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  • Group taunts Chicago mayor with gun giveaway

    CHICAGO — As anti-gun groups across the nation offer everything from cash to free pizzas to people willing to turn in their firearms, a joyfully antagonistic pro-gun-rights group is giving away handguns to residents in Chicago, where merely possessing one is a felony.
    The first winner is expected to pick up his Kel-Tec .32-caliber semiautomatic this week. A Hasidic Jew, who says his traditional black hat and long black coat make him feel like a target for anti-Semites, plans to pick up the gun in the suburbs and break the law when he crosses back into the city.

    Chicago, the murder capital of the United States last year with 666 homicides, has — along with Washington, D.C. — the nation's strictest gun-control laws. And the city's most powerful and vocal gun-control proponent is Mayor Richard M. Daley.

    All of which makes the goal of Concealed Carry and its president and chief provocateur, John Birch, all the more delicious.

    "I'm trying to pick people who Mayor Daley will have a lot of fun going up against," Birch said. "I'm going to all his support groups: gays, women, blacks, Jews, the disabled."

    The winner of the first contest — who, because he plans to commit a felony very soon, asked that his name not be used — was not the group's first choice.

    Birch says the first man who was set to take the gun, until the media started poking around, was another Jew who suffered three bullet wounds in 1999 when white supremacist Benjamin Smith drove through Illinois and Indiana, shooting blacks, Asians and Jews, killing two and wounding nine.

    The front-runner for the second giveaway: an HIV-positive gay man who lives in a neighborhood not known for its acceptance of alternative lifestyles.

    The handout program, the latest in a series of attempts by Birch to poke holes in Chicago and Illinois gun laws, began in April with a posting on Concealed Carry's Web site inviting Chicagoans to write an essay explaining why they need handguns for protection.

    They had to be 21 or older, able to pass a federal background check and possess an Illinois Firearm Owners Identification Card — a requirement for all state gun owners and yet another law that irks gun-rights groups.

    Extra points were given to women, the disabled and applicants the group deemed likely to face a physical threat, be it working the night shift at a convenience store, having a restraining order against a former spouse or wearing Hasidic clothing.

    Birch, 48, a retired Army reservist who is no relation to the namesake of the conservative John Birch Society, lives in the suburb of Oak Brook, where possessing a registered handgun is legal but carrying it concealed is not. He spends much of his time trying to overturn that law — Illinois being one of six states to have such a restriction — as well as Chicago's ordinance forbidding handgun possession altogether.

    Since founding Concealed Carry in 1998, Birch has done much to keep both topics on the political table.

    "I can't say I'm surprised that Mr. Birch has come up with another stunt to draw attention to himself and this issue," said Thomas Mannard, executive director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. "Basically, what Mr. Birch is doing here is hoping that one of these individuals brings the gun into Chicago, gets arrested and brings the city's gun ban to court. If he wants that, why doesn't he do it himself?"

    While in no hurry to get arrested, the soon-to-be owner of the new Kel-Tec says he's thrilled to be joining Birch in his efforts, because he shares Birch's views.

    "I don't feel like I'm being used at all," the man said. "I feel like maybe I'm using him. I get a free gun. And I definitely feel like a target."

    The winner and Birch agree, however, that they are itching to see Chicago's ordinance tested in court. Another of Concealed Carry's 1,200 members filed suit last month, asking that some Illinois and Chicago gun laws be overturned on the grounds that they are unconstitutional and conflict with each other.

    Birch, whose sensational methods do not always earn him the support of other state gun-rights groups, made his public debut in 1999, during a growing debate in the Illinois Legislature over the concealed-carry law.

    Realizing lawmakers were not likely to reduce the charge for carrying a concealed weapon from a felony to a misdemeanor, he proposed — unsuccessfully — that they at least exempt from prosecution anyone who completed a 40-hour firearm training course and passed a criminal background check.

    Birch, a federally licensed gun dealer, can buy the small Kel-Tec — often used by police officers as a backup weapon — from a distributor for just $189.

    "At that price, I can keep doing this forever," Birch said. "This should be fun."


