What Happened to Chicago’s Murder Rate After Illinois Upheld Concealed Carry and Why it Matters ~ By Mike Miller

While statistics vary and people on both sides of the gun debate differ on whether concealed carry laws help to prevent gun crime, this thing is certain: If my loved ones or I were under attack, I would want the capability to stop the attackers. Dead in their tracks, if necessary. Wouldn’t you?

Right now, it looks like great news for advocates of the 2nd Amendment. However, a word of warning, it may be too early to celebrate. From Jason Howerton at TheBlaze:

The more telling statistics will be revealed as 2014 marches on. Still, as always, correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation.

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy called the drop in crime a “trend.” He attributed the drop to the “talent level of individuals” on the police force, “intelligent policing strategies” and other programs. He did not mention the concealed carry law.

Nope, no credit for the new Illinois concealed carry law in that statement! Of course, McCarthy would want to take credit for the drop in crime! This should not be a surprise to anyone.

As you will also read in this column (see below), "...police said more than 1,300 illegal guns were recovered in the last three months." While the anti-gun liberals will also give that statistic credit for the drop in crime rates in Chicago, there is no way to know what it means without further information. But don't worry, the liberal mainstream media are still likely to mention it anyway.

And in the mean time, it doesn't sound like the military leaders believe that there should be concealed carry on military bases, even when that policy could prevent tragedies like the second Fort Hood shooting in less than five years.  Just keep in mind who their boss is: Yep, it's the Commander-in-Chief, Barack Obama.  We could see that one coming, right? Just sayin'...

What Happened to Chicago’s Murder Rate After Illinois Upheld Concealed Carry and Why it Matters

By Mike Miller

April 4, 2014

From Independent Journal Review

In July of 2013, Illinois became the last state in the union to enact a concealed carry law. In January of this year, the state began accepting applications for permits. This week, Chicago police announced that the city’s first quarter murder rate was the lowest since 1958.

Via ABC-affiliate Eye Witness News in the Windy City:

• The first three months of the year saw 6 fewer murders than the same time frame in 2013–a 9 percent drop–and 55 fewer murders than 2012, according to a statement from Chicago Police.

• There were 90 fewer shootings and 119 fewer shooting victims, drops of 26 and 29 percent respectively, according to police statistics.

• Compared to the first quarter of 2012, there have been 222 fewer shootings and 292 fewer shooting victims. Overall crime is down 25 percent from last year, and police said more than 1,300 illegal guns were recovered in the last three months.

