Guest Essay: More guns equals more gun violence

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http://www.pioneerlocal.com/wilmette/business/2141145,edison-park-gunessay-040810-s1.article

I am a retired federal law enforcement officer who worked on gun-trafficking cases. My 20-year-old brother, Michael, was killed in an armed robbery on the CTA in 1972 when he was coming home from Loyola University. I have known several friends who were shot or killed with guns. I strongly support Chicago's handgun ban.

Under Chicago's gun ordinance, about 15,000 guns are seized and then melted down each year from individuals who were illegally carrying them in their cars or on the street. Many were involved in gang activity, assaults or domestic disturbances. Chicago citizens and police are better off with these guns destroyed. If these handguns were left in circulation, some no doubt would have been turned against us. Unlike Chicago, Memphis police resell confiscated guns. We now know what became of two of these recycled guns: One was involved in the shooting at the Pentagon, and another in the shooting at the federal court house in Las Vegas.

Where do guns in Chicago originate? They come from outside Chicago, often from the suburbs and from states like Mississippi and Alabama where there is no gun control whatsoever. The lack of meaningful gun regulation nationwide is the real "gun control" problem, not the Chicago ordinance.

The lead plaintiff in the challenge to the Chicago ordinance in the U.S. Supreme Court admitted that a few years ago a shotgun was stolen in a burglary of his house. If he had handguns, they too would now be on the street and be used against us law-abiding citizens. Stolen guns are one of many reasons Chicago is trying to cut down on guns in the home. A gun in the home is not the only way -- or the wisest way -- to protect our family.

Of the 22,000 handgun deaths every year, most are suicides. The second category -- homicides -- are mostly committed by family members or friends in the course of an argument. Then there are the accidental deaths, some involving children finding guns "hidden" by their parents. Most gun misuse is not by "hardened criminals." Nationally handguns are used to kill criminals about 250 times per year. For every criminal killed in self-defense with a handgun, nearly 100 citizens die in suicides, homicides involving friends and family, and accidents.

The fundamental question our society has to answer: Are more guns the answer to all the gun violence -- or the crux of the problem? In 1968 we had about 40 million handguns. In 1985 we had about 60 million. Today we have around 70 million handguns. If more handguns were the solution, the USA would have the lowest rate of gun violence of all the industrialized countries. Instead, we have the highest. Regions of the USA with the highest gun ownership (the West and the South) for decades have had the highest suicide and homicide rates.

Handguns in the home or on the street pose risks to everyone, including the gun owners. Surely none of us would allow anyone to booby trap their house with land mines to protect it, or to have dynamite or a machine gun in their home to repel a home invasion. We try to psychoanalyze those who kill their fellow workers, family and strangers. But we fail to connect the dots of all these tragedies: "and they had a gun."

Just recently we had a second shooting at Northern Illinois University. In courses that I reach at Oakton Community College and Wright College, 40 percent of my students know someone who has been shot or killed with a gun. Every grammar school, high school and college now is at risk. Do we value our guns more than our kids?

Is our answer going to be more guns -- and not only more guns, but allowing people to carry them concealed on the street, into college dorms, at sporting events and at bars? That is exactly what the Republican candidate for governor wants. For the last 60 years, Democrat and Republican governors have all supported reasonable gun control in Illinois -- not more guns in public places.

Victims of gun violence call for change. They represent the silent majority: the 85 percent who in public opinion polls want reasonable gun-control measures.

-- Chester Kulis, of Norwood Park, an attorney, is a teaching adjunct in sociology and criminal justice at Oakton Community College.

Typical ante banter.
 
"In courses that I reach at Oakton Community College and Wright College, 40 percent of my students know someone who has been shot or killed with a gun. Every grammar school, high school and college now is at risk. Do we value our guns more than our kids?"


Im glad he reaches his classes at OCC and WC and doesn't teach them.
 
Well, at least he admitted his irrational bias in the first paragraph. Too bad he didn't want to think if any of the people he lost had a gun when they needed one, they might actually still be alive. [thinking]

I love how he talks about "gun violence" but doesn't say a word about how he lives in one of the most corrupt shit**les in the US... eg, an environment that basically creates and fosters criminal activity.

-Mike
 
I love how it seems the people they find to write these "opinion" pieces always seem to come from the most crime rampant cities that have a the strictest gun control laws, they disarm the innocent and then complain when criminals have guns.

I do believe the officer needs a reality check, apparently all those years in law enforcement and he didn't learn one simple fact, criminals do not obey the law, you can make every firearm illegal in the US and there will still be guns here, all his ideas would do is disarm those whose sole intent to to protect their families and self.

It seems that one salient point never get through their incredibly thick skulls...
 
