A look beyond the handgun ban

Chicago's gun laws are among the toughest in the country. And yet, in Chicago, gunfire is a routine feature of the city's dominant criminal dynamic, a deeply-entrenched, multi-generational gang system with, authorities estimate, close to 70,000 members citywide. [snip]

Bans? "That's what people do when they don't understand the problem," says Juan Johnson – or "Big Juan," as he's fairly known in the hardscrabble neighbourhoods on Chicago's gang-infested west side. [snip]

"The regular citizen in Chicago cannot go anywhere and buy firearms," says Williams, eyebrows raised. "And yet, in one year, in the 1990s, we had more than 19,000 weapons recovered. In one year. We've been averaging 10,000 weapons recovered every year for the last 10 or 12 or 14 years. And that's with a ban."

[gun bans only remove guns from the hands of law abiding citizens - leaving criminals unopposed ]

READ MORE