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From: geb@cadre.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.legal,net.politics,net.flame
Subject: The city that works
Message-ID: <193@cadre.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 22-Jan-85 10:25:29 EST
Article-I.D.: cadre.193
Posted: Tue Jan 22 10:25:29 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Jan-85 21:26:18 EST
References: <776@reed.UUCP> <709@hou2h.UUCP> <912@amdahl.UUCP> <305@desint.UUCP> <170@cadre.ARPA> <531@mhuxt.UUCP>
Reply-To: geb@cadre.ARPA (Gordon E. Banks)
Organization: Decision Systems Lab., Univ. of Pgh.
Lines: 27
Xref: watmath net.legal:1356 net.politics:7134 net.flame:8021
Summary: 

Chicago may still be the city that works.
A black man pulled a gun on a mugger and shot him dead.
Chicago also has a gun law requiring a permit to even possess,
let alone carry a handgun,
and the man didn't have one, but unlike NYC, Chicago
only prosecutes real criminals in these cases and no
charges were brought against the man, since it was
self-defense.  Contrast the attitude of Mayor Koch & Gov. Cuomo.
When I lived in Chicago, it was well known that judges would not
sentence a citizen for having a handgun, although the police
would confiscate it if you were caught with one.  
The handgun law was applied against criminals mostly.

Another Chicago story:  the Tribune ran a campaign against
handguns in 1980 or so.  They devoted a special page to
pictures and stories of all people killed by handguns that
week.  I think they had believed that it would be mostly
wives shooting their husbands or kids shooting each other.
I was amazed at the percentage (~30%)
of those killed with handguns that was comprised of criminals
burgarlizing, raping, or robbing citizens, mostly in the black ghettos
where a large percentage of citizens are armed.  After 3 weeks or so,
the campaign disappeared with little fanfare.  
I surmised it was because after reading that
page, it made one more likely to want to have a handgun at home
for protection.