Wednesday, July 17, 2013

46-0 Chicago's City Council strengthens assault weapons ban, imposes higher fines for gun crimes nears schools

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
With no illusions about the impact on gun violence, the City Council on Wednesday jumped through a fast-closing window to strengthen Chicago’s assault weapons ban and imposed sharply higher fines for gun crimes near schools and along “Safe Passage” routes.
There's more:
“This isn’t gonna cure everything. But, we have a window and it would be irresponsible and reckless for us not to take this window and actually make sure that our laws were toughened,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said after the back-to-back, 46-to-0 votes.
Some people question the one party mindset:
Lawful owners of assault weapons would have 60 days to “legally dispose of” their guns or “remove them from the city.” Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, has argued that Emanuel is “attacking the wrong people,” noting that assault weapons were used in only one crime on the streets of Chicago last year. Only one-tenth of the 3,000 weapons seized by Chicago Police this year were assault weapons.
No assault weapons for you: unless you are Rahm Emanuel's bodyguard detail.