5th District Congressional candidate David Ratowitz responds to Rep. Mike Quigley and Mayor Richard M. Daley’s December 19, 2009, Sun-Times op-ed, “Threat to city’s handgun ban jeopardizes safety of all.”
Rep. Mike Quigley’s December 19 Chicago Sun-Times op-ed piece in defense of Chicago’s unconstitutional ban on gun ownership for law-abiding citizens displays arrogance, disregard for the facts and extremist zeal.
Congressman Quigley and his co-author, Mayor Richard Daley, credit the 27-year ban on gun ownership for reducing the homicide rate in Chicago, even while acknowledging that homicide rates increased for a decade after the gun ban’s passage. Mr. Quigley chooses to ignore the recent uptick in the murder rate while the unconstitutional ban has been in effect. Big government backers typically disregard such facts because they cannot explain why, for nearly half of the gun ban’s existence, murder rates have increased. Moreover, the drop in homicide rates that occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s corresponds to the greatest period of economic prosperity in American history and a nationwide reduction in crime rates of all kinds. Mr. Quigley, while noting that the gun ban has reduced the number of registered handguns in Chicago, sidesteps the fact that the ban has not reduced the number of guns in the city, only the number of responsible and law-abiding citizens allowed to enjoy a constitutional right.
In dismissing the pro-2nd Amendment position as “undermining liberty,” Mr. Quigley suggests a weak understanding of a fundamental right, the definition of “liberty” as well as the American people. Clearly, Mr. Quigley does not have faith that the law-abiding, responsible majority can make better decisions and provide better outcomes than career central planners. Mr. Quigley actually conflates all instances of responsible Chicagoans defending themselves into those in which weapons are “fired on a busy street,” overlooking the fact that such incidents occurred rarely in Chicago prior to the 1982 ban. The vast majority of incidents in which weapons were “fired onto busy streets” have occurred in the last 25 years, while the gun ban has been in full force.
Mr. Quigley proceeds to claim that the 500 Chicago Public School students involved in gun-related incidents in the last 2 years are proof that the gun ban must be continued. Never mind that those 500 incidents occurred while the gun ban has been in full effect. Mr. Quigley simply cannot discern between law-abiding and responsible adults and the violent criminals who possess and use guns despite any law.
The unconstitutional gun ban has had no quantifiable impact on reducing violent crime rates in the city. It has, instead, left law-abiding citizens at a terrible disadvantage vis-à-vis predatory criminals. Criminals, by definition, are people who break laws; they do not care if they also break gun laws. There has never been a would-be criminal who said, “I was going to murder someone, but then I realized it was against the law to use a gun, so I didn’t do it.”
The Supreme Court must strike down Chicago’s unconstitutional ban on ownership of guns by law-abiding and responsible adults. It is a shame that Mike Quigley has such little faith in the citizenry that he cannot differentiate between violent gang bangers and the rest of us. This is, undoubtedly, part and parcel of living in the insular world of The Machine for so long. Might I suggest a career change.
David Ratowitz is running in the 5th Congressional District Republican Primary on February 2. Website: www.ratowitzforcongress.com