Crime Plummets In Chicago As Concealed Carry Permits Rise

The crime rate in Chicago, one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, has plummeted since the state of Illinois began granting concealed carry permits last year.

Robberies, burglaries and car thefts have each dropped by more than twenty percent this year. Homicides have also decreased. In the first quarter of 2014, the city’s homicide rate hit a fifty-six year low.

These trends directly contradict the predictions of Chicago’s anti-gun Police superintendent Gerry McCarthy, who said that concealed carry would make the city more dangerous.

“When people say concealed carry, I say Trayvon Martin,” McCarthy told Chicago’s WVON-AM radio in 2013. “The answer to guns is not more guns, and just simply putting guns in people’s hands is going to lead to more tragedy.”

Now that the statistics have proven him wrong, McCarthy is trying to take credit by saying that the dropping crime rate is due to “intelligent policing strategies.”

Richard Pearson, the executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, says that McCarthy is simply trying to cover for his wrongheaded predictions.

“Police haven’t changed one tactic,” he told The Washington Times.  “It isn’t any coincidence crime rates started to go down when concealed carry was permitted. Just the idea that the criminals don’t know who’s armed and who isn’t has a deterrence effect.”

Pearson expects that more than 100,000 Illinois residents will have permits by the end of the year. Cook County, which includes Chicago, currently has the largest number of concealed carry applications in the state.

For The Media, Not All Murders Are Created Equal

Every day, children around the country are murdered for no reason — caught in the crossfire during drive by shootings, killed by abusive parents, murdered in cold blood over silly juvenile disputes. Yet it seems like the only time that anyone pays attention is when the police are the ones that pull the trigger. 

That is why it is so hard to take it seriously when the media goes into a feeding frenzy over something like the events in Ferguson, MO.  Michael Brown didn’t deserve to die, but neither have the dozens of children, many of them who are younger than Brown, who have been killed in the two weeks since Brown’s death.

Here are just a few of the killings that have taken place over the past few days:

• In Georgia, a boy was shot to death just hours after celebrating his 13th birthday.  A 17 year old has been arrested and charged with the crime, which police believe may be a case of mistaken identity. 

• In Chicago, a three year old is in critical condition after accidentally being shot in the head. His father fled the seen and is being sought for questioning. 

• In Pennsylvania, an eighteen year old was shot and killed by a fifteen year old while sitting in a parked car. 

Where were the TV cameras? Where are the protests? Where is Attorney General Eric Holder? 

If politicians and the media devoted half the attention to everyday murders as they do to “police violence”, maybe some of these children would still be alive today. 

NRA’s Nugent Has To Go

Last week, a pro-gun newspaper columnist in South Dakota attacked rocker Ted Nugent for his history of racist remarks, calling on the NRA to cut off its relationship with him. It is a huge relief to finally see a fellow conservative with the guts to call out Nugent. He is nothing more than a racist bigot who gives gun owners a bad name.

Nugent has been saying inflammatory and racist things for decades, using the n-word in interviews and defending South African apartheid. Most recently, he called the president a “subhuman mongrel” and a “chimpanzee” and referred to tribal officials in Idaho as “unclean vermin.”

Of course, Nugent is entitled to his views and free to share them with anyone who will listen. But this doesn’t mean that the NRA should continue to employ him as one of its best-known spokesmen.  

The NRA is a major pillar of the conservative community and it has a responsibility to protect the image of its members and of gun owners as a whole. What kind of message is it sending to voters by employing a spokesman who believes that Africans are a “different breed”?

Maybe the NRA enjoys the attention Nugent generates. Maybe it is afraid of sparking a backlash on the fringe. Maybe it simply doesn’t want to hand a victory to the gun grabbers on the left.

None of these are sufficient reasons to continue supporting Nugent. As a proud gun owner and conservative, I am sick of being associated with him.

Prosecution Of Shaneen Allen Takes Another Step Forward

Shaneen Allen, the single mother who was unfairly charged with a felony for unknowingly violating New Jersey’s gun control laws, took another step toward prison last week when a judge denied her motion to dismiss the charges. Allen will now go to a jury trial. If convicted, she will face a mandatory minimum of three years in prison.

