The Solution to Mass Shootings is Constitutional Carry
By Mark Schwendau
One of the worst-run states the Democrats can take credit for is Illinois. Illinois was the first (1968) state in the nation to unconstitutionally and illegally require all residents who want to own guns to first apply for and possess an Illinois Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card from the state. The sole purpose of the card in the minds of the Democrats was to curb gun crimes in the City of Chicago. That not only didn’t work but things are now worse than ever. The worst part of this idea was Democrats were warned by both Republicans and law-abiding gun owners, “This is a really bad idea that won’t work.”
Charts from the website ‘Hey Jackasses: Illustrating Chicago Values’ offers an overview of homicides from past years. In 2021 this website reported homicides for 2021, about one year ago last August, stood at 530 after a record month in July. That website went on to expose Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot as grossly incompetent holding Chicago’s highest office. But you never want to cross Mayor Lightfoot because this little bull dyke lesbian will be the first to tell you, “My dick is bigger than yours and the Italians, I have the biggest dick in Chicago.”
What would our forefathers do?
If the clock of time were turned back 100 years in history, our forefathers would encourage both permit-less concealed and open carry to resolve this issue. They held the common sense position of the National Rifle Association (NRA) whereby, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.”
The Democrats claim to be all about the care of minorities over Republicans but that is an outright lie and the proof is in Chicago. Illinois has been held by the Democrats since 1939. And yet, year after year some 80% or more of the shootings and homicides of Chicago involve black-on-black crimes. The only thing stupider than the Illinois FOID card is their new push to ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’! Logical thinking holds that the Democrats could fund and hire the social workers they propose right now and have them work in unison with current law enforcement institutions. But that is not the Democrats’ way… they are more the cut your nose to spite your face, types.
Just look at all the press the Highland Park, Illinois, shooting got where 7 people died with 30 shots compared to the press of the 9 dead with 57 shot in Chicago, Illinois, that same 4th of July holiday weekend. And the worst part, this is a regular occurrence every weekend in Chicago!
So why are the Democrat talking head politicians and the Democrat-led mainstream news media treating these two Illinois locations differently? Is it because white lives matter more than black lives to the Democrats?
No. The shootings in Chicago are almost always handgun related and not assault rifles. They want to target a gun type for banning and Chicago does not fit their narrative.
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Guns are not the problem and never have been. People with no regard for human life with little to no moral values are the problem. Also not being discussed is sometimes these shootings are part of a street gang initiation ritual. Instead of going to get a trendy tattoo, they “go to get a cap popped in their ass” and then they are part of the gang.
In other words, the media is treating the incidents more seriously than the shooters and the victims who really know what these shootings are all about.
Another thing that is never discussed relative to this problem is how the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) got the mentally ill released from state mental health hospitals in the interest of protecting their ‘civil rights”. As the ACLU states on their website, “In a landmark decision for mental health law in 1975, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that states cannot confine a non-dangerous individual who can survive on his own, or with help from family and friends.”
This sounds good on the surface but as some mental health experts warned, too many times the evaluations are both quick and shoddy. These experts reflect the states were only too happy to oblige the ACLU and Supreme Court decision as, to them, it was just another budget line item that could be eliminated. Some of the more sane members of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) predicted that this would lead to a rise in senseless crimes as we are seeing today.
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Funny how the Democrats are not looking to regulate hammers after these two attacks?!
It is time for every state of the Union to become ‘constitutional carry’ states. This upholds the position that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not allow for restrictions on gun rights, including the right to carry or bear arms. Whether you call it permit-less carry, unrestricted carry, or Vermont carry is irrelevant to the fact something needs to be done for the common good. We need more happy endings to mass shooter incidents where the shooter gets dropped before being allowed to make too many other innocent victims.
Too many times an armed person shoots an unarmed person in these Chicago crimes. In other words, the person to become a victim never had a chance or option of self-defense. Fifty years ago such a person committing this crime would have been viewed as the lowest of low starting with the term ‘coward’. They would have not been treated well in prison either… showing even people in prison have their own ideas of morality and values and what constitutes a ‘fair fight’.
