I was lucky as a kid when my parents sent me to a summer camp sponsored by the YMCA. It was a vacation for them from the task of raising me and it was a break for me from being in the monotony of the city. When I got to camp, I learned some things that have served me through life. I learned to swim, to canoe and to sail. I learned to live in close quarters with a group of my peers and to get along with them. I learned team sports and I learned about living in the outdoors -- to build a fire, to cook on it and how to avoid poison ivy.
Among the activities at camp was the opportunity to shoot an old .22 caliber bolt action rifle on their rifle range. I loved shooting at the targets and eventually became pretty good at it. I even won a couple of medals for marksmanship. The medals were issued by the National Rifle Association. I learned to respect guns and how to handle them.
Later, in high school, I was a part of the ROTC unit and once, in a flurry of zeal, I borrowed an old World War I rifle — a 1903 Springfield — from a friend whose father had somehow brought it back from his stint in the army. I took the rifle to school. I boarded a city bus — in Chicago — packing the rifle and scared the hell out of everyone on the bus. There was no ammunition in the gun, the firing pin had been filed off, but it was a frightening piece of equipment anyway.
At school, the head of the ROTC was an old, semi-retired army sergeant who had actually used a similar gun while fighting in France in 1918. He taught the entire Corps about the gun before I finally had to return it — also via city bus — to its owner.
I’m reminded of this nostalgic story because of recent legislation in Springfield which allows certain permit-holding members of the society to carry concealed weapons in the State. While this proposal flies in the face of City of Chicago law as well as of common sense, the downstate legislators who are pushing the bill are firm in their belief that having some people on the street with concealed handguns will deter crime. The logic is this: when a criminal doesn’t know whether his proposed target might have a handgun, he will be less likely to commit an armed robbery on the street. The illogic is that if the same target tries to pull his gun after facing the criminal’s weapon, he’s probably going to be shot for resisting the holdup attempt.
Under the terms of the bill as it was passed by a committee of the State legislature, either the State Police or the County Sheriff is empowered to issue permits to allow people to carry concealed weapons. The City would be unable to stop someone from carrying a gun in spite of its own prohibitions on the practice because the City ordinance doesn’t override the State law.
While the bills have breezed through committees in the legislature, they will face a strong contentious hearing by the full House in Springfield. All of this flurry of action is encouraged by the selfsame National Rifle Association, an organization sponsored by weapons manufacturers and endorsed by people who believe that their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms include the right to carry assault rifles, semi-automatic pistols and, for all I know, .50 caliber machine guns. There is, however, nothing in a reading of the Second Amendment that allows carrying a concealed pistol.
Just consider the downside of this law. You’re riding along the Kennedy in your car when you accidentally cut off the car in the next lane. The other driver takes exception to your action and in a fit of road rage decides that you shouldn’t be on the street. He whips out his 9 millimeter automatic pistol and starts taking target practice on you and your car. Or suppose that your son is riding his bike to school and happens by a city park where a basketball game is in progress. The ball gets away from a player and bounds into the street — your son swerves to avoid the ball which then moves out into the street. One of the players decides that it was your son’s responsibility to stop the ball and return it to the court. The player takes his .357 magnum out of his pocket and fires. It makes quite a hole in your son’s leg.
There is an expectation that the Governor will veto any legislation of this sort that manages to pass the House. The sentiment on the issue apparently is divided regionally — Chicago vs. the rest of the State. If it were possible for guns to be limited to the geographic areas south and west of the City, we’d have no problem, but those guns are highly portable and they would get into our streets. There are enough — some will say too many — guns in the City as it is.
Let’s hope that this legislation fails to pass the House and there is a display of some sense of moral responsibility by its members. Meanwhile, I’ve been looking for those marksmanship medals — I want to return them to the NRA — which is an organization that doesn’t serve my interests nor those of most of the citizens of Chicago. |
