Deanimator wrote:
Richard6218 wrote:
So to answer your question about lawfully moving to Chicago with your guns, I think for now it just can't be done. As to the issue of registration, it's just a tool of government for controlling our lives. I don't agree that it's directed at any particular group; if the law is in force it applies to everyone and is equally burdensome to all. In the same manner as outright bans, registration has to be resisted not by defiance but by litigation and political action.
1. Chicago's "moratorium" on registering handguns remains in force. The same day that Heller was handed down, a suit was filed against Chicago.
2. I already knew it was impossible for me to LAWFULLY move to Chicago with my handguns. My point was that the reason why is that Chicago has REGISTRATION. It simply won't allow me to register. This shows that anyone who says that registration isn't a problem is at best naive and at worst (and usually the case) a liar.
3. If you don't think that registration in Chicago (and its suspension) ISN'T aimed directly at Black people, then clearly you don't know much about Chicago. Certainly you've never been Black in Chicago. If the law is APPLIED differently to different groups of people, then it does NOT apply equally. I have a friend who used to do pro bono defense work as an attorney in Chicago. He says that the only White faces you'll see in "gun court" in Chicago are the judges, bailiffs and testifying officers. Whites caught carrying guns in Chicago, if they're not otherwise committing a crime are usually released on the scene, WITH THEIR GUNS. Blacks are arrested, tried and sentenced to jail time. Gun control in America arises out of a desire to disarm disfavored minority groups, including Blacks, Indians, Italians and Jews. Chicago is the ironclad proof of this. If you need any more proof, consider the case of Alderman Richard Mell. When he forgot to register his firearms and the police would not register them after the fact, Daley supported a measure in the city council tailored SPECIFICALLY to allow MELL to register HIS firearms. Mell is White.
I hope you are not applying your Item 2 to me. I never said registration is not a problem; quite the contrary. I said it needs to be resisted by litigation and political action. I am trying to help and support you with a problem that you postulated here.
Your Item 3 is something I have frankly never had to deal with. First, I am not Black, so I have to follow your lead in the discussion. Second, I have only spent two days in Chicago and that was as a tourist 8 years ago. BTW, inthose two days I had a very ugly enounter with a cabbie that left a nasty taste in my mouth about Chicago. More to the point of your third paragraph, I agree only partly about the law vs. the application of the law. A law is merely a statement of policy of the political authority. Unless it specifically addresses a group, such as Blacks, or Jews, or other such minorities, it is ethnically neutral. Where I agree with you entirely is in the
application of the law. Chicago has long been known for its corrupt politicians, courts, police, ..... everything, back to the 1920's and probably long before that. Everyone in the world knows Chicago's reputation. And it sounds from your story like nothing has changed. As I see it, there is only one solution to this. Someone has to get the Federal Government involved and get some prosecutions of the perpetrators of this blatant discrimination. Maybe it will take a complaint to your congressman, or maybe your senator. (But Obama is a bit preoccupied these days, and I don't know if Durbin would be any help.) Whatever the ultimate means to solve this, it's going to take a lot of clout. Another thought: I don't know if any politicians are going to be really keen about a Second Amendment issue, which is the other side of the problem.
