This is Peoria Journal Star columnist Pam Adams on June 17:
The gun-rights’ lobby is nothing if not persistent, and no matter how many deranged gun owners mow down unsuspecting victims at churches, health clinics, army recruiting offices, school campuses, nursing homes and museums, they will argue that expanding gun ownership is the ultimate solution.
And this is Pam Adams on July 15, apparently writing under the mistaken notion that readers don’t remember the crap that appeared in print a month ago:
No matter how long the prison sentence of one kid with one gun, no one in their right mind wants another kid with another gun shooting up anyplace or terrifying anyone. Transferring a parade of juveniles to adult court, handing down longer and longer sentences and intimidating judges is the safest route to more long-term failure.
So, we shouldn’t allow concealed carry by law abiding citizens who pass firearm training classes because there are too many “deranged gun owners” opening fire inside, among other places, schools. Gotcha.
Dione Alexander may or may not be deranged. But he is certified anti-social. But he gets a pass in the outrage department from Adams, who is more outraged at people who are outraged he didn’t get more than six years in the clink. Gotcha.
Typical Adams: Scorn and contempt for folks who obey the law, but sympathy for vicious lawbreakers. Gotcha.
Meanwhile, Adams’ colleagues actually went out and did some reporting. They asked Peoria cops if allowing concealed carry would the wild west environment that all good gun control advocates insist would be the result. The answer was “no.” Kudos to the cops for not being afraid of law-abiding citizens, an affliction common among gun control advocates.
Boy, don’t you just hate it when reporters (and fellow columnists) insist on digging up facts that contradict the nonsensical ramblings of the opinion writers. This is how Phil Luciano described Dione Alexender’s rampage at Woodruff:
Had Dione Alexander been a better shot, he could’ve turned Woodruff High School into a mini-Columbine.
Kinda sounds like “deranged gun owners mow down unsuspecting victims at churches, health clinics, army recruiting offices, school campuses, nursing homes and museums” to me.
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Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Sadly, with Adams, it’s all about the color. Had that had been a white boy, she wouldn’t have bothered with the article.
Greg Sharp writes
which a nick name of not so not so, I guess that implies warped mind,
But anyways baby with gas dropping, peoria could raise the gas tax a nickel eight cents, and increase tax on businesses, screw big g hot dog man ideas, like when did peoria ever care about the people, the people who run the businesses.
The city council is corrupt, isn’t it true, we would not be in this problem so bad giantic deficit, if they had not gone out of control on everything from tiff districts, to moving in on bad businesses, birbaries on grave yars, and 120 million musuem
Unemployment going rise, there are no tarp jobs, so if going to happen anway what difference does it make to raise business taxes.
Ah yes, concealed carry. Only nice guys will be carrying guns, right?
What do you think the outcome of the recent shooting at McDonalds would have been if some of those ‘concealed carry nuts” had been packing there? How many deaths?
Sociologists will tell you that no criminal ever expects to get caught, much less shot, so concealed carry won’t deter crime, it will just lead to more killing.
Elaine: “Sociologists will tell you that no criminal ever expects to get caught, much less shot, so concealed carry won’t deter crime, it will just lead to more killing.”
And anyone who can read newspapers will tell you that killing has not increased in the other 48 states that allowed some form of concealed carry.
Btu since when do gun control nuts ever care about reality when it conflicts with ideology?
Elaine: for the McDonald’s shooting last week, the thugs that were shooting were met with shots being fired back by the thugs they were shooting at. Yep, they pulled their guns and fired back. What boggles the mind is, why wasn’t there any charges filed against the “victims” for firearms????
Everyone has the right self defense, even people with criminal records.
But people with criminal records are NOT allowed to possess handguns leagally in this state, concealed or not. Provided, of course, that they are convicted felons.
Open carry laws might be a consideration.
More guns will led to more bloodshed.
Only it doesn’t Tulip. Like Billy said it doesn’t lead to more bloodshed in the other 48 states that allow it. As for Elaine’s ‘concealed carry nuts’ comment, she is right on! Who would actually want a means to protect themselves from becoming a victim? That’s crazy talk, we should all hope we can only be so lucky to be held up at gun point, its the American way!
And if concealed carry leads to more blood shed and deaths on the side of the criminals, what’s wrong with that?
Pam Adams has the type of intellectual hypocrisy that should lead even progressives to dismiss her. The sad part is that her views are lumped in with Obama’s and lead to a backlash from the right. Personal responsibility and accountability are color blind.
So, I can now carry a gun in my car and if someone shoots at me, I can pull it out and fire back even though I have no FOI card. Gee, I guess I’ll leave it in the glove box. I didn’t know that.
It isn’t how many deranged gun owners I’m worried about. It is how many of those who illegally possess and use firearms I’m worried about. How many repeat illegal possession and illegal use of a firearm lawbreakers get slapped on the wrist and are out doing the same darn thing over and over in a few years?
So let me get this straight. No one should have guns – except Mayor Daley’s bodyguards, of course. They need to capture escaped felons.
Except the close a locality’s gun laws get to Mordor, er, Chicago, the worse the crime rates, ALL crime rates, get. And yes, crooks and crazies DO worry about getting shot. That’s why the generally avoid robbing gun shops, police stations, and shooting ranges and pick Gun Free Zones ™ like schools and other venues that ban guns to do their dirty deeds.
http://peoriapundit.com/blogpeoria/2009/07/01/morally-superior/
Dogs, martial arts, intelligence, cunning. Many of these strategies can overcome an aggressor better than a gun, which could easily be turned upon the user. In those states that allowed concealed carry – what’s the incidence of accidental deaths – especially among children living in houses with guns?
