Even in Chicago, views on guns are starting to change: When police can’t protect people, what do you do?

Jul 18, 2019 | Featured

In January of this year, when he was running to be mayor of Chicago, State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) acknowledged the obvious:

Many young people in these neighborhoods carry a gun because —out of fear and a lack of trust that the police will protect them—they feel they need to take matters into their own hands and carry a gun.

In Chicago, only about 15% of murders last year ended in arrest. In the past, Ford has called on the Illinois governor to send out the state national guard to high-crime areas of the city. Now, as of this week, his views appear to have progressed further:

Bullets from a shooting that left a 22-year-old dead in the Austin Neighborhood on the West Side Sunday also found State Rep. La Shawn Ford’s (D-Chicago) car.

Bullets were also found down the block, lodged in a love seat in a nearby home in the 800 block of North LeClaire Ave.

Ford tells The Mancow Show on WLS-AM 890 that he is encouraging his residents to arm themselves against the violence.

“I think about it all the time,” Ford said of the shootings that plague his community. “That’s why I’m working with a concealed carry instructor and we’re going to go through the neighborhood and we’re going to encourage people to get their concealed carry license because it makes no sense for people not to have the protections that they need.” . . .

The question is whether Ford will now push back against the huge costs involved in getting an Illinois permit. Our research has shown that poor minorities — the most likely victims of violent crime — are the ones who benefit most from having the opportunity to defend themselves.

johnrlott

1 Comment

  1. Tom Campbell

    Finally, someone is starting to get it.

Archives

At the Missoulian: Open elections? Be careful, Montana

At the Missoulian: Open elections? Be careful, Montana

Dr. John Lott has a new op-ed at The Missoulian newspaper in Missoula, Montana. . Two constitutional initiatives to change how Montanans vote will be on the ballot in November, and both are deceptive. Two of them will help Democrats and ensure, ironically,...

The Revised FBI Crime Data Reveals that it Originally Missed 1,699 Murders in 2022. Given that Almost all Murders are Reported, How Does the FBI Miss that Many Murders?

The Revised FBI Crime Data Reveals that it Originally Missed 1,699 Murders in 2022. Given that Almost all Murders are Reported, How Does the FBI Miss that Many Murders?

USA Today’s headline on the FBI's reported crime data released in September 2023 claims “Violent crime dropped for second straight year in 2023, including murder and rape.” There are two errors in their headline. First, that it is the FBI’s measure of reported crime...