Daley’s Gunfight May be Over

Chicago--Mayor Richard M. Daley may finally be seeing the Light. He appears to be backing off his plan to fight rolling back the city’s unconstitutional handgun ban.

Daley knows any continued fight will cost the city untold millions in legal fees and civil damages paid to unlawfully arrested gun owners. Daley’s really in a no win situation and has no choice but to look for a new approach to curb violence.

Daley has expressed concerns for first responders to violence calls and wants some rules. The problem is only the reasonable and law abiding folks will follow rules. Criminals don’t follow rules.

There is one way for the city to deal with concerns and that’s though bringing gun safety education to Chicago’s gun owners. That’s simple enough. Daley can and should call on the world’s greatest firearm training resource, The National Rifle Association.

Daley needs to get facilities open in Chicago for training civilians about safety, the laws and liabilities of the justifiable use of deadly force. The Chicago Police Department needs to work out a protocol with armed civilians to avoid unnecessary tragedies.

The Chicago Police Department should use this opportunity to create a first-ever partnership with gun owners to suppress crime.

If gun owners are no longer targets for police gun confiscation teams they will be much more open to helping make Chicago a safe place to live, work and pay taxes.

Such a partnership would be a win, win situation for Chicago. Mayor Daley could turn his lemons into lemonade. Chicago could be the model for every large city in America for gun safety and reduced violence.