Guns In The City: Self Fulfilling Prophecies

Chicago dad charged after boy, 6, shoots and kills brother, 3, playing 'cops and robbers' - StarTribune.com:
(October 19, 2015)

“I’m sure the defendant did not intend for this to happen, but it happened,” Brown added, before lowering the bail to $75,000. “And it’s what happens when people have guns who shouldn’t have guns. That’s why we’ve had 2,300 people shot in Chicago so far this year.”

This is the story of little boys, big guns, fathers who are clueless and mothers who are helpless.


In Chicago, it's a big deal when a 6-year-old shoots a 3-year-old.

If they were 10 years older, it would be no less a tragedy ... but it would have been on Page 12 of Section 2, instead of on the front page.

Because in Chicago, they expect juveniles to shoot each other, although it's usually the deliberate act between gang members; not one tiny boy shoots his little brother because he doesn't understand about guns.

This happens in a city with one of the most restrictive gun laws in the country.

And it’s what happens when people have guns who shouldn’t have guns.

The thing is, NOBODY in Chicago should have guns ... according to the Chicago Lawmakers.
The father who placed the (loaded, presumably cocked-and-locked) gun in the kitchen drawer had what he thought was a good reason to have a gun:

He was a former gang member who had snitched on his old crew and now feared for his life. So Santiago purchased a pistol on the street and kept it in the kitchen just in case.

THAT is why they have had 2,300 people shot in Chicago so far this year.



It wasn't the gun.
It was the ignorant father who thought only of himself.  He didn't really 'understand about guns', either.  He never thought about having children in the house, because ALL guns are illegal in Chicago.  Not that these laws mean anything to a former gang member.  Breaking the law meant nothing to him.  Until one of his sons killed the other.

In a "lawful community" (which excludes Baltimore, Chicago,  Detroit, DC, New Orleans, Oakland, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City, New York, Newark, et al), guns might be just another commodity that needs to be treated with respect.

But in these eastern and mid-west metropolitan areas, guns are treated as Instruments Of The Devil, and nobody gets to have them.  Legally.  Thus, there is no community of legal gun owners.  There is no culture which teaches that "... they are tools which must be treated with respect, because they can cause great harm when mishandled ... ".

Lawful people just obey the laws; they either don't have guns, or they are careful to learn to handle (and store) them safely.

In a violent, unlawful society ... not so much.

We're not saying that the exact same thing couldn't happen in a community where firearms are legally permitted to be privately owned (as per the 2nd Amendment).  But in Chicago, little boys have not grown up in the gun culture, which initiates children into the basic understanding of the difference between toys and real guns.

They never had a chance.  And their father will go to jail, and the surviving child will live with guilt forever, and the mother will grieve forever.

The End

(What?  You expected a happy ending?)