Mayor praises city's gun fencing effort

The numbers are in, and Chicago had a "successful" gun turn in this past weekend.

From ABC7:

By Paul Meincke

Mayor praises city's gun turn-in effort

July 31, 2007 - Mayor Daley praised the city's latest gun turn-in event Tuesday, calling it a "record-breaking" success. More than 6,700 handguns, rifles and assault weapons were turned in by Chicago residents during the citywide event two weekends ago. That number tops the number of guns collected during the first two gun turn-in programs combined.

As I mentioned previously, "Numbers are powerful persuaders to politicians. Big numbers make for good publicity, and politicians would do pretty much anything for a good write up in the local news rag." It seems Mayor Daley got his wish.

Let us see what Mayor Daley accomplished, shall we?

There are assault weapons, and sawed off shot guns, revolvers, and semi-automatics, and some home-built models that can accommodate a shot-gun shell.

This is part of the haul from the latest "no questions asked gun turn-in." All of these boxes are filled. The final count: 6,727 guns...

...About a tenth of the guns turned in are air guns or replicas, some very realistic.

So we have 6,727 items that look like guns. Approximately 672 are not guns, that leaves 6055 that the city classifies as a firearm. Some of those are "home-built models that can accommodate a shot-gun shell". Sounds like some enterprising folks traded in a piece of pipe for a $100 debit card. I'll knock off 38 for the "home-built" models, and then 17 for the ones "turned in" to raise money for a youth shooting program, which leaves 6000 firearms turned in by the good citizens of Chicago. 6000 guns off the streets.

As the Mayor says:

"If we took just one gun off a potential criminal, it was worth it. if only one gun was here it'd be worth the effort," said Mayor Richard Daley.

Wait a second there Mr. Mayor. I have personally witnessed testimony in front of the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee by an organizer of gun "buy back" programs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. This individual testified that 85% of the firearms turned in at these events were stolen (he said this as if it were a good thing). Mayor Daley, with your $100 per firearm incentive you offer to any crack head that can break into a house and steal a gun, don't you think that this program might actually be increasing crime in your city? Mr. Mayor, you are paying folks to steal, to break into a citizen's home and steal their private property. You are putting the citizens of your city at risk, and for what? For a stupid headline that makes the ignorant think you are doing something to make them safe. Your actions are despicable.

If the firearms "turned in" in Chicago are true to form, 5100 of them were stolen. The City of Chicago paid goblins $510,000 to go out and steal guns. I would like to know what will happen to the stolen firearms, the private property of American Citizens.

Whether real or replica, all of the turned in guns that are not evidence in criminal cases will be taken -- as they have been for years -- to a steel plant where they will be melted.

If this article is to be believed, it does not bode well for private property rights in the State of Illinois.

One last thing - Police officers were assigned to inspect the firearms at each "turn in" location. The officers could not tell the difference between a real gun and a toy?

Edit - Part of the gun turn in program was the offer of a $10 gift card for replica firearms.