One gentleman who lives in Illinois recently told his story. “I got my FOID card and then I took the Conceal Carry Class and got that permit. The rules and regulations for where you can, and cannot, carry in Illinois are so confusing I now leave my gun in my car because I don’t want to inadvertently break the law.” This highlights the problem of living in a state people are fleeing from to move to other states. Nonsensical rules are too cumbersome to follow and have no foundation in reality.
A female college co-ed once told me how she was concealed carrying in her Illinois college. She told me, “I took my Illinois Conceal Carry Class from an Illinois law enforcement officer and he advised me it is better to have it and not need it than not have it and want it. He then followed that up by saying, ‘If you are the one to happen to stop a mass shooter in your college or a shopping mall, there isn’t a judge in the world that is going to try to make a heel of a hero!’”
Another issue besides the confusing carry rules of Illinois is the issue of reciprocity between counties within the state as well as others coming to visit the state. Politicians need to keep it simple and they are not. The objective of any legislature should not be to make a law-abiding citizen a lawbreaker. Too often that is the end result and the laws broken are both petty and nonsensical without defense for their existence.
The NRA recently reported, “Today, 20 states have straight recognition, 20 have conditional reciprocity and 10 either do not recognize the permits of other states or have a conditional-reciprocity standard but have not entered into specific agreements with any other states.”
The NRA is to be congratulated for being the impetus for these changes of the last 25 years but we need to move every state to a common understanding of both constitutional carry and complete reciprocity between all 50 states! This needs to be done because of the times we are living in and the fact we have strayed so far away from the visions of our forefathers who drafted that Second Amendment to our Constitution.
It is important for those on the opposite side of this issue to understand two important things about those who favor gun ownership; There are those who would prefer to not conceal or open carry a gun even if the opportunity would be readily presented. There are those who are so passionate about both law and order as well as gun ownership they would apply to be deputized as Federal Marshals to carry across the nation and willingly put themselves in harm’s way to keep the peace.
People against guns too often are close-minded to the point of not seeing the people behind the guns they carry. For every Democrat with armed security, I would offer, “You want to get rid of guns? You first!”
To many NRA members, they may absolutely hate California Representative Nancy Pelosi and all over her ‘Squad’ members but if things went south for them in a public setting, such as a mass shooter in a shopping mall, they would both shield themselves and return fire on the assailant. That is what it means to be an American to them. That is what it means to want right to win out over wrong.
Recent thrusts by the Democrats and the left have been found out as to what a bad idea it was to ‘defund the police’. Perhaps this mistake will help them see the importance of constitutional carry in all 50 states IMMEDIATELY!
Highland Park mass shooting suspect 21-year-old Robert E. Crimo III, is a coward who will be dealt with in time in the general population in one of Illinois’ prisons. He will wish he was dead.
If Democrat politicians had brains in their heads they would immediately pass laws to stop this madness immediately:
- The name and likeness of any mass shooter must never be released by the press to the public eliminating celebrity as a reward for the shooter.
- The make and model of the gun must never be released by law enforcement to the politicians who are more interested in working an agenda to kill the Second Amendment than saving lives.
- Constitutional Carry must be allowed for every law-abiding United States citizen who wants to defend themselves and others in the form of open or concealed carry.
Not to destroy the Democrat’s narrative but maybe if the gun ownership and concealed carry laws were not so ridiculously stringent in Illinois, about 6 citizens of that parade would have been returning fire on Crimo causing him to duck for cover on that rooftop and cower like the little girl he is. Better yet, maybe if he knew many of those in attendance at the parade might be carrying, he would have chickened out.
You can never argue with absolute truths. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to have a good guy with a gun.
Copyright © 2022 by Mark S. Schwendau
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Mark S. Schwendau is a retired technology professor who has always had a sideline in news-editorial writing where his byline has been, “Bringing little known news to people who simply want to know the truth.” He classifies himself as a Christian conservative who God cast to be a realist. Mark is an award-winning educator who has published 7 books and numerous peer-reviewed trade journal articles some of which can be found on the Internet. His father was a fireman/paramedic while his mother was a registered nurse. He holds multiple degrees in technology education, industrial management, OSHA Safety, and Driver’s Education. His personal website is www.IDrawIWrite.Tech.
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