Pro Gun Ban Editorial Cherry Picks Key Points
Posted by FirearmsTruth on July 29, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Our sympathies go out to Chester Kulis, whose 20-year old brother was fatally shot in a robbery on a CTA train in 1972. That is a tragedy the Mr. Kulis has had to live with for nearly 40 years. He notes this in his argument that suggest “Gun ban’s defeat will backfire on society,” which he authored for the Norridge Harwood Heights News. We see the passion in his argument, but think Kulis is off base on several points.
First, he writes that this ruling was by the “controversial decisions by the narrowest of margins,” as the recent SCOTUS ruling was five to four. Yes, that is a narrow margin but it many rulings are five to four. He further adds:
“The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Second Amendment is about self-defense and guarantees the right of citizens to possess a gun in the home. The court never mentioned handgun suicides, domestic shootings, children getting hold of guns, guns getting stolen from the home, or gang members taking family guns for a drive-by shooting.”
No, the Supreme Court did not consider those issues because that is NOT what McDonald vs. Chicago was about. The issue was whether a 76-year old man could legally own a gun to defend his home.
Mr. Kulis writes about the tragedy that resulted in the death of his 20-year old brother, but can’t see that this 76-year old man lived in honest to god fear from the same type of gang members mentioned in this post. But worse still Kulis offers points that actually weaken his argument:
“It failed to note that under the Chicago ordinance, 15,000 guns seized from persons illegally carrying them were destroyed, and the community was in fact just a bit safer.”
If the law banned guns, how does Kulis explain that this number (which seems high) were being carried illegally? And in fact, according to most reports crime has been on the rise in Chicago, while nationwide gun sales have been up and crime has been down.
In other words, guns continue to make people safer. Those “gang members” that Kulis mentioned will always find a way to get illegal guns for their “drive-by shootings” but some other thugs will likely question whether they’d want to mess with a certain 76-year old man.
