What the hell is going on in Chicago? 21 shot in a 17 hour period.

[bushmeister0]

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=4226712&cl=7474633&src=news

Here are some reports from local stations on all the gun play. Naturally, the line is it's all gang related and, according to the Chicago police spokeperson, the heat is also a factor.

Either, there are way too many guns on the streets of Chicago or not enough, depending on who you ask. You've got to figure the guy with the AK-47 who started shooting at police would have thought twice if the cops had had .50 callies.

[orleans]

1. the heat is a factor? omg--it hit around 77 degrees friday.

if the heat is a "factor" then just wait.

[bushmeister0]

2. No wonder the Iraqis are always so pissed off.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. It was a long, cold, nasty winter...worse than usual

Just sayin'...

[elehhhhna]

23. It's warm, so everybody's outside. Then they start fighting.

and yeah, when it hits 100, watch out.

[notesdev]

3. Probably the weather change

This week was the first real post-winter week, with people really out and about. Probably a lot of pent-up BS that hit the streets virtually all at once.

[ben_meyers]

4. 32 Shot, 2 Stabbed, 6 Dead

Update, and how hot can it be this time of year?

Bloody Weekend: 32 Shot, 2 Stabbed, 6 Dead
CHICAGO (CBS) ― A violent and deadly weekend continues in Chicago. At least 12 people have been shot, two of them killed, since Saturday morning. Two others were stabbed in a home invasion. This comes after at least 20 people were shot, four of them killed, from Friday night through early Saturday.

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/chicago.weekend.violence.2.704117.html

[bushmeister0]

5. Maybe if the CPD wasn't so busy beating up bartenders they could do something about this.

Blaming it on the weather is pretty lame.

[Duer 157099]

6. I wonder if it has anything to do with Top Chef being in Chicago

You just never know

[bushmeister0]

9. Well, it wasn't Condi this time,

she was on her way to Baghdad, but she could have flown over earlier.

[mcctatas]

14. ...

:rofl:

[Crunchy Frog]

8. Just the price that our society is willing to pay

for the preservation of our gun rights.

[notesdev]

11. Chicago already has stiff gun laws

Those guys aren't going to obey them. The only people who would be disarmed would be law-abiding people who weren't the problem to begin with. That AK-47, especially, had to have been illegal in Chicago.

If someone is going to violate laws against murder, they sure aren't going to be paying attention to a piddly little gun law.

[bushmeister0]

12. That goes for any law, why not get rid of them all?

If one guy decides he's not going to obey the law, why should the rest of us have to follow it?

[krispos42]

13. That's how the right-wingers talk about the 4th Amendment

"9/11? Just the price we're willing to pay for the preservation of our privacy rights."

<on edit> Regardless, I doubt very many of the shooters either had the right to own or carry firearms, either because Cook County has very strict anti-gun laws or because they were career criminals and legally barred from doing so.

[mvccd1000]

15. Which gun rights do they have in Chicago?

I was under the impression that Chicago was one of the most restricted places in the nation.

I'm sure some will simply argue that all the guns come from neighboring places where they are easy to get, but why doesn't that hold true in AZ? It was 97 there the other weekend, and we DON'T have all of those unconstitutional restrictions on the Second Amendment. Why don't we have shootings like that?

[provis99]

17. you don't have shootings like that in Phoenix?

Who are you kidding? Phoenix is a fuckin shooting gallery.

[RadioactiveCarrot]

22. Hrm

Our murder rate is roughly the same, but other violent crime rates available seem to show Phoenix has roughly half the rate of Chicago.

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/08s0302.pdf

Now, property crime on the other hand, we seem to excel at those. :shrug:

[mvccd1000]

31. Not that I've seen...

Don't you think the papers would report it if we had something like that?

AND, even more importantly, our crime rate still disproves the gun-control advocates argument that more guns means "blood in the streets." You'd be hard-pressed to find a city with more guns than Phoenix, and our crime rates are far better than Chicago's.

[michreject]

28. The law

8-20-010 Unlawful to carry – Exceptions.