Coincidence? Hard to say. And too early to tell. Although, I doubt that the anti-gun crowd is celebrating the good news.

~~~ READ MORE on Independent Journal Review ~~~

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1 size fits all (whether you like it or not) ~ By Patrice Lewis

If we follow the one-size-fits-all road of micromanagement to its logical conclusion, the result is slavery, not citizenship. This is, of course, precisely what the government wants. Remember what George Washington said: "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." In exchange for (cough) security, we have given up our unalienable rights to a fearful master that has long since exceeded the lengthy list of abuses outlined in the Declaration of Independence.

This is why the State cannot tolerate any challenges to its authority. This is why homeschooling is so roundly damned. This is why housewives are classified as domestic terrorists. This is why Obamacare is so necessary to impose on this nation.

Children are, of course, the most critical pawns in this progressive game. Their brainwashing is essential. Parents are only grudgingly permitted to influence their kids. The government tells us how we must raise our children in almost every respect: what they should eat, what they should wear, what they should learn and what they should worship (hint: it's spherical and has continents). At what point do we just hand the baby over at birth? The old science-fiction horror stories about children being raised in state-run institutions in order to turn out clones bred for the State (think Nazi Germany) is closer than we imagine.

To conclude this outstanding column, Patrice quotes C. S. Lewis:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Patrice Lewis could not have chosen a better quote to make her point even more clear. "Omnipotent moral busybodies" defines the modern day progressives to perfection. And do you want to know what really galls me? The progressive "one-size-fits-all" vision applies to everyone... but "them" (the Elite).

And here's the thing. This isn't a bipartisan problem when it comes to the progressive elites tormenting us with their absolute belief that they know what is best for you and I. These people who are eroding our liberty can be (most) Democrats as well as (too many) Republicans.

Patrice may have started out this great column with the story about the Chicago elementary school that is going to ban kids from bringing their own lunches, but the deeper issue in the commentary is the fact that we had been allowing the State to get to where it is. It is way too big, way too powerful. And when I say, "the State," I mean any government entity from federal down to the most local.

We have to ask this pertinent question: Is it still going to be possible to reign in the amount of power the State has gained over us? Could it be too late? No, it isn't, fortunately. Patrice is still allowed to homeschool her children. We are still allowed to write our columns and blogs. Joseph Farah is still allowed to run WND without the government censoring the news and columns that he provides to us.

It is up to many of us that will take the time to educate ourselves and then pass what we learn on to our children, friends, and neighbors. But I can understand anyone who hesitates. It takes courage, because you are not always going to get a positive response from people. In fact, it doesn't take long before enemies start coming out of the woodwork, so to speak. But, decide what you are going to do now. Because there could be a time when it is too late. Just sayin'....



1 size fits all (whether you like it or not)

PATRICE LEWIS

By Patrice Lewis

April 16, 2011 ~ 1:00 am Eastern

© 2011

Doubtless you've heard about the elementary school in Chicago that implemented a draconian policy forbidding students from bringing their own lunches from home. Instead they must purchase lunches from the school cafeteria or go hungry.

The patronizing justification given by the administration focuses on the superior nutrition of the school lunches compared to the soda-and-candy-bar meals some of the students were bringing. But here's the thing: It's not the school's concern if students bring junk food for lunch. Stupid as the parents may be who provide their children with that kind of meal, it's not the school's business. Helloooo?

The government loves nothing more than to punish the many for the sins of the few. A few students bring junk food for lunch, and bang! Everyone is guilty. All the moms who take the time to pack healthy food are lumped with the same people who think Coke and Snickers provide optimal nutrition.

This is another small example of the trend over the last 50 years, a trend that illustrates the progressive's desire to dispense with the Constitution and Bill of Rights. After all, these troublesome documents insist upon limited government interference and maximum individual rights and responsibilities. Instead, the state prefers to impose one-size-fits-all policies on all citizens, forcing them to comply with draconian regulations. Please tell me by what authority the government can control what children eat? Progressives will cite the cost of childhood (and later adult) obesity levels. But obesity is only the concern of government if the government controls health care … and government-controlled health care is another profoundly unconstitutional power grab.

In our homeschool civics class, we are currently doing a thorough study of the Declaration of Independence with the aid of an excellent study guide. It is captivating to go through our founding documents line by line and discuss their meaning. It reminds us of the ideals these brilliant men installed in our nation – as well as how far we've fallen. The Founding Fathers put restraints on government because they were prescient enough to know "a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism …" which would result in such monstrosities as Obamacare and (in miniature) forced cafeteria food.

But here's the thing: We asked for it. We ask the government for security and then act surprised when it gives us tyranny. A friend wrote an excellent blog post outlining this.

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

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Why our anti-war president went to war ~ By Jack Cashill

Unlike Iraq in 2002, Libya in 2011 is anything but a "no-brainer" for the president of the United States, especially this one.

Military intervention, especially if short and successful, typically raises a president's stock, and Obama can count on his unprincipled minions in the media to support whatever course he takes.

What Obama cannot count on is the hard left. Bellwether Rep. Dennis Kucinich, for instance, is already planning an amendment to defund military action in Libya.

Nation of Islam honcho, Louis Farrakhan, flat out blasted the president. "Who the hell do you think you are?" he asked of Obama on Chicago radio.

This all I need to say, and it is actually a quote from Jack's great column: "For those friends of yours with short attention spans, please share this two-minute animation, which sums up our involvement in Libya."



RELATED STORY:
Ayers affirms he wrote Dreams from my Father ~ By Jack Cashill (3/24/11)


Why our anti-war president went to war

JACK CASHILL

By Jack Cashill

March 24, 2011 ~ 1:00 am Eastern

© 2011

The first time John Drew met Barack Obama, the fashionably dressed, 19-year-old Obama had just disembarked from a friend's "sleek, expensive luxury car."

Drew, Obama and friends then spent the evening discussing anti-colonialism and the imminent Marxist revolution. Although Drew was already in process of shedding these enthusiasms, Obama may never have.

There is something else, however, that Obama has not outgrown, and that is his paradoxical fondness for the trappings of success. Everyone who has known him well knows how ambitious Obama is.

In the skies over Libya, arguably for the first time, President Obama's political ambitions and his anti-war, anti-colonial politics have butted heads in a way that cannot easily be finessed.

"It is indeed his war," John Kass writes bitingly in the Chicago Tribune. "He started it. He gave the order to launch the missiles over the weekend. And now the man who ran for president as an anti-war candidate owns his very own war."

Obama is new to this kind of conflict. For the first 20 years of his adult life – at Occidental, at Columbia, at Harvard, in Chicago – his radical politics only greased his ambitions.

It was not until Obama raised his political sights in 2002 that he began to understand that something might have to give.

In the retelling, the day of reckoning came on Oct. 2, 2002, at an impromptu rally staged by the Chicagoans Against the War in Iraq.

Here, State Sen. Obama gave a speech second in career importance only to the 2004 DNC keynote. This was the speech that enabled his handlers to position him on the credibly sane left flank of naifs like Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, "who took the president at his word" and voted for the war in Iraq.

In the orthodox Obama canon, this was his "Lion King" moment, the occasion on which his principles triumphed over the demands of politics.

At Rick Warren's Saddleback Forum in 2008, Obama would tell the audience that protesting the war was his most "gut-wrenching decision," largely because of its "political consequences."

Obama's official 2008 website attested to the anguish. "As a candidate for the United States Senate in 2002," the website claimed, "Obama put his political career on the line to oppose going to war in Iraq."

This, of course, was all nonsense. Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendell, in his valuable 2007 biography, "Obama: From Promise to Power," offers a useful corrective.

At the time, as Mendell relates, Obama was keen on taking a shot at the U.S. Senate in 2004. He envisioned as his base of support blacks and lakefront liberals, the former for their votes, and the latter for their money.

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

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How About: While They Are There ~ By John Kubicek

From johnny2k Is Home

By John Kubicek Friday, October 2, 2009 I had doubts that I would see anything on the news this morning that would ever be worthy enough to take the time to upload to youtube. I had no desire to spend time video blogging about what a scumbag Dave Letterman is. In fact, that is now a well known fact that I really wanted to erase from my mind. It was not an image that I wanted to have stuck in my head. And of course, there was that big attempt for Chicago to get the Olympics in 2016. There is now the great sadness...please bow your heads... that Valerie, Michelle, and Barack won't be getting rich on that great land deal that they thought was in the bag... Oh. I digress. It surely pains me to see the Iran nuclear issue go by without my comment at this time, but seriously, I'm sure that most of you already know what a complete failure the Obama policy has been. Mmmm mmm mmm, Barack Hussein Obama, you've been rejected! And what a shocking story that would be to be telling you about now, except for the fact that there are many more important issues that have been rejected and ignored by Obama and his minions in the state-run media. [CLICK HERE TO READ MORE]

Another Chicago case tied to Obama

Real-estate credit analyst got fired for raising red flags about a deal involving Tony Rezko. read more | digg story, submitted by Temlakos