Let's talk about guns...

Before the Illinois General Assembly ended their regular session last month one of the items considered was concealed carry. Alas, Illinois is home to Chicago which just so happens to be the state's largest city by a mile. Many of this state's most powerful politicians hail from the Chicago area. At that, many of those politicians are loathe to see conceal carry in this state.

There is a continued push for it and we can see how well that'll go in the future. Gov. Quinn who said he would veto any conceal carry legislation said recently he had little problem with Illinois being the only state in this union without any provision for conceal carry. Wisconsin recently adopted a law that allows dairyland citizens to conceal carry.

This time around in Illinois the push is to allow individual counties to decide whether or not they should allow for conceal carry.

Republican state Reps. Bill Mitchell of Forsyth, Adam Brown of Decatur and Chapin Rose of Mahomet held a news conference Thursday in Clinton about their proposed legislation. They also made stops Thursday in Decatur, Tuscola, Monticello and Mahomet.

The trio criticized Chicago politicians, especially Democrat House Speaker Mike Madigan, for blocking the passage this spring of House Bill 148, which would have allowed people to carry concealed weapons throughout the state.

The new proposal is the same as HB 148 except it would give each of the state’s 102 counties the authority to decide.

“Our ultimate goal is to have conceal-and-carry throughout the state,” said Mitchell.

He said he doubts the new bill will come to the House floor before January, however.

The law which failed in the recent legislative session was due to the fact that it would've restricted the regulatory powers of municipalities. Thus in the state legislature a "super-majority" is needed to pass a statewide conceal carry law.

In other news our new Chicago Police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, is making his rounds in our fair city. McCarthy a former NYPD officer and the former Newark Police Director was at St. Sabina Catholic Church (do I have to say who is the pastor of that church?) to talk about how gun laws are racist:

The pervasion of illegal guns in America's black and Latino communities is a result of "government-sponsored racism," akin to "slavery, segregation, black codes [and] Jim Crow," Rahm Emanuel's new police chief, Garry McCarthy, told parishioners at St. Sabina's Church earlier this month.

"This is sensitive. You know, because everybody’s afraid of race. Have you noticed that? Everybody’s afraid of race. I'm not afraid of race," said McCarthy, who told of growing up in the Bronx with guns, gangs and drugs plentiful.

"Let’s see if we can make a connection here. Slavery. Segregation. Black codes. Jim Crow. What, what did they all have in common? Anybody getting scared? Government sponsored racism."

"Now I want you to connect one more dot on that chain of the African American history in this country, and tell me if I’m crazy: Federal gun laws that facilitate the flow of illegal firearms, into our urban centers across this country, that are killing our black and brown children," he said.

WOW! OK well I don't necessarily disagree with him. Well there is an argument out there that suggest that during the time of Jim Crow and segregation and all attempt to keeps Blacks as 2nd class citizens one thing to do was to control their ability to own guns.

I wonder if it was OK to say this at an infamous Catholic Church in Chicago. I also wonder if the people either gasped at this assertion or believed it. Hopefully some of them will do some research on the history of racism and gun control and come to their own conclusion. Now in taking a shot at how illegal guns are coming into "minority" communities he takes a shot at gun-rights advocates.

Didn't McCarthy say that there needs to be a middle ground on the issue of guns? To me that means we can't keep honest citizen's away from guns no more than we need to gun-nuts to use over the top messaging to advance their cause.

So does McCarthy's statements help the cause to allow citizens in Chicago - especially in Black or Latino communities - to be able to own a gun for their own protection?