More Choice Daley Comments

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s comments go further off the deep end. The Chicago Sun Times noted this quote:

“Criminals have more access to guns today than in the history of this country and that is frightening to America. We have to do something about it. You cannot have America as the Wild West.”

Is this even true? Do criminals have more access to guns today? Today there are actually laws on what you can own and can’t own. Prior to the Federal Firearms Act of 1934 military surplus weapons, including fully automatic machineguns were sold to the general public. This resulted in an era of semi-lawlessness in cities such as Daley’s own Chicago during the era of prohibition. So does Daley not know his own city’s history?

Daley made the above statement after an 80-year old man shot and killed an intruder – who happened to fire at the homeowner first. Daley further offered this opinion:

“…if you firmly believe that people should have full access to guns at all times, then you have a totally different society.”

I think many would call that a free society, and not one where only those with security details can sleep well at night, or the rich and famous can live in gated communities while elderly war veterans must fear for their lives. But Daley sticks to his guns (no pun intended), adding:

“But access to guns will destroy America faster than any other war. Take Europe. Take Japan and other countries that don’t have access to guns. They don’t have the amount of killings.”

We are also talking about much smaller nations for the most part, and does Daley not remember some of the terrible regimes that ruled in Europe or Japan simply because the people would be unable to fight back?