Unpossible
Many Chicagoans Carry Handguns Illegally. No way. That’s illegal. Also, sometimes the man is on your side:
Chicago police who responded did what officers often do in the city’s toughest neighborhoods. They pretended that the victim had not broken the law by defending himself with an illegal handgun.
“Nothing was said about the gun going off,” he said. “The police come over to make a report. The guy said to me, ‘Well, you’re lucky you weren’t killed. You should’ve had a gun with you. If you had killed the guy, then you would have had to say you took the gun off him.'”
June 14th, 2009 at 11:09 am
On a philosophical (empiricist) lark, I have achieved the impossible in New York City, many times.
There has to be a hole in the universe down there or something.
June 14th, 2009 at 11:52 am
I always carried a gun* when I lived in Chicago, and prayed every day that I wouldn’t have to use it because I’d be in more trouble than the criminal. Unless he was dead, of course.
Drove me crazy, and was one of the reasons I eventually left Chicago for Texas.
*Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Spec
June 14th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
There is also a law in Illinois which preempts municipalities if the firearm is used in self-defense, in one’s own home, own land, or fixed place of business.
June 14th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
It also sounds like the “perps guns” which are often “taken away from him and used against him” are apparently often “lost in the ensuing affray”.
An urban myth could spring from events like this.
June 14th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
“As he reached to hit me again, I drew my pistol,” he said. “He saw the pistol, and I shot and missed him totally ’cause I was half-knocked. He took off running.”
Good thing there weren’t any innocent bystanders around who could have gotten hit by the “half-knocked” stray bullet.
Just sayin’
June 14th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Even better, he had a gun and stopped an attacker.
Just sayin’
June 14th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
More people get killed by stray police bullets on a per incident basis, than by civilian shooters.
We would be less likely to get hit by stray bullets if police were disarmed, and had to deputize citizens ad-hoc to do the shooting when they needed a firearm.
Just sayin’
June 14th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Stupid laws are often disobeyed by the normally law abiding and crimninal also. Gun bans is one of those laws.
I am not surprised, I just approve of the street cop who indicated that the shop owner would need to take the robbers gun to save himself if the criminal was shot.
Definately jailhouse law demonstrated.
June 14th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I have always wondered how if it was illegal to defend yourself, why you would call the cops AT ALL? If you were on the street, wouldn’t you just leave the dead perp and run away? Would someone who witnessed you being mugged, who did nothing to help, feel somehow compelled beyond reason to report your appearance to the police after they witnessed you shooting defensively?
If a convict were to break into your home, and you killed him, and you will go to jail for defending your family and property, WHY would you call the police? Is there anything to link you to this ‘crime’? Why not roll the bad guy up in a carpet and toss his ass on the side of the road somewhere? How are they gonna know you killed him? Is his friend, who was in on the robbery, but waiting in the car, gonna go to the Police and say: “Yeah, we were robbing this guy’s house and…” Honor amongst thieves, right?
An unjust law should never be obeyed, especially when it is essentially a violation of the 5th Amendment. The laws should reflect reason and justice, otherwise they should rightfully be ignored. When reason and justice are outlawed, only outlaws will have reason and justice!
June 15th, 2009 at 7:59 am
— And yet they want fully-automatic weapons to “enforce the law”.
On the other hand, good moves by the Po-Po in this case.