As you likely have heard, Illinois became the 50th state to join reality and legalize concealed carry. To be fair, implementation of this law will take a little while yet, but already people are watching to see what happens in Chicago. Last weekend, 74 Chicagoans were shot, 12 fatally, and Chicago’s year-to-date homicide rate went past 220 as the City Council high-fived itself over its successful implementation of gun control.

So this weekend—even though the average Illinois resident still cannot legally carry a concealed weapon—people are curious whether the shooting rate will decrease merely on the passage of the law. Either way, the results will be interesting.

In this vein, Island Dweller writes:

Your august majesty:

Your loyal minion has discovered this news article on a national news website:

Per CBS News St Louis, MO – KMOX

CHICAGO, Ill. (IRN) – Gun violence in Chicago is so severe that a state lawmaker wants state police and the National Guard to assist the local cops.

State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) is making the request.

“I am requesting with this press conference that Gov. Patrick Quinn order the Illinois National Guard (and) the Illinois State Police (to) come to Chicago and work with our mayor Ron (sic) Emanuel to provide safety for the children, especially,” she said at a news conference in Springfield.

Other state lawmakers accompanied Davis to recognize the severity of the problem, and the extent to which it carries beyond Chicago’s troubled neighborhoods to the entire city and other parts of the state, but not necessarily to concur with her solution.

Over the holiday weekend, 74 people were shot and 12 killed in Chicago, and Davis says the police don’t have the manpower to make arrests.

However, she said that if these state personnel are called in, a special commission must be set up to make sure they have clear orders on what to do each day.

“We don’t want them to have us fearing them also,” she said.

Now, when I was a lad in the Water-Winter Wonderland, the Great Riot of 1967 occurred in the Murder City. I believe the death toll from the one-week riot was 43. It sounds like things are beginning to get that bad in ChiTown – or at least head that way – and that’s without an active riot occurring. This is now a normal state of affairs. It is interesting to note this city goes out of its way to ban concealed carry of firearms, and makes legitimate ownership of a firearm nearly impossible. We have the spectacle of a Democrat of all people calling for help from outside authorities because the city is more or less admitting it can’t handle the problem under the Democrats’ own rules. I hope this isn’t lost on people.

Comments, please?

ID

A couple. First, the Chicago riot you describe was in April, 1968, following the assassination of Dr. King. And officially, 48 people were shot by police, and 11 killed. According to the Chicago Reader:

Twelve thousand Army troopers and 6,000 National Guardsmen descended on Chicago. Half the city’s police were placed on riot alert. For several nights the National Guard walked the streets two abreast with fixed bayonets. Jeeps mounted with 50-caliber machine guns crept along the main thoroughfares. A 10 PM curfew was strictly enforced.

Additionally, entire sections of Chicago were destroyed by arson; to this day, many people have concluded the riots were carefully planned and orchestrated by Eric Holder’s pals, the Black Panthers—and that rioting was going to happen at some point; they just needed a trigger event. Ironically, some areas of the city were spared rioting, looting, and destruction because the street gangs united to protect property. Only in a Democrat-run city.

Nationally, the toll was over 40, but a massive riot in Chicago—more to your point—was significantly similar to the weekend of July 4th, 2013…except people weren’t shot by the police; they were shot by each other. But 2013 is vitally different in that there was not massive destruction of private property; the Guard in 1968 was mobilized to stop the destruction, not necessarily the shooting.

Second, you should know that this appeal to have the Illinois National Guard act as police in Chicago happens pretty much every year. It first made national news in 2010, but some form of this goes back to the 1980s. And each year, nothing happens; the tragic irony being that life in Chicago is statistically more dangerous than life in Kabul, Afghanistan.

This is pure political theater, and not much has ever come of it. Not much likely will; of course, in a few months, Chicagoans will be legally armed and able to protect themselves. Would you be surprised if crime rates dip? Without the National Guard?

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.