have some other motive?


PS - Armalite and some other gun makers are in Illinois and are talking about leaving. Hope Kentucky is on the phone with these guys. He says 2 states have talked to him.


SURELY there isn't enough momentum for that kind of thing to work, is it?

I mean...that's crazy.

At tale of two Americas, one filled with left leaning fanatics living in urban centers, then the rest of us.

[CitizenBBN]

I'm in a tough spot right now. Like I said above, in 6 1/2 years I'm out of this state :jumping-smiley-012:.

But I would sell the house in a minute and move across the river to MO if I wouldn't take a finacial hit.

This is the part that concerns me most:
“There would be no exemptions and no grandfathering,” the group stated in its alert. “You would have a very short window to turn in your guns to the state police and avoid prosecution.”
This is what those knuckleheads in Springfield "really" want.

I chat with some gun owners in Illinois some and they're split on the "move" solution to the gun issue, but I've always thought moving just b/c of the gun issue is maybe putting too much weight on it. Not that I'd agree with any of it, but it's one part of the life quality equation for me individually.

But when it gets to a ban on all semiautos even I would maybe have to re-evaluate.

In your position you do the time and then go where you want. In the good news department despite these nut job's efforts I expect gun laws to loosen there with some kind of concealed carry now required and this kind of bill unlikely to go anywhere.

Still, it's nuts.

[CatinIL]

SURELY there isn't enough momentum for that kind of thing to work, is it?

I mean...that's crazy.

I think in the end it will fail "in part" if word gets out to the general public. Just the fact that you have to break a gun down before you can transport it in IL shows how crazy they are. Southern IL, really does need to secede from Northern, IL.

[CitizenBBN]

At tale of two Americas, one filled with left leaning fanatics living in urban centers, then the rest of us.

True, but I'll twist it to say one America and a big western European diaspora.

[dan_bgblue]

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/dennys-refuses-to-serve-gun-toting-police-officer.html

[CitizenBBN]

Cracked up at that one Dan. Most people have the sense to beg cops to frequent their businesses.

here's my contribution:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/03/beloved-chicago-muffler-store-owner-citys-fifth-homicide-new-year/?test=latestnews

it's the 3rd of January, Chicago just had its 5th murder for the year.

This guy was robbed by 2 people who came in pretending to be customers. He was shot in the back trying to get away. Good thing it's illegal for store owners or employees to be armed. At least the ambulance got there quick.

[CitizenBBN]

SURELY there isn't enough momentum for that kind of thing to work, is it?

I mean...that's crazy.

http://nraila.org/legislation/state-legislation/2013/1/illinois-state-senate-leadership-postpones-floor-votes-on-gun-and-magazine-bans,-registration-schemes-and-shooting-range-restrictions.aspx

Pro gun pressure got the vote delayed to the 8th but the Senate President and Governor are massively anti-gun. Unreal list of stuff they're going to bring to the floor, including regulations to curtail gun ranges (like they're the cause of gun violence?), bans on ALL semiauto weapons of all kinds and calibers with detachable mags (Say goodbye to the Ruger 10/22, the preferred weapon of criminals and mass murderers everywhere...oh wait), registration of all of those weapons, a whole array of stuff that is extreme beyond words.

The sneakiest part is when you register you'd have to have "proof of ownership." I can't prove I own ANY of my guns. Gifts from my grandfather and my father's gun, a Ruger 10/22 my mother bought me when I was like 14 years old. Don't think I still have the bill of sale. without that they can't be registered and it's a felony to not register them.

Obvious confiscation of those weapons. I'd lose my father's semi-auto 20Ga shotgun. You know that phrase about "pry it from my cold dead hands"? I have very little of my father's things, I'll die before the state takes that one and I mean it. Of course what I'd do is make a very sympathetic test case for the NRA to fund in the federal courts to challenge the law, but that gun wouldn't leave my possession period even during the trial.

[KeithKSR]

I have a hard time believing that our current SCOTUS would consider the arbitrary ban of semiautomatic weapons as a "reasonable" restriction; which per Heller should be the determining factor in judging a law's constitutionality.

[CitizenBBN]

I have a hard time believing that our current SCOTUS would consider the arbitrary ban of semiautomatic weapons as a "reasonable" restriction; which per Heller should be the determining factor in judging a law's constitutionality.

As long as we hold the court we have a chance, but that's why the Obama election was so critical. He'll pack every bench he can with these leftist loons. Guns won't be our only problem by a long shot.