Most handgun deaths are suicides? Most of the none suicide deaths are family and friend disputes? Maybe in Chicago, not in Boston. Unless family and friend disputes include gunfights over drug deals between acquaintances. I don't remember the last time I saw a gun shot suicide, although they certainly happen. I also don't remember the last time I saw an accidental shooting of a child. I do remember the last four or so shootings that I've responded to, and not one of them was as the author describes them. He's just spouting off the same Brady BS that they've been spouting for the past 20 years or so.
 
Most handgun deaths are suicides? Most of the none suicide deaths are family and friend disputes? Maybe in Chicago, not in Boston. Unless family and friend disputes include gunfights over drug deals between acquaintances. I don't remember the last time I saw a gun shot suicide, although they certainly happen. I also don't remember the last time I saw an accidental shooting of a child. I do remember the last four or so shootings that I've responded to, and not one of them was as the author describes them. He's just spouting off the same Brady BS that they've been spouting for the past 20 years or so.

I don't disagree with you, but I just ran across this picture today and can't resist posting it. [wink]

2uj2r8j.jpg
 
Moonbat said:
Victims of gun violence call for change. They represent the silent majority: the 85 percent who in public opinion polls want reasonable gun-control measures.
Of course there are 10's of millions of others killed by their own governments who enacted gun control that are not included in that fabricated statistic.

I, for one, would not like to allow people who support these ideas to escape the blood dripping from their hands in doing so.
 
Did you forget to include the author's citations or does he just not have any. Who wants to bet for 20 years this guy carried a firearm for 'protection' too [thinking]
 
My favorite part is the weaving back and forth between discussing illegal guns and total guns.

Let's try some logic:
1. Handguns are banned in Chicago
2. Gun crimes happen in Chicago
3. All hand gun crimes are committed by criminals in Chicago

His rebuttal - they are not "hardened" criminals. Yeah, right.
 
If all of his students know someone who has been shot or killed, and they are not gun owners....
And most all of the legal gun owners I know do not personally know someone who has been shot or killed...

Then owning a gun = less gun violence
 
http://ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=618213

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Don't go into his class expecting to LEARN anything or any kind of challenge. While he does attempt to show all sides of an issue (the class at hand was Social Problems) he clearly has biased opinions and often makes comments in poor taste. The tests were ridiculously easy which was frustrating; some students might think that's a bonus though.
 
The same Chester Kulis is on the board of "Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence" and is quoted in one of their press releases:

http://www.ichv.org/ichv-in-the-news/press-releases/

“If Chicago’s handgun ban is ever overturned by the Supreme Court, it would open the floodgates to challenge every gun control measure in the country. Even more ominous, those facing criminal charges or even those convicted of gun violations could now challenge their status on Constitutional grounds,” said Chester Kulis, a retired federal law enforcement officer, attorney and current board member of ICHV.


He said the same thing back in 2008 about the DC gun ban going before the supreme court.....

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache...1+Chester+Kulis+ICHV&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

"If the District of Columbia's handgun ban is overturned by the Supreme Court, this case will open the floodgates to challenge every gun control measure in the country. Even more ominous, those facing criminal charges or even those convicted of gun violations could now challenge their status on Constitutional grounds," said Chester Kulis, a retired federal law enforcement officer, attorney and current board member of ICHV.
 
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What a pathetic excuse for an article. He doesn't cite ANY source for all the statistics he spouts. 3 guesses why.

Well, more like 3 words... "Made Up Bulls**t" which is about 95% of the anti gun platform's mantra, false or misleading statistics.

-Mike
 
For a lawyer he doesn't seem to understand much about how the constitution or court systems work.

He probably does know (much like Obama) but doesn't really care. The socialists are all about working the system to their own ends, above and beyond anything else.

-Mike
 
Looks like Chet has been a board member of ICHV for 27 years:

http://www.illacad.org/calendar_archive_old.html

Chet Kulis holds a law degree from the John Marshall Law School, a Master's Degree in sociology from De Paul University, an ABD in sociology from the University of Michigan . In addition he completed a 33 year career in state and federal law enforcement before retiring in 2002 and has worked as a sociologist at the Adult Diagnostic Center of the Illinois Department of Corrections in Joliet . He then worked as a U.S. Probation Officer, preparing pre-sentence reports, supervising adult offenders, and conducting hearings on behalf of the U.S. Parole Commission.

Since 1983 he served as a Board member of the ICHV and was a consultant to the Cook County Court Watching Project and the Illinois Attorney General's Victims Council. He produced a film, " The Handgun...The Law and the Facts," which was shown to offenders in the Circuit Court of Cook County .
 
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