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General News    H2'ed 7/14/13

New Illinois Law Empowers George Zimmerman style Cop Wannabes

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Even as the nation grapples with the fact that Walking While Black is a capital crime, a new Illinois law ensures future Zimmerman style vigilantes. There may only be six people in the nation who understand how stalking someone while armed and murdering them is "self-defense," but in Illinois more "enforcer" bloodshed is just around the corner.

When will we stop the gun bullies?
When will we stop the gun bullies?
(Image by Martha Rosenberg)
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This week Illinois passed its first concealed carry law, emboldening an estimated 300,000 people to deputize themselves, Zimmerman style, as citizen cops. Three days before the Sandy Hook massacre, a circuit court struck down Illinois' concealed carry gun ban and a bill was swiftly passed by the Illinois legislature.

 

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn made amendatory changes to the bill like banning guns in bars and places serving liquor, limiting carriers to one weapon and ammunition clips to 10 rounds, but the legislature overrode him last week. Thank you NRA and Illinois gun lobby. Alcohol may double gun-related violence and accidents but concealed carry bills double guns $ales. So, it's a banner moment for people who want to drink while carrying multiple weapons with many rounds in Illinois.

 

Illinois' new law was driven by Rep. Brandon Phelps (D-Harrisburg) nephew of David Phelps famous for co-sponsoring the Marriage Protection Amendment when he served as a US Illinois representative. Hearings on Phelps' concealed carry bill in the Illinois House in May were punctuated with sanctimonious moments of silence for gun victims--even as legislation was passed to ensure more victims.

 

Rep. Phelps said he was "disgusted" by Governor Quinn's changes to his bill and that banning guns from boozy environments isn't about safety-- it is about "catering" to the "powerful restaurant association up there in Chicago."   Right.

 

How stalking someone and murdering them is "self-defense" is only one contradiction in the fuzzy logic of gun zealots. Another is why laws to arm future George Zimmermans sail through legislatures but laws to stop gun trafficking are defeated, as they were this spring by Congress. Don't gun zealots want to stop criminals who gun traffickers arm? And speaking of stopping criminals, why do gun zealots block a registry--when they are "law abiding" and the crims are not?

 

But of course the armed vigilante movement has a lot more to do with gun $ales and the need of cop wannabes like Zimmerman to compensate for their high fear level and masculine inadequacy.   Why are carriers afraid to go places normal people go, including little old ladies, children and 110 pound women without being armed? Why was a grown man with a lethal weapon afraid of a boy with Skittles?

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Martha Rosenberg is an award-winning investigative public health reporter who covers the food, drug and gun industries. Her first book, Born With A Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp The Public Health, is distributed by Random (more...)
 

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