Out of all the cities in America that have suffered in the wake of George Floyd-ism, none has had it worse than Chicago. Dozens of people are shot and killed in the Windy City every weekend. There were 44 people shot and eight killed there two weeks ago. Last weekend, 72 were shot, and nine were killed. Between defunding the police and Soros-backed prosecutors who don’t bother with prosecuting violent crimes, the city is now a warzone. Unsurprisingly, law-abiding citizens there are rediscovering their God-given right to self-defense.
It’s been like this for four years straight now in Chicago. The city eliminated 400 police officers in 2020 because of the BLM riots, and the conditions there have only worsened ever since. There are now 1,000 job openings for police officers in Chicago, but no one wants to take a job in law enforcement there. Who would? The liberals who hold Chicago in an electoral stranglehold must be expecting people to just put up with this forever. That’s not how human nature works.
According to the latest figures, more than 200,000 firearms were purchased in Illinois in the first five months of this year. That includes many residents in Chicago, who are now starting to shoot back at the criminals. As you can imagine, the editorial board at the Chicago Tribune is freaking out about this. In a huffy op-ed that was published last week, the board whined:
“Worryingly, we’re seeing more signs of that phenomenon in Chicago, with three separate episodes over the last weekend in which would-be victims proved to be both armed and willing to fire at their assailants.”
Sacre bleu!
Who would have thought that such a thing would result when the leaders of a city abandoned law-abiding residents to live in a criminal hellhole?
Law enforcement cutbacks in Chicago have been so bad that you now only have a less than 50/50 chance of reaching a dispatcher during a serious 911 emergency call. On the majority of 911 calls in Chicago, no one ever answers the phone.
The Tribune’s editorial board cites specific examples of residents shooting back at criminals and often critically wounding them. One resident shot three criminals as they were attacking him. Another shot a man as he was violently breaking into his home.
“But the majority of Chicagoans, we’re convinced, don’t feel any safer when they read stories of good-guy-with-a-gun responses to street crime.”
They’re convinced! Has the editorial board thought about walking around Chicago and asking any of the people forced to live under the rule of criminal gangs whether they feel any safer knowing their neighbors are now shooting back? Probably not. The editorial board is convinced that no one feels safe, so that’s what the public needs to hear.
At this point, the good guys with guns are a drop in the bucket compared to the number of criminals running rampant in Chicago. Illinois enacted one of the most draconian gun bans in the country in January 2023, banning the most commonly owned handguns, rifles, and shotguns in America. The law has been upheld by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals but is now being challenged in the US Supreme Court. The high court is expected to rule in Barnett v. Raoul this year.
If the court overturns the Illinois gun ban, the Chicago Tribune will likely have to worry about a lot more good guys with guns very soon. If the city government won’t protect residents, they have every right as Americans to do the job themselves—and they will.
