Author Archives: Gary

82 shot, 14 fatally, in Chicago over July Fourth…Chief says it’s because of the gun laws.

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“For 10 minutes, it seemed like the shooting was everywhere in the South Chicago neighborhood.” via 82 shot, 14 fatally, in Chicago over July Fourth – chicagotribune.com.

Garry McCarthy says all of this, is because of “straw-purchasing.” But nearly all of Chicago’s rampant violence happens in just a few areas of the city. Mostly poor. Mostly over run with gangs. And little in the way of police intervention. But when they do intervene…

“Five of the people were shot by police over 36 hours on Friday and Saturday, including two boys 14 and 16 who were killed when they allegedly refused to drop their guns…” via Two boys, 14 and 16, among five people shot by Chicago police.

Chicago has long been home to some of most stringent gun laws in the county. Garry McCarthy would have you believe that if we could just restrict guns laws a little more, things would get better. It’s Chicago; chief, you’ve already turned all the gun control knobs to 11…It’s not working!

GM

Lost gun store fight costs Chicago taxpayers nearly $1 million | Early & Often

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“…The first blow came on Jan. 6 when a federal judge ruled the city’s longtime ban on gun stores was unconstitutional.

On Thursday, the second blow landed when the judge approved $940,000 in legal fees that the city must pay to the attorneys who challenged the ban. Charles J. Cooper, one of those plaintiffs’ attorneys, charged $975 an hour for his work….”

via Lost gun store fight costs Chicago taxpayers nearly $1 million | Early & Often.

I’m not exactly feeling sorry for Chicago on this one.

-GM

Target addresses open carry…With predictable results

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We were fortunate enough to get two sides of this issue out there for debate with Terry Holcomb, CJ Grisham, and Charles Cotton. To their credit, the leaders of the Open Carry movement recognized that dragging private businesses into this issue has been counter productive. And Mr. Cotton made us aware that the TSRA and NRA have been making strides but, it’s not necessarily at a pace that keeps everyone happy. Still, I cannot help but think Target’s announcement yesterday is a predictable result of negative attention brought to them through earlier protests even if no one from Texas Carry, OCT, CATI, has officially gone into a Target store in months the damage was done and the media campaign started. Public opinion does matter folks. It matters a great deal. While this issue continues to be a point of division in the firearms community, we really, really need to find a way past it.

As you’ve likely seen in the media, there has been a debate about whether guests in communities that permit “open carry” should be allowed to bring firearms into Target stores. Our approach has always been to follow local laws, and of course, we will continue to do so. But starting today we will also respectfully request that guests not bring firearms to Target – even in communities where it is permitted by law.

via Target Addresses Firearms in Stores | A Bullseye View.

-GM

Chicago’s criminals are its biggest gun-control advocates

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Not that it’s much of a surprise but, criminals, especially rapists, robbers, and murderers, love gun-control. The idea of keeping guns out of the hands of citizens makes the criiminals’ lives that much easier. What’s funny is, in Chicago, they don’t even try to hide it. They are prominent members of the gun-control groups like Mr. Richard Hernandez. Hernandez is just the latest member of an anti-gun group out of Chicago to be busted for assault, rape, or murder. But, he’s no lightweight. he’s facing 36 counts for sexual assault and kidnapping!

richardhernandez

On the streets, Richard Hernandez was supposed to stop violence as an “interrupter” in the celebrated CeaseFire program.

But Chicago cops have another name for him: rapist.

Hernandez faces 36 counts charging him with sexually assaulting and kidnapping a teenage girl while he worked for the program, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. He’s among at least nine employees of the anti-violence program to face serious criminal charges in recent years.

via Crime fighter and rapist? CeaseFire worker charged in attacks on teen – Chicago Sun-Times.

Yup. Rahm Emmanuel and the President have that city all sewn up! Great example of the wonderful benefits of some of the strictest firearms laws in the country.

-GM

Active Response Training article about weapon mounted lights

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Weapon mounted lights have become part of the “tactical Gucci” that many shooters want on their home defense pistol and even their EDC pistol of choice. And depending on agency policy, they are also increasingly common among patrol officers. At the same time, there have been a number of recent reports about officer-involved, negligent discharges/shootings with guns equipped with weapon mounted lights. The media doesn’t often dig quite that deep into negligent shootings with civilians as we always here, “the gun just went off.” We all know that’s not what really happened but, Greg Ellifritz of Active Response Training offers some very candid commentary on this issue.

Here’s the dirty little secret about police training…it rarely happens. If the common citizen knew how poorly trained the average cop is there would be complete anarchy. Most agencies have a wholly inadequate firearms training program. In talking to cops around my state as a firearms instructor for the last 15 years, I’ve found that most departments do very little firearms training. Shooting more than 100 rounds per year is unusual.

via Weapon Mounted Lights and a Dirty Little Police Secret | Active Response Training.

Ellifritz’s commentary can be applied to the average armed citizen as well. We all are quite ready to claim our right to keep and bear arms. And most of us do so specifically with self-defense in mind. And yet, so many of us carry guns as some sort of talisman to ward off the boogieman. Because we are familiar with firearms, many equate that familiarity to being competent enough to fight with them. The reality is something different but, since so few of us ever have or ever will get into a gunfight or defensive use of a handgun, people don’t know what they don’t know. As a CHL instructor (when we still were doing renewals) less than one in ten of my students had ever bothered to fire their handgun since their previous class, four to five years earlier. As Ellifritz points out, cops shooting more than 100 rounds a year is unusual. I find that civilians shooting more than 100 rounds in five years is unusual. Adding weapon mounted lights to this mix is not generally a recipe for success. You can read the rest of Ellifritz’s commentary at http://www.activeresponsetraining.net/weapon-mounted-lights-and-a-dirty-little-police-secret.

-GM