“Dogs, martial arts, intelligence, cunning. Many of these strategies can overcome an aggressor better than a gun” It is that kind of statement that makes me wonder if you even know what a gun is. Just in case its that loud projectile thingy that fires a bullet (made out of metal) towards a target and can hit that target from several hundred away. If you are so confident in that statement let’s go out to a range I will bring a handgun we’ll stand 15 feet apart and we will see which is more effective, my aim or your Jedi mind tricks while performing the crane kick maneuver. Have you even fired or had ANY training with a firearm Tulip?
And you’re argument about accidental gun deaths is completely irrelevant in the argument about concealed carry because ownership of the very same firearms is legal now .
11B sez: “Jedi mind tricks”
I sez: RAOFLMAO
Dogs, martial arts, intelligence, cunning. Many of these strategies can overcome an aggressor better than a gun, which could easily be turned upon the user. In those states that allowed concealed carry – what’s the incidence of accidental deaths – especially among children living in houses with guns?
I had my house successfully robbed while owning 2 65 lb Airedales. The ogs enjoyed the garbage can that was kicked over for them. Should I intentionally get and train pitbulls to be aggressive?
What about people with disabilities or the elderly? 3 bad discs in my back…. I’m smart enough to realize I’m not Bruce Lee.
How on earth did the country survive in the 18 and 1900′s without the invention of gun safes and gun locks? Think of Abe lincoln and log cabins. I guess their parents raised them right and taught them to respect firearms.
I know what a gun is.
I’ve had one pointed at me by a cop when I lived in central Peoria.
I’ve had a depressed friend face me with one point blank.
I’ve had two cousins and a great aunt killed by them.
I have a grandfather who killed an intruder with one.
I also have had a wonderful dog who scared the piss out of two men trying to break into my house one night. I didn’t have or need a gun that night.
I’ll take the dog over the gun any day. A good, well-trained dog has more discretion than some cowboy with a gun.
I don’t think the argument of accidental deaths is irrelevant. They will happen. I know that from personal experience. My baby cousin was killed by another child who had found a gun at a day care center that had been broken into. A vigilante left a loaded gun for the children to find the next morning. I know you all aren’t that stupid. But some people are. Those boneheads are out there. They will conceal carry. Whose baby or loved one will pay the price?
I have tried to learn how to protect myself by other means. I will never carry a gun. I will, however, carry an attitude and strong hands.
And that is why you are opposed to concealed carry, you are afraid of firearms. If I were committed to breaking into your house I could kill your dog with a firearm before it became a threat to me, so what would be your next form of protection?
A few thoughts:
1. Shooting is a martial art. Arguably, folkstyle wrestling, certain styles of knife fighting, and rifle/pistol/shotgun shooting are the only truly American martial arts–and you could argue about the wrestling. Telling people to learn martial arts so they won’t want or need a gun is like telling people to take a defensive driving course so they won’t have to resort to driving a pickup.
2. In my experience, martial arts instructors who teach unarmed combat that actually gets used in fights advise students to run away from a gun, a knife, multiple opponents and most impact weapons. If you ask what to do when you can’t run away (such as when you have a 2-year-old son who must be protected, or your wife can’t run as fast as you can, or you can’t push your wheelchair fast enough to get away) they suggest that it would be smart to have a weapon if possible.
3. Under any of the several CCW bills that were proposed in Illinois this year, the “concealed carry nut” who gets a license would have undergone a thorough background check (just like anyone who has a FOID card in Illinois does now) followed by a great deal of training. I believe the most lenient called for 12 hours of training in the legal use of deadly force plus a qualification test, but I’d have to check to be sure.
4. This has been said several times above, but many of you are making predictions about a future event based on your opinion when there is hard data available. Haven’t any of you been to Indiana recently? Or Kentucky? Or Missouri, in the last four years? Or Iowa? Michigan? Minnesota? Ohio? Tennessee? Pennsylvania? Florida?
All those places have shall-issue CCW laws. I’ve been there, and I didn’t notice all the insane bloodshed and pistol duels between CCW holders that you are STILL predicting for Illinois. We’re the last state in the union with neither concealed carry nor open carry, and you’re still pretending that this is some untested experiment you can just hypothesize about. Your hypothesis has been thoroughly debunked all over the nation, including in four of our five neighbors. None of them have crime, violent crime, “gun crime” or murder rates that come close to rivaling Illinois. How is that possible, if we have the law that reduces those problems and they all have the law that increases them? Are we just that crazy and violent in Illinois?
I just don’t understand why you are all so crazy to go packing heat.
Central Illinois’ lack of jobs, lack of adequate public education, and deteriorating environment are much more serious issues, it seems to me.
If you live in Peoria County, your chances of dying from environmentally based carcinogens or because of some knucklehead behind the wheel are probably much greater than your chances of being gunned down.
Let’s get real.
Tulip: “If you live in Peoria County, your chances of dying from environmentally based carcinogens or because of some knucklehead behind the wheel are probably much greater than your chances of being gunned down.”
If that is the case, Tulip, what is your great concern about legalized carry? Your bad experiences with guns stem mostly from people who were carrying illegally. I appreciate your bad experiences, but think that you are drawing illogical conclusions from them.
No law will stop the bad guys from carrying guns. You are defenseless against an assailant with a gun, except if you are also armed. You may choose to remain unarmed, but it is not for you to force that choice on me, and that is what your anti-carry law stance does.
Mike