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The Anti-Gun, Anti-Violence Approach Isn't Working
In this Monday, April 28, 2014 photo, police stand outside a residence in Chicago after 14-year-old girl was fatally shot and another girl wounded in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago. No arrests have been made in the shootings, but police said late Monday that they were interviewing a person of interest. (AP Photo/Sun-Times Media, Richard A. Chapman)

The Anti-Gun, Anti-Violence Approach Isn't Working

Are “anti-violence” groups deliberately missing the point in order to promote the prohibition of an inanimate object as the answer to the problem?

Evil abounds in this world. It always has and always will. The great question for those who oppose evil has ever been the method of that opposition.

On Friday April 25, 2014 the rampant evil of out-of-control gang violence took the life of Leonore Draper in the West Pullman area of Chicago, Illinois In a city that measures bloodshed by the barrel, the names of the dead rarely receive any national attention.

The Draper killing has garnered interest outside of “Chicagoland” due to the extreme irony of her murder. Draper, a community activist, was heavily involved in the “anti-violence” group Project Orange Tree.

In this Monday, April 28, 2014 photo, police stand outside a residence in Chicago after 14-year-old girl was fatally shot and another girl wounded in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago. No arrests have been made in the shootings, but police said late Monday that they were interviewing a person of interest. (AP Photo/Sun-Times Media, Richard A. Chapman) In this Monday, April 28, 2014 photo, police stand outside a residence in Chicago after 14-year-old girl was fatally shot and another girl wounded in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago. No arrests have been made in the shootings, but police said late Monday that they were interviewing a person of interest. (AP Photo/Sun-Times Media, Richard A. Chapman)

Members of CeaseFire, a similar "anti-violence" group spoke out about the killing and went door-to-door in Draper's neighborhood. CeaseFire Illinois has a questionable success record according to Chicago Police. The group closed some offices last year after the leader of the organization was arrested and charged with domestic violence and they had spent the $1 million grant given them by the city of Chicago.

Draper was just returning home from a fund raiser to fight gun violence when she was apparently caught in the crossfire of a gang dispute. She was shot while sitting in her car and pronounced dead at the hospital soon after.

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy stated that the police were still searching for suspects in the killing. McCarthy is an outspoken proponent of strict gun control and has spoken out against Illinois recently enacted concealed carry permit law. After yet another rash of violence in Chicago on Easter weekend, McCarthy took to the local airwaves and called for increased gun control measures in addition to those already in place.

There are numerous stories on the newswire detailing the Draper murder. What is missing in each and every one is the cold, hard truth that despite the fact that Cook County, Illinois and by extension Chicago already have the strictest gun control laws in the United States (the only city to come close is Washington, D.C.) last year Chicago took the crown for Murder Capital of the United States.

Getty Images. Getty Images.

Gun control proponents like Garry McCarthy and Michael Bloomberg bolster their arguments with unsupported affirmations that the answer to violent behavior is gun prohibition. The inconvenient truth is that gun control does indeed have a definite affect on violence. It ensures that it will increase.

In his book “More Guns, Less Crime” economist John R. Lott, Jr. conducted exhaustive research that showed a definitive link between the number of lawful concealed carry permit holders and the reduction of violent crime in the areas studied. Lott’s book has been available to the public, which includes McCarthy and Bloomberg, since 1998.

A thoughtful person might consider the fact that both Chicago and Washington, D.C. have vied against each other for the titles of “Most Gun Control” and “Murder Capital” simultaneously. How can it be that seemingly educated adults cannot see the writing on the wall? Are “anti-violence” groups and organizations deliberately missing the point in order to promote the prohibition of an inanimate object as the answer to the problem?

Superintendent McCarthy has made much of the fact that Chicago Police has taken more “illegal guns” off the streets than any other city. One might wonder what makes a gun “illegal.” Does the gun have a predisposition toward malice or bad behavior? Can we follow on this type of thinking and make the case that drunk driving could be reduced if we could just remove more “illegal automobiles” or “illegal alcohol” from the streets?

This Jan. 23, 2014, file photo shows Detroit Police Chief James Craig speaking with reporters, on Laing Ave., near Moross, following a raid on a home in Detroit, Mich. Detroit’s police chief said Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, that a death threat against him on a social media site shows that his department’s crackdown on drug trafficking is cutting into the profits of criminals. (AP Photo/The Detroit News, Steve Perez, File) This Jan. 23, 2014, file photo shows Detroit Police Chief James Craig speaking with reporters, on Laing Ave., near Moross, following a raid on a home in Detroit, Mich. Detroit’s police chief said Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, that a death threat against him on a social media site shows that his department’s crackdown on drug trafficking is cutting into the profits of criminals. (AP Photo/The Detroit News, Steve Perez, File)

If we accept that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result, we can clearly see that the Chicago is held in a death grip of insanity.

Anti-gun and anti-violence groups have fallen for the progressive liberal trap of exempting human beings from their own actions. It would seems that “violence” is some abstract concept, not at all the responsibility of human criminals. For many, the term “violence” is offered as you would the words “cancer” or "virus," as though the host has been infected through no fault of their own.

Anti-violence groups are quick to point out that socio-economic factors are to blame for out-of-control violence in their communities. Oddly enough, those responsible for the economy, progressive liberal politicians, are given a free pass.

Consider Detroit, Michigan, a city that makes 1980s Beirut seem tame by comparison. For four decades the voters of Detroit went to the polls and elected progressive liberal Democrats. Though the Motor City had been in steady decline since the late 1970s, losing manufacturing jobs by the thousands, a steady rise in crime and rampant drug use, voters continued to do the same thing expecting a different result. Kwame Kilpatrick, mayor from 2002 to 2008 is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence on multiple corruption charges.

DETROIT, MI - SEPTEMBER 05:  An abandoned home is seen with the Detroit skyline in the background on September 5, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is struggling with over 78,000 abandoned homes across 140 square miles and 16% unemployment; in July, the city declared bankruptcy. Credit: Getty Images  An abandoned home is seen with the Detroit skyline in the background on September 5, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is struggling with over 78,000 abandoned homes across 140 square miles and 16% unemployment; in July, the city declared bankruptcy. Credit: Getty Images

Apparently 40 years was enough for the remaining good people of Detroit. The voters of Detroit elected Mike Duggan, a successful business man, as a write-in candidate in 2013. Detroit’s citizens have also stood firmly behind their new Chief of Police, James Craig. Craig, in a departure from most every other large city police chief, has come out in favor of the armed citizen. Craig publicly recommended that the best solution to violent crime in Detroit was for the people to arm themselves.

When it comes to addressing the reality of evil in our world we have two examples of how to deal with it. The Chicago model for dealing with evil seems to be demonize an inanimate object, issue public grant to community organizers and disassociate “violence” from the criminal vermin responsible for it.

Detroit has altered its previous path by embracing a pro-business mayor who is seeking to return the city to some semblance of normalcy. The Motor City, once the murder capital of America, has no intention of retaking the crown. Members of the Detroit Police Department, rather than seek guns bans or make excuses for the criminal element have boldly stated to them that “your time is up.”

For the past three decades Paul Markel has had the privilege to study with some of the finest instructors the U.S. Military and Law Enforcement world have to offer. Visit Student of the Gun.

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