City officials continue to show no interest in examining the effectiveness of gun restrictions, their leading strategy in fighting violence.
The latest example came Friday morning, when the City Council’s police and fire committee held a rally for the city’s handgun ban—and Mayor Daley’s still-unfolding plans for curtailing access to firearms in the likely event that the ban is overturned by the Supreme Court.
Of course, that wasn’t the stated purpose of the event in council chambers. Officially the committee met for a hastily called “hearing to discuss violence and fire arm registration regulation.”
But from its opening moments, the hearing became a platform for city officials, gun control advocates, and community activists to argue that the city needs to continue to find ways to keep Chicagoans from legally acquiring guns. In nearly two hours of testimony, not one witness raised questions about the utility of the gun ban or other gun restrictions, nor did anyone discuss other potential causes of violence—even though Chicago averages several shootings a day even with the ban in place.