As the Wednesday Journal reports, there were 5 people victimized in 3 Oak Park, IL armed robberies. All of the criminals used handguns, despite Oak Park’s longstanding (and likely unconstitutional) handgun ban:
- On July 14 a couple returning home on the 100 block of North Cuyler Ave. were approached by two men. One man pointed a handgun at the man while the other took the woman’s purse, which contained $10, a check book, and her IDs.
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On July 12th, a man and a woman inside their garage on the 300 block of South Humphrey were approached by two men, one of whom produced a handgun and demanded their cell phones, $20 in cash, and also their credit cards and IDs.
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On July 7th an Oak Park boy was relieved of his iPod by criminals who stated that they had a handgun.
These crimes are nothing new for Oak Park, Illinois, which has had a handgun ban for decades yet suffers handgun-related armed robberies such as these on a nearly weekly basis. Rather than acknowledging that their handgun ban is unconstitutional, ineffective, unjust, and was instituted for misguided reasons, Oak Park’s politicians have vowed to spend taxpayer money to fight a losing court battle to keep the ban, which only serves to disarm law abiding citizens. I would respectfully suggest that Oak Park, and other similarly situated cities with handgun bans, focus instead on “criminal control.“
So there's armed robberies in Oak Park – a township which doesn't allow guns. So you must be implying towns and cities which allow guns suffer from no armed robberies. Gee, we should all buy a few more guns.
I certainly am not suggesting that cities which allow gun ownership are free from crime. My point is that the Oak Park handgun ban isn't disarming the criminals, but is ensuring that the law abiding people are disarmed and vulnerable. Since the handgun ban isn't accomplishing its goal, but is causing harm, it should be abolished.