Free Chicago! (Has a massacre happened in YOUR gun free zone today?)

By Gerard Valentino

Five more of my hometown brethren were killed this weekend, just outside Chicago at a Lane Bryant clothing store in Tinley Park. Unlike many cities, Chicago’s suburban population never admits they are from Cicero, or Naperville, or Westmont, they always say they are from Chicago. Many old northern cities have evolved to the point where the main city became irrelevant, like Detroit, MI or my current hometown, Columbus, OH, yet Chicago has always been central to the suburb’s identity.

The anti-gun culture prevalent in the Chicago Mayoral administration and years of vilifying gun owners is also part of Chicago’s culture. A sad situation that make pro-gun Chicagoans seethe with anger because year after year it is one of the murder capitals of the world. Still, Mayor Richard Daley chooses to disarm Chicago’s law-abiding population without doing a thing to stem the tide of murders, rapes and robberies committed against those he disarmed.

Daley’s lack of understanding that criminals prefer unarmed victims, is disturbing to say the least.

The lack of understanding also extends to the misperception that the police are there to protect the law-abiding community. Gun owners have long since known that the police generally arrive too late, which was the case in the Chicago Lane Bryant store massacre. They arrived so late that the perpetrator is on the loose and now, because nobody else in the city has the right to carry a gun, is free to shoot with near impunity.

Mayor Richard Daley will, of course, use this tragedy to call for even stricter gun control in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. He won’t make the connection that if one of the five women who were shot down were able to defend their life with a gun, things would be much different. In nearly every case where an armed citizen resists with a gun, the death toll is much lower, but these women were left at the mercy of someone who had none.

As the defacto governor of Illinois, Mayor Daley is on record as saying he would oppose a shall issue concealed carry law. Without his approval, it is highly unlikely the people of Illinois will ever get the chance to carry a gun for self defense. Why Mayor Daley refuses to allow his law-abiding citizens to carry guns is a mystery, because there is overwhelming evidence that proves legal concealed carry makes citizens safer.

Anyone who has lived in the greater metro Chicago area knows that there is the constant fear of being attacked. Criminals, who know their victim won’t be armed, act with impunity. It is quite literally like shooting fish in a barrel for Chicago’s seasoned and unchallenged criminal element. Even now, as my dearest family members continue to live in the city proper, I worry about their safety because they are getting older, and are easy marks for the common thugs that ply their trade in the city.

If a mass shooting can happen in Tinley Park, it can happen anywhere in America – anywhere. So, people who think they live in a “safe” area and are immune to worrying about crime, need to use this is a wake up call. The problem is, in the past similar tragedies have gone unheeded.

Chicagoans need help with their personal safety, and the only possible solution is legal shall issue concealed carry in Illinois. Otherwise, Chicagoans in particular, and all of Illinois’ residents, including my loved ones, will continue to live constantly looking over their shoulder.

In the less affluent areas of Chicagoland, the crime problem and brazen criminals, are even more of a problem. Most Americans can’t imagine putting their car in a garage, locking the car and setting the alarm, plus putting a padlock on the inside, and outside of the door to keep it safe. In certain areas of Chicago that is exactly what happens. People in those areas have started leaving their car doors unlocked at night so their windows don’t get broken in a drug addict’s vain attempt to score enough money to get their next hit.

It sounds like something out of a bad crime movie from the 1970’s, but it is happening, right now, in one of the premier cities of the modern world. The Chicago Police Department does its very best to protect the citizens. While their dedication can’t be questioned, they are incapable of being in all places at all times. Plus, as the Chicago area rejuvenates itself it has chased the criminal element out into the suburbs.

When Chicago’s project housing was torn down it scattered common criminals to all parts of the city and suburbs. In some places, like my hometown of Cicero, the police are schooled in dealing with street thugs. But, in other areas the police are simply overwhelmed.

We don’t know that the thug who ruthlessly killed five women in Tinley Park was one of that was scattered to the wind. But we know that five women are dead and all they had with them at the moment of their death was the terror they felt, a possible belief in their God, and nothing to use as a self-defense tool.

There was a time when people in the pro-gun movement honestly believed the anti-gun gang truly felt they were acting in the best interest of Americans, but were misguided. Those times are over now, and it is apparent they are determined to disarm law-abiding citizens regardless of how it gives criminals free reign over the community.

As has been stated before, to leave people at the mercy of criminals is immoral and simply wrong. Mayor Richard Daley and others of his ill intentioned ilk are choosing to act immorally by disarming Chicago’s law-abiding community.

The blood of the five women killed in Tinley Park is on Mayor Daley’s hands, because he has used his bully pulpit as the Mayor of Chicago to block shall issue concealed carry in Illinois.

Everyday he has to look himself in the mirror, and every night he has to put his head on the pillow. I often wonder what he thinks in the darkest night when he ponders the evidence of how legal concealed carry works in nearly every state, and how many people in Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania were saved because they had a legally carried concealed handgun.

At that time I often wonder if he admits that keeping his personal fiefdom disarmed isn’t in the best interest of the citizens, only himself.

Gerard Valentino is the Buckeye Firearms Association Central Ohio Chair.