    I wonder if Ming has signed up yet.
    I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
    For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

  • #2
    Why don't they just arrest the members of this group on some sort of conspiracy to commit a felony charges and put an end to the story?
    "The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists."
    -Joan Robinson

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    • #3
      According to the CNN story I saw, its the people with the guns that are in trouble with the law, not the people giving the guns out.
      I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
      For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

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      • #4
        Especially since, where he lives, there is no law against handgun ownership, and any law against giving away handguns strikes me as unenforceable.
        Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DaveDaDouche
        Read my seldom updated blog where I talk to myself: http://davedadouche.blogspot.com/

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        • #5
          I think Illinois and Chicago could go after him, since he is inciting people to committ a felony.
          Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

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          • #6
            Or they could wait until someone who gets a free gun committs a crime.
            Last edited by Dr Strangelove; June 25, 2002, 19:10.
            "I say shoot'em all and let God sort it out in the end!

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            • #7
              The dude is a fool to think that by targetting Daley's base he's going to accomplish anything. It's not like all of Chicago's Jews will ralley around someone comitting a felony. Heck, since this guy is now a material witness against the person to whom he gave the gun, then can just subpeona his records and find out who it is.
              Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

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              • #8
                Re: Group taunts Chicago mayor with gun giveaway

                Originally posted by DinoDoc
                I wonder if Ming has signed up yet.
                No need to... I moved out of the City Proper a long time ago. In the burbs where I live, we have different laws.
                Keep on Civin'
                RIP rah, Tony Bogey & Baron O

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                • #9
                  How is what this guy doing a crime?

                  "A Hasidic Jew, who says his traditional black hat and long black coat make him feel like a target for anti-Semites, plans to pick up the gun in the suburbs and break the law when he crosses back into the city. "

                  As long as the gun is given away where it's legal. (and you'll notice that the man goes to some lengths to assure that all the legal qualifications are met.) He has no responsibility for what happens later.

                  I don't agree with what he's doing, but you can guarentee that he's checked out the legal aspect of it.

                  I personally think he's a wimp for not taking one into the city himself to challange the law. Getting others to do it seem a little yellow on his part. Especially when he states, "At that price, I can keep doing this forever," Birch said. "This should be fun."

                  RAH
                  It's almost as if all his overconfident, absolutist assertions were spoonfed to him by a trusted website or subreddit. Sheeple
                  RIP Tony Bogey & Baron O

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                  • #10
                    Come on Rah, you know inciting others to committ a crime isn't legal anywhere in the US.
                    Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

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                    • #11
                      I doubt they could prove he's inciting others to commit a crime. He's just giving away guns through a contest. The fact that they have to be Chicago residents is immaterial.

                      Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with what he's doing, but I don't think it's illegal. If it was, do you think he'd be going public with it? Again I guarentee he's been talking to lawyers about this prior to doing it.

                      RAH
                      It's almost as if all his overconfident, absolutist assertions were spoonfed to him by a trusted website or subreddit. Sheeple
                      RIP Tony Bogey & Baron O

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                      • #12
                        I'm sure the government can hire equally expensive lawyers to make his life miserable with.
                        "The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists."
                        -Joan Robinson

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                        • #13
                          **shrug** If I'm a criminal hell-bent on getting what I want, I'd just *assume* everyone in my path is armed ... and kill them accordingly, before they ever have a chance to draw their own weapon.

                          So in that sense, I don't see how being armed is going to save you from a criminal if he or she is going to kill you "just to be safe." It might help if you know someone's coming after you ... but if you don't ... well, dead is dead. Terminal surprise, one might say. "S/he never knew what hit 'em."

                          And that guy who was shot three times by that berserker gunman. Did he know he was going to be shot? Or was this "out of the blue?" If it's the former, and his targeting skills were good, he might not have been shot. But if it was the latter, what the hell was he going to do? Magically rise up off the ground after being shot three times, pull out his own weapon and drop the criminal?

                          Gatekeeper
                          "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I'll die defending your right to say it." — Voltaire

                          "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." — Confucius

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                          • #14
                            waoh, no one else picked up on that?!

                            CHICAGO HAD 666 HOMICIDES!
                            "I predict your ignore will rival Ben's" - Ecofarm
                            ^ The Poly equivalent of:
                            "I hope you can see this 'cause I'm [flipping you off] as hard as I can" - Ignignokt the Mooninite

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                            • #15
                              It's a statistic, not a prophesy. or a sign.
                              If we want to see Satan in Chicago, we need not look any farther than City Hall

                              RAH
                              It's almost as if all his overconfident, absolutist assertions were spoonfed to him by a trusted website or subreddit. Sheeple
                              RIP Tony Bogey & Baron O

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