Illinois Capitol Murder Proves Gun Laws Do Not Stop Killers

September 21, 2004

Monday's brutal murder of an unarmed Illinois Capitol security officer by a shotgun-wielding killer proves that restrictive gun laws like those in the Prairie State cannot stop determined criminals, and never have, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said today.

"If the Draconian gun laws in Illinois worked," said CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron, "then security guard William Wozniak would still be alive. Instead, the anti-gun philosophy has so permeated politics in Illinois that cold-blooded killers can stroll right up to the Capitol with a shotgun, while security guards are expected to perform their duty unarmed.

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"This mindset is not simply limited to Springfield," Waldron noted. "Up in Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley continues pushing his gun-hating hysteria by scraping up arguments against a new federal law that allows retired and off-duty police officers to carry firearms all over the country, including in the City of Chicago. He says this law will make Chicago's streets less safe. Well, perhaps that's true, if you're a criminal. Guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens, including off-duty and retired police officers, have never been a threat to anyone."

Waldron praised police in Springfield for quickly tracking down and arresting the suspect, who is also being held for an armed robbery committed prior to the Capitol shooting.

"Mayor Daley would have us believe that Springfield officers, either off-duty or after they retire, are somehow less trustworthy," Waldron observed. "He would extend that same insult to officers from across the nation. He might as well hang a sign at the Chicago city limits that says 'off-duty and retired cops not welcome here.'

"While Daley and his soulmates in Springfield, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich, will no doubt rationalize that Monday's tragedy is somehow the fault of some imagined 'loophole' in the gun law," Waldron suggested, "the truth is that restrictive gun laws, promoted by Daley and his ilk, have never prevented a single violent crime. These laws have penalized honest citizens, while criminals are left to roam the streets and gun down unarmed security guards and other citizens. It's time to stop punishing law-abiding gun owners for crimes like Monday's outrage, and it is also time arm Capitol security officers, so that good people like William Wozniak will never again be targets of opportunity for murderous lunatics."