apocalypse: And, of course, both Chicago and D.C. are adjacent to areas where guns laws are extremely lax (Indiana; Virginia), and there is a pipeline right into both metropolitan areas from those irresponsible and criminal sources.
True, but to be fair, gary indiana right outside of chicago, gets spillover crime from chicago, & the total murders in chicago recently run from 400 - 500 & in gary around 75. But it concurrently doesn't bode well for 'more guns in gary' when they have the highest rate. And chicago's murder totals in mid 90s were near 1,000 yearly, now at about 510 last year, something current crop of gunnuts always avoids since the drop occurred under the handgun ban's watch.
Guns are surely smuggled into chicago from indiana, I agree.
DC a bit different; having been born in DC & lived in Md suburbs 35 years, & remembering when the handgun ban was enabled, I know some things about DC which the gun lobby always neglects to mention.
Actually I believe more guns are smuggled into DC from guncontrol maryland rather than virginia, for a couple reasons. DC is adjacent to maryland from 3 sides by land, & virginia on one side but the potomac river is actually the border where virginia is the west bank, DC the east bank. So it's riskier to cross the virginia bridges with a handgun, than to just walk into DC from Md at night with a gun which could be tossed if a cop comes by. If a gunsmuggler comes from virginia bridges & he's stopped by cops harder to toss the gun out the window & not be seen (presuming he's made it to DC side).
Whether most of these guns 'originate' from md or va I can't say, since va guns could be first staged to maryland.. Virginia of course in the top 3 for crime guns traced from other states.
DC is made up of 4 quadrants, Northwest (NW), NE, SE, & SW. Northwest quadrant is the white dominated Georgetown quadrant, & has far less crime, & nearest virginia along with SW. The other 3 quadrants are largely black, & regrettably I have to say, have more crime (how'd you like it if largely white govt workers came into your city & raped & pillaged on a daily basis taking large salaries & your parents & gparents worked in lesser jobs their entire lives?).
DC handgun ban was enacted by DC 'home rule' legislatures on the premise (in their words) to assist police in apprehending predominantly younger black males causing gun problems. I quit going to fort dupont golf course since they were hiding in the woods with guns running out to rob golfers then disappearing back into the woods.
DC has no death penalty, & up till last week when Md banned it, DC was surrounded by two death penalty states. This slightly inflated their yearly murder & murder rates, since killers would either bring in dead bodies & dump them in DC, or live ones from Va or Md & kill them in DC (place where killing occurred is state/city which gets the stat, unless uncertain where, then where found).
Before anyone says DP doesn't prevent murders, I tell you I oppose DP but DC is the only place in USA that I am aware of that was in this situation, totally enclosed by two death penalty states. I knew one guy who was shot & his body was dragged a quarter mile from Md, across the DC line. Some states have similar 'border droppings' where a DP state & no DP state meet, but not really significant overall.
It will be interesting to see whether DC murders go down more since Md enacted DP ban last week (tho Md did have a moratorium on DP).
I should mention I support the DP only for the current fad of massassassinations, which are not what the DP ban is intended to protect, that being innocents being unjustly sentenced. Consider anders breivik in norway killing 75 people intentionally as a planned execution, that is not the type the dp ban is meant to protect.
This would only involve perhaps 1 to 10 americans yearly, who planned for months massassassinations to kill as many as possible with hundreds of rounds of ammo etc, & with victims both killed or wounded over say 10.
All the more reason for national gun control legislation, the kind supported by President Obama and the vast, vast majority of Americans in general and Democrats in particular.
Certainly agree with you 100% on that one!
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