8 years of RTC in Ohio, still no blood in the streets.

I was linked to a great editorial from a Columbus, OH paper that IL legislators should read. Seems that some folks in OH had the same arguments that some of our IL legislators have been using for years and the concerns turned out not to be concerns at all.

I'm short on time this morning so here's the link, thanks to IllinoisCarry forum member "mauserme":
"Concealed carry, why the uproar?" 

Chicago Murder rate increases 60% in 3 months

How much longer will they continue to deny basic rights in Illinois? Since we KNOW that disarming the law abiding outside the home isn't working, let's try the other option and see what happens.

Yes, some folks will still die, but it will be the thugs who were previously doing all the killing. When a handful go down, it tends to take some of the fire out of the rest of them.

Try this link on for size and check out the last 2 lines in particular. Great to see a news outlet saying this!

http://www.irnnews.com/2012/04/12/chicago’s-murder-rate-has-risen-60-in-just-the-last-three-months/

Mayor Emanuel wants folks to stand up to gangs? That's great news! When will he understand that the citizens need tools to do so? He's made the statement, now let's see if he can follow through!

Is it too much to hope that change is in the air?

A sad state of affairs

Let me step away from IL RTC issues briefly....well sort of, as this stuff may eventually affect everyone in the country if it continues to spiral out of control.

I'm sure that everyone is familiar with the shooting in Sanford, FL by now. I will not give an opinion as I wasn't there and didn't see what happened, I will not defend anyone or point a finger. Sadly, there are a LOT of news outlets that weren't there either, but it hasn't stopped them from spewing "facts", some of which are turning out not to be "facts" after all. Some of the news outlets are being investigated for putting firth outright lies and doctoring 911 tapes.

We've had celebrities tweeting addresses for the shooter, which turned out to be wrong and harmed innocent people's lives. We've had an 78 year old man in Toledo that was beaten and robbed and it may or may not have been retaliation for Martin ...we don't even have all the facts there as you can see in the following links.
http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2012/04/03/Man-78-recounts-assault-by-6-youths-in-E-Toledo.html

http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2012/04/07/Toledo-police-Man-s-account-of-assault-may-be-exaggerated.html

We have politicians screaming to make new laws or repeal others based on knee jerk responses. We have anti-gun groups dancing in Martin's blood and using it to try to strip the rights of  law abiding people in this nation. (Sorry, I refuse to link to their stuff)

Right now, we have to wait until the investigations are over and all of the actual facts are in before we consume ourselves. 

Here's what we don't have and I want to know why:

We don't have public outrage about the daily homicides that occur in Chicago (and other cities, but Chicago is the one I hear about the most). Why is the Rev. Jackson -among others- not looking into these? I don't wish to take away from the Martin case, any premature loss of life is regrettable. But seriously, what Chicago is doing isn't working and things need to change. The following link refers to just one weekend in Chi-town, it can be an ugly place.
http://www.suntimes.com/11400560-417/mayor-city-to-do-more-to-fight-violence-after-bloody-weekend.html

First quarter figures put homicides in Chicago at 118. So why aren't they looking for real change in the way things are done? Of course, some of these may be criminal-on-criminal homicide rather than innocents being murdered, but it's clear that there's a problem.
 http://homicides.redeyechicago.com/

And it's really bad when the officials BRAG that the city went murder-free for a whole day!
http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Chicago-Murder-Free-24-Hours-137672038.html

So, where's the outrage?