Gun Rights Activists Ask for Chicago Mayor to Step Down after Crime Milestone
OutdoorHub Reporters 04.27.16
At least one gun rights group has asked for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign after local media reported that the number of people shot in the city this year already surpassed 1,000. According to The Chicago Tribune, this number is not surprising for Chicago, but was reached far earlier than in previous years. In the first four months of 2014, “only” 480 people have been shot within city limits. Gun rights advocates pointed to the shocking new report as more proof of how strict gun control has ended in failure for the city.
On Friday, the Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) officially asked for Emanuel to step down.
“Rahm Emanuel’s administration has been a disaster for public safety,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb in a press release. “His incompetence and anti-gun ideology as a public official are responsible for his inability to deal with this situation. So far this year, there have been more than 170 homicides, and the mayor has been all talk and no results.”
Gun rights supporters have long pointed to Chicago as a textbook example of how gun control fails to lower crime, and in some cases, they say it even causes unarmed residents to be at the mercy of illegally-armed criminals.
“His gun control and crime reduction policies have hurt the most vulnerable citizens in Chicago,” said Gottlieb. “Under Emanuel’s leadership, the city has never really complied with the spirit of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago. His restrictive policies have prevented gun stores, where people could obtain the tools to defend themselves and their families. His administration has resisted shooting ranges where citizens could get training and practice. Six years after McDonald, there are still no gun stores or ranges inside the city limits. There is no encouragement to fight back against the violent thugs and drug gangs who prey on the public and have turned the city into a slaughterhouse.”
Activists also blame Emanuel for hamstringing the city’s police department by pushing for additional reforms. According to the Tribune, police morale has been flagging lately due to several high profile incidents, such as the controversy over the shooting of 16-year-old Laquan McDonald last year. As a result, arrests have decreased dramatically and so have the once ubiquitous street stops.
“Rahm Emanuel has been a failure at making his city safer,” Gottlieb concluded. “Instead, the carnage has taken Chicago backwards, and the outlook is grim so long as Emanuel stays in office, pushing an agenda that has surrendered the streets and neighborhoods to a criminal element that seems to thrive on violence. It is time for Rahm Emanuel to go.”
The Chicago Mayor did not respond to calls for his resignation.