It shall be unlawful for any person to carry or maintain in any vehicle or about his or her person except when on his or her property or in his or her residence or fixed place of business, any rifle, shotgun, or other firearm; provided, that this section shall not apply to:

(1) Peace officers or any person summoned by any such officers to assist in making arrests or preserving the peace while he is actually engaged in assisting such officer;

(2) Wardens, superintendents and keepers of prisons, penitentiaries, jails, and other institutions for the detention of persons accused or convicted of an offense, while in the performance of their official duty or commuting between their homes and places of employment;

(3) Members of the Armed Services or Reserve Forces of the United States or the Illinois National Guard or the Reserve Officers Training Corps, while in the performance of their official duty;

(4) Special agents employed by a railroad to perform police functions, or employees of a detective agency, watchman-guard or patrolman agency, licensed by the State of Illinois, while actually engaged in the performance of the duties of their employment or commuting between their homes and places of employment;

(5) Agents and investigators of the Illinois Crime Investigating Commission authorized by the Commission to carry weapons, while on duty in the course of any investigation for the Commission;

Chicage should be the safest city in America. Gun ownership is forbidden. Everyone knows that thugs obey the law.

[moondust]

24. Collateral damage. n/t

[BadgerLaw2010]

30. People have gun rights in Chicago? Since when?

Chicago has some of the strongest gun laws in the world.

Give it up. Gun control doesn't work.

[Squatch]

32. 21 people shot in 17 hours do not make for "strong" gun laws

[BadgerLaw2010]

34. So DC doesn't have strong gun laws either? You are confusing strength with "works."

DC has an overt ban. Hard to get much stronger than that.

There is simply zero empherical evidence that strong gun laws actually stop crime, and a tremendous number of counter-examples that restrictive weapons laws don't do a damn thing.

[Squatch]

35. I'm not confusing anything

A gun law that appears to be strict but does nothing to actually stem gun violence is not "strong" nor does it "work"

[BadgerLaw2010]

40. So where in magical dancing panda land can you make D.C./Chicago's laws work?

The policy, written as strong, implemented strictly (just try to get a handgun legally in Chicago or D.C.) is an absolute failure at preventing gun violence.

What exactly do you propose to do that? Come up with something tougher than an outright ban?

This is a "No True Scotsman" fallacy you are advancing.

[benEzra]

42. Chicago residents don't have "gun rights" that I can see. (n/t)

[chknltl]

10. I seem to recall Kerry talking about bush emptying out the...

Police and Fire Departments across the nation. Is it possible that this is a direct result of the under-staffing of Chicago PDs. ...OMG!!1!-do you suppose they may need to call in a privatized PD...oh say... Blackwater until the situation is resolved? (Yeah, I know, this is gonna go over big with the "We Are So Screwn!1!1!!" crowd but someone had to say it.)

[Wizard777]

16. Probably a gang war.

[fasttense]

18. Just a casual by-product of the orgy of greed

corporations and politicians are currently engaging in. Good jobs, fair wages, low prices for necessities all are things of the past. Increased crime and corruption are things of the future. It will get worse before it will get better.

[ileus]

41. These bums have never had nor intend to have an honest job...

don't confuse murderers with actual working citizens.

[girl gone mad]

19. 29 in 21 hours actually..

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=609184

[Robbien]

37. A total of 40 shot over the weekend

with about ten of them dead.

All due to weather so says the media. Yeah right.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

20. full moon, baby n/t

[SpiralHawk]

21. "...and it was in Scorpio!" - Ronald Reagan's Dead Republicon Astrologer

"You know what I mean?" - Ronald Reagan's Dead Republicon Astrologer

[IndianaJones]

25. the heat? its been in the 70's. nt.

[TCJ70]

26. I think it was poorly worded.

What the police were saying is that it's WARMER out and more people are out more often. Therefore, more opportunity for violence.

[IndianaJones]

27. that makes sense. its been rainy and miserable for a while. nt.

[Eurobabe]

29. It's crazy season, Spring

[PCIntern]

33. 7 deaths in Philly over the weekend...

and who knows how many shootings.

Horrendous.

[bushmeister0]

39. From where we were last year, not so bad.

But the weather has been nice, except for Sat.

[NickB79]

36. The economy is rocketing into the crapper, perhaps?

The long-term trends usually show an uptick in violence when the economy goes south. And people join gangs and deal drugs when their other options for employment are limited.

[lebkuchen]

38. Springtime in the U.S.

raging hormones, pecking order established between the Alpha males and the bullied...

W/luck, US schools will be spared this time around.