Allen is a Philadelphia resident who was driving through New Jersey when she was pulled over for a routine traffic violation. Having recently completed a firearms training course, she followed correct procedure and informed the officer that she had a handgun stored in the trunk of her car. Because Allen’s gun permit was from Pennsylvania and not from New Jersey, she was arrested and charged with felony gun possession.

It is true that Allen broke the law by having an out-of-state gun in the trunk of her car. Yet she did so unknowingly and she told the police voluntarily. She has no prior criminal record and she poses zero threat to society. If there ever were a case for leniency, this is it.

Yet instead of being reasonable, the Judge and District Attorney are doing everything they can to ruin Allen’s life. In addition to refusing to dismiss her case, the judge last week upheld a decision by the District Attorney to exclude Allen from a diversionary program for first time offenders that would keep her out of prison. They have not provided an explanation as to why she is being excluded from the program.

Why would you go above and beyond to take an innocent woman away from her family? What does it accomplish?

Shaneen Allen’s case is what happens when the tyranny and bureaucracy of gun control are allowed to go unchecked.

Former President Carter Thinks Hamas is Legitimate

Hamas, an official terrorist group by the State Department, has been given the stamp of approval by former Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

In an op-ed for the supposedly “independent” magazine Foreign Policy, President Carter and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson write:

“Only by recognizing its legitimacy as a political actor -- one that represents a substantial portion of the Palestinian people -- can the West begin to provide the right incentives for Hamas to lay down its weapons. Ever since the internationally monitored 2006 elections that brought Hamas to power in Palestine, the West's approach has manifestly contributed to the opposite result.”

This kind of backwards logic is astounding. No politician—Democrat or Republican—in his or her right mind would support a terrorist organization and acquiesce to its tactics.

However, because Israel is involved, radical left-wing figures like Carter and Rep. Keith Ellison from Minnesota choose to ignore Hamas and place all the blame on the only democracy in the Middle East. This is not the way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As Hot Air accurately notes, “Recognizing and legitimizing a terrorist group will not cause them to give up but instead give them impunity for their terrorist acts.” By giving President Carter the platform to air such dangerous thoughts, Hamas apologists like him will only continue to grow in influence.

Mainstream Media Overlooks PA Hospital’s Gun Ban After Doctor’s Heroics

Last week, an armed Pennsylvania doctor was able to wound and subdue a crazed shooter who had already killed one person at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Philadelphia. All of this took place in a “gun free zone”. The doctor’s decision to violate the hospital’s gun ban by bringing a weapon to work likely saved many lives.

Yet you won’t hear any of this in the mainstream media, who are bending over backwards to ignore the “gun free zone” aspect of the story. The New York Times coverage doesn’t mention the hospital’s gun ban at all. The NPR report glosses over the ban, barely bringing it up. Many mainstream news outlets didn’t even report this amazing story in the first place.

Here is how the shooting went down. 

The gunman, Richard Plotts, was at a scheduled appointment with Dr. Lee Silverman and his caseworker, Theresa Hunt. Plotts, who has extensive mental health issues and a prior criminal background, pulled out his handgun and shot Hunt in the head, killing her instantly. 

He then turned his gun on Dr. Silverman, not realizing that the doctor was carrying a semi-automatic of his own. After a fierce gun battle in which both Silverman and the gunman were wounded, another caseworker rushed in and was able to wrestle the gunman to the ground and subdue him. 

Dr. Silverman was violating the hospital’s anti-gun policy by bringing a firearm to work. Yet thanks to his defiance of the policy, a catastrophe was averted. 

The local police chief confirmed this, saying: “Without a doubt, I believe the doctor saved lives. Without that firearm, this guy (the patient) could have went out in the hallway and just walked down the offices until he ran out of ammunition.” 

This story perfectly illustrates the silliness of “gun free zones”. Yet you won’t find any mention of the hospital’s gun ban in much of the mainstream media articles about the case.