The Ottawa Times has another pro-carry OP-ed

[Bud]

Time for concealed carry

 

Please add a comment if you can:

 

"

WRITE TEAM: Time for concealed carry

09/21/2011, 8:43 pm </SPAN>

Jerry Long, Write Team I could talk about the Second Amendment and our legal right to own and possess a firearm, but according to the Supreme Court, that is a moot point.

 

To be able to "carry" is a different story. The Second Amendment states: "to keep and bear arms." The word "bear" means: to produce, to carry; convey, to show visibly. All of which doesn't mean to leave in your house.

 

According to statistics, even though Chicago has implemented new crime fighting techniques received from Los Angeles and New York, Chicago still is ranked in the top five worst cities in violent crimes. Chicago installed cameras on street corners in the highest-crime areas in the city. These cameras hear the sound of a gunshot, then focus on the area, then zoom in.

 

Because most criminal activity is directly connected to drug dealers and gangs, this prompted Chicago to also focus on a certain population segment within the city — low-income households. With the low-income residents being the large majority of drug purchasers, the city felt the need to eliminate the attraction for the drug dealers by dispersing or encouraging such residents to relocate to different areas of the state.

 

In 2009, Illinois had a total population of just less than 13 million with 773 murders, 510 in Chicago, with a population just less than 3 million. Texas has a population of just less than 25 million — 12 percent of the total population in the U.S. — and in 2009 had 1,328 murders. Texas also borders Mexico. If Chicago was the size of Texas, per capita, that would be 4,080 murders. While Washington, D.C., is ranked the worst city in every category, Chicago is not far behind.

 

While crime is and should be fought on many different levels, I believe concealed carry should be included in the fight against crime. Statistics already have proven that after a state implements concealed carry, crime rates do drop. I wonder how many crimes have not been reported for fear of retribution because the victim is without a firearm?

 

Isn't it ironic that the retired mayor of Chicago — Richard M. Daley, one of the biggest opponents of concealed carry — now wants the taxpayers to pay for the use of police protection around the clock because he had death threats? I wonder how many victims have had death threats against them for reporting a crime?

 

If you place a handgun on your kitchen table, unless it is picked up by someone, that handgun will be there 3,000 years from now, or until Mother Nature takes it away. Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

 

Let me leave you with something to chew on. There are 875 million firearms in the world today; the U.S. posses 270 million, equaling 90 guns for every 100 people in America. There is a reason why a country like China will not attempt to invade the U.S. via conventional warfare — it would be insane to attack a 250 million-man army.

 

Guns are our first line of defense for a free society. Without guns or the ability to carry, can anyone say "breach of national security?"

• JERRY LONG of Streator is a union truck diver of 25 years. He can be reached through The Times by e-mailing lonnyc@mywebtimes.com.

[Swervie]

Great article!

[ChiShooter]

Let me leave you with something to chew on. There are 875 million firearms in the world today; the U.S. posses 270 million, equaling 90 guns for every 100 people in America. There is a reason why a country like China will not attempt to invade the U.S. via conventional warfare — it would be insane to attack a 250 million-man army.

 

There's actually a true event in history that was along these lines. When Japan was at war with the US some generals in Japan were thinking about invading, but then someone over there who knew the situation here very well said something like "We can not possibly attack the mainland, all their citizens are armed - there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass". Not the exact quote but I think I got it pretty close.

[vezpa]

Until articles like this are published regularly in Chicago newspapers they are a waste of time, and frankly I'm tired of seeing them. We already have the rest of the state. Every ounce of our efforts need to be solely focused on Chicago.

[RUGERMAN]

[

There's actually a true event in history that was along these lines. When Japan was at war with the US some generals in Japan were thinking about invading, but then someone over there who knew the situation here very well said something like "We can not possibly attack the mainland, all their citizens are armed - there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass". Not the exact quote but I think I got it pretty close.

 

I believe that was Adm. Yamamoto, he studied and spent time in the U.S.

[Bud]

Until articles like this are published regularly in Chicago newspapers they are a waste of time, and frankly I'm tired of seeing them. We already have the rest of the state. Every ounce of our efforts need to be solely focused on Chicago.

 

You know what?

 

I went to great efforts after the election in 2008 to cultivate and encourage the Editorial staff of the Ottawa Times to get behind and support concealed carry in Illinois. Ottawa is in LaSalle County which is one of the few 'downstate' counties that voted against the referendum in support of concealed carry. I started right then and have been working hard for it ever since.

Voters mixed on concealed carry

That's when I discovered Illinois Carry and got involved in all of this.

 

Tell you what, why don't you just skip over reading them if you are tired of seeing them and skip making comment on them? ?

 

The rest of us can keep working to make sure the rest of Illinois does support concealed carry while you work on Chicago and Cook County.

 

After all, Chicago is the only place in Illinois that counts, right?

[vezpa]

 

 

After all, Chicago is the only place in Illinois that counts, right?

 

 

To be brutally honest as far as getting CCW to pass at this point in Illinois,....... YES !

[Bud]

After all, Chicago is the only place in Illinois that counts, right?

 

To be brutally honest as far as getting CCW to pass at this point in Illinois,....... YES !

 

 

good call!

 

and you have done just exactly what to get this done? How have you contributed? Where are you concentrating your obviously well thought out efforts?

 

and thanks for besmirching my efforts. I obviously have wasted my time. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

[Uncle Harley]

Great Article Bud! It's the backward thinking that "it's in the bag down there" is what got us in trouble "up there" in the first place. You and I both know there are pockets of areas down south that need worked on. Look at the city ordinance from the town where I live in Casey. It says anyone with a firearm on or about their person is prohibited by law. there is no mention of exemptions for being unloaded and cased for transportation. So basically every gun owner in town is in violation if they have a gun, it had to be on or ABOUT their person at some point in order to get there.

[Dr. G]

Although I focused my email to the Black State Reps. who are mostly on the south and west sides of Chicago, there were 52 (I think) State Reps who voted against HB-148. All of them are not in Chicago, or even close to it, so I think we should continue to spread the word in as many places and dissimenate this information through as many different media as we possibly can. Good work Bud Man. If each of us on this board could convince just one news organ to consistently print some pro 2nd amendment articles like bud man has done, just think of how much sooner we could get this bill passed.