An important battle is won in Chicago, but the war on gun rights still rages

by Gerard Valentino

After way too many years, the day of liberation for Chicago's law-abiding citizens is finally at hand. In a long-anticipated ruling, the United States Supreme Court struck down the long-standing Chicago ban on firearm possession and returned a fundamental right to the citizens.

Now, just as the Founding Fathers envisioned, law-abiding Chicagoans can defend their homes and loved ones without fear of being thrown in jail by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's anti-gun Gestapo.

Make no mistake, by demanding that Chicagoans obey their anti-gun lunacy, the mayoral administration shredded any semblance of individual rights. Over the years, Daley and his predecessors have used the gun ban like a club, beating Chicagoans into submission under the guise of public safety.

There is nothing safe about leaving innocent people to be preyed upon by armed thugs. That is all Daley's pet gun ban scheme accomplished over the years. Daley even demanded that shooting an armed home invader be considered a criminal act, just as our sitting president voted to criminalize self-defense while a member of the Illinois legislature.

Now, finally, the citizens of Chicago can defend their lives and loved ones with a gun, which remains the best self-defense tool ever devised. Finally, law-abiding citizens can view their home as a safe haven from the killing fields of Chicago.

Over a recent weekend some estimates claim that up to 54 people were shot in the violence that has plagued Chicago. That alone is proof that Mayor Daley's anti-gun schemes are ineffective. Now that honest citizens can once again own guns for self-defense, it is going to further prove he is not only a bad mayor, but a liar.

Daley has insisted for years that more guns equal more crime and more gun violence. But when law-abiding Chicagoans buy guns for self defense and gun crime doesn't increase, Daley's misguided policies will be exposed for what they are. Plus, we already know that countless Chicagoans own guns in defiance of the gun ban, and that many have kept their grandfather's war heirloom hidden so they wouldn't be snatched away by the Chicago police.

Unfortunately, Mayor Daley and his anti-gun cohort are unlikely to simply roll over and give up their plans to keep Chicagoans disarmed. Surely, he will devise an onerous process to license guns owned in the city, and will likely make it nearly impossible for anyone to bring a new gun home.

Daley is fighting a losing battle, however, and he knows it. And so do the countless home invaders, drug addicts and other undesirables who will now have to worry about armed home owners instead of knowing the next door they kick in
houses only an unarmed victim. That is the beauty of ending the ban on private ownership of firearms in Chicago. It will finally stack the deck in favor of the law-abiding in the deadly encounters that take place way too frequently in the city.

Most likely, Daley will hold press conferences full of shrill cries that Chicago is about to enter another Al Capone-type era with bullets flying everywhere. The local newspapers and other media will most likely buy into Daley's ravings because the establishment media loves stories about guns. They know it will drive ratings and circulation, and that the more outlandish the claims by Mayor Daley, the more likely people are to watch and read. But, in the end, his sideshow is just that – a sideshow.

Due to a willingness to win politically at all costs, the early firearms owners in Chicago are likely to end up squarely in Daley's crosshairs. He is not only likely to make it nearly impossible for a law-abiding citizen to pass whatever licensing scheme the administration conjures, but Daley is sure to force the Chicago Police into using whatever tactics are necessary to prove guns in the hands of the law-abiding equals more mayhem.

The sad fact is Mayor Daley has too much to lose if this script plays out as it did in Washington D.C., where the city's murder rate dropped to a 40 year-low after their gun ban was overturned. Even if the drop wasn't caused solely by the ban being overturned, more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizen in Washington D.C certainly didn't lead to more crime. Even a small drop in gun crime after the Chicago ban is overturned will expose Daley's anti-gun fraud.

Our excitement over winning, yet again, and the return of a God-given right to the people of Chicago is tempered a bit by the knowledge that there are countless law-abiding victims of the gun ban. Nobody will ever know how many Chicagoans spent their last moments in fear and agony because they lacked the one tool that could have saved their lives. We will also never know how many women were raped, how many families were brutalized or how many people were robbed because Mayor Daley's polices disarmed them.

To that end, we now need to turn our attention to not only returning the right to bear arms to Chicagoans in their homes, but also giving them back the right to legally carry a gun in a far more dangerous setting – Chicago's city streets.

Gerard Valentino was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, is a member of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation Board of Directors and the author of "The Valentino Chronicles – Observations of a Middle Class Conservative," available through the Buckeye Firearms Association store..

UPDATE: Chicago approves new gun restrictions - 45-0 vote comes after Supreme Court hits city on gun ban

Additional Information:
John Lott at FOXNews.com - Court's Gun Decision An Important Win for Americans Who Want to Defend Themselves

Jacob Sullum at Reason.com - Gun Shy: Four Supreme Court justices make the case against constitutional rights

Gerard Valentino at BuckeyeFirearms.org: Facing defeat in U.S. courts, Chicago Mayor Daley suggests "appeal" to World Court