Pritzker’s assault weapons ban not enough to make law abiding citizens safe
Pritzker’s assault weapons ban is not about making law abiding citizens safer, but rather appealing to his voter constituency and the far left which seeks to decriminalize accountability for criminals while holding police to a higher standard. The assault weapons ban basically takes weapons from law abiding citizens but does nothing to punish criminals who are the ones who ignore all laws and who will ignore this one. Instead, Pritzker should increase punishments for convicted criminals making the possession of a gun in any crime a mandatory lengthy prison sentence. But he won’t because his allies care more about criminals than they do law abiding citizens
By Ray Hanania
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is boasting about the passage of the Assault Weapons ban in Illinois, claiming that it will make a dent in the violence spreading from Chicago’s street gang controlled neighborhoods into the Suburbs.
We definitely needed to ban possession of assault weapons, and limit hand guns to normal clip sizes, not extended clips that have as many as 16 bullets.
But is this legislation really going to make a difference in curbing the violence sweeping throughout Chicagoland?
Last May, I watched a video provided by a store owner of a 16-year-old gang banger carrying an AK-47 who walked across Chicago Avenue and shot and killed another man allegedly with another gang. The killing took place on the public sidewalk in front of the owner’s business. After brutally killing the man, the teenager turned around and ran back down Chicago avenue with the AK-47. He was never caught by police.
Does anyone think that the assault weapons ban that Pritzker just signed would have prevented that murder?
Pritzker asserts the assault weapons ban will “put an end to senseless killings.” But that is a lie intended only to strengthen Pritzker’s political image as he uses his family’s wealth to campaign for even higher office. Yes, Pritzker running for higher office is the real motivation behind the Illinois Assault Weapons ban. It’s not about saving lives or preventing more violence.
It won’t reduce the violence. I challenge anyone to look at the crime statistics one year from today and tell me violence has been reduced. Gov. Pritzker failed to put together a comprehensive program to confront violence. With vast powers and funding, Pritzker has done nothing to stop real crime.
Pritzker was sworn in to his second term this week with all the hoopla of a billionaire who doesn’t care about the challenges facing everyday families. What does he know about crime?
The truth is the assault weapons ban isn’t enough. What it does, solely, is to target law-abiding citizens who follow the law to give up their assault weapons. Those law abiding citizens account for less than 5 percent of all the gun violence in Chicagoland and the state.
Do you think criminals are going to turn in their assault weapons? The absence of commonsense in this assault weapons ban frenzy is astonishing.
Who commits the crimes? Street gangs, gang bangers and drug dealers. They are the ones hijacking cars, brutalizing seniors, women and children, and killing people intentionally or by “accident?” Their violence is spreading to streets in every neighborhood in Chicago and many suburbs.
Illinois needs to adopt laws that impose tough, mandatory imprisonment for criminals convicted in crimes involving gun use, whether it is with an assault weapon or a hand gun. And, places like Cook County need to enforce those laws, which they don’t.
If you use a gun of any kind in the commission of a crime, and you are convicted of that crime, you should be given a mandatory 20 year prison sentence and denied early release.
If you kill someone in a gun-related crime, and convicted of first degree murder, you should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Convictions for second degree murder should be a minimum 50 year sentence. Some people are being released after only six years!
We also need tough laws to also punish young children abandoned by their parents who are recruited by the street gangs. Gangs target children in 6th 7th and 8th grade to hold a gun so the criminal can avoid the stiffer penalty and go to jail. They are called “holsters” by the gangbangers.
Children arrested and convicted of holding a weapon involving a gangbanger should go to jail for a mandatory five year sentence — unless they testify against the gangbanger who gave them the gun.
The street gang killers might be insane murderers, but they are not stupid. The prey on young children and recruit them as “holsters” to hold the weapons to prevent the adult gang bangers from being sent to jail.
If you can’t send at 12 year old who is working with a murderous street gang to prison, then maybe we should prosecute their parents.
Pritzker’s ban on Assault Weapons will not reduce violence.
Without toughening punishments, all the bans on gun possession and assault weapons are useless.
The only thing the assault weapons ban will do is take guns away from law-abiding citizens. It fails to punish criminals who steal the weapons, keep them illegally, and use them to kill.
More needs to be done to stop the violence and crime, but Pritzker won’t do it.
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(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. A political analyst and CEO of Urban Strategies Group, Hanania’s opinion columns on mainstream issues are published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers. His Middle East columns are published in the Arab News. For more information on Ray Hanania visit www.Hanania.com or email him at [email protected].)
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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