Don't worry. Rahm will save the day.

[Biggsly]

First thing I thought of when I read this was, "This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead." Adolf Hitler
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...3-dfb8-58f1-9bc1-06bf0ccc8ea6.html?mode=story

Rahm Emanuel does not plan to run for governor of Illinois. Not in 2014. Not ever. His proposal last week to register all Illinois handguns made it obvious.

I'm sure that Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, wouldn't consider taking the step down to governor anyway — not any more than his predecessor, Richard M. Daley.

You can be sure that Chicago mayors do see it as a demotion. Only one has ever stooped down to the Governor's Mansion and that was almost a century ago: ex-Mayor Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne served as governor from 1913-17.

No wonder. Chicago mayors wield enormous power in city and state matters, and some enjoy the longevity of kings. Note that five Illinois governors came and went during Daley's tenure.

Whether Emanuel plans to burrow in forever is anybody's guess. He is, you'll recall, the former congressman who served as the first chief of staff for President Barack Obama. He also is the brother of Hollywood talent agent Ari Emanuel, whom the feds said was a target for a shakedown by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

That was a gunless crime, of course. Rahm Emanuel drew notice last week with a fresh frontal assault on the other kind. It makes him a pariah to a lot of downstaters and could leave a fellow Democrat, Gov. Pat Quinn, in a pickle.

Emanuel wants a law making all Illinois handgun owners register— and pay a $65 fee for — each pistol in the name of providing a safer Chicago. The city already requires its own residents to register firearms.

With guns regulated locally — and notwithstanding thousands of illicit guns obviously circulating in Chicago already — the Windy City Hall is baying for relief from what it says are crimes committed with weapons obtained elsewhere in Illinois.

The idea was predictably met with strong resistance from downstaters, whose culture regarding firearms is distinctly different — whose culture, in fact, already had led some to half-seriously suggest seceding from Illinois' northern tier even before Emanuel tossed fresh wood on their fire.

I wouldn't want to be the bearer of the news at any lodge meeting south of, oh, Joliet that the mayor of Chicago wants them to reveal their arsenals and pay substantial money to solve his problem.

As an enlightened kind of guy, I also don't want to just dismiss the mayor's motive. I'm no fan of violence. But neither do I see how, with murder already quite illegal and the city rife with firearms, a registration requirement would make much difference.

And that's not even the strongest argument against it.

The borders of Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri all sit closer to Chicago than much of downstate Illinois —including Metro East. None of those states has a handgun registration law. So even if Mayor Emanuel manages to get Illinois' lawmakers to enact a restriction, what does he propose to do about guns arriving from the other states?

A number of downstate lawmakers are lining up in bipartisan opposition, driven by their own political survival, if not also skepticism. Notably vocal among them have been Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton, Rep. Paul Evans, R-O'Fallon, and Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Smithton.

If such a measure passed, it would drop a red-hot potato into the lap of Gov. Quinn, who — were he to run for re-election — could have a lot to lose whether he signed the law or vetoed it.

Quinn, essentially a Chicago guy, desperately needs the city's support. Consider that in 2010, he out-polled Republican opponent Bill Brady in only Cook (Chicago), St. Clair and Alexander counties.

But Chicago alone isn't enough. Brady lost by fewer than 32,000 votes statewide out of 3.7 million cast. Quinn could not have won without a respectable level of support from folks in a number of downstate communities that take a very protective view of their constitutional right to bear arms.

So what's the governor to do?

He's already doing it: deflecting. Asked last week about Emanuel's proposal, Quinn wisely avoided giving an opinion and suggested a focus on ideas with better prospects for passage, such as tighter background checks on some firearm buyers.

And at least Quinn shouldn't have to worry that Emanuel — with his bridges to downstate Illinois smoldering — would one day break tradition and decide to go after his job.


Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...fb8-58f1-9bc1-06bf0ccc8ea6.html#ixzz1maCC399d

 

[sanjuro893]

He's just another Chicago type pol who doesn't give a damn about the rights of the people he's there to serve. If I lived in Chicago (or ANY anti-gun city for that matter) I'd pick up and move.

 

[Biggsly]

He's just another Chicago type pol who doesn't give a damn about the rights of the people he's there to serve. If I lived in Chicago (or ANY anti-gun city for that matter) I'd pick up and move.

Even when I lived in STL, I had no need to cross the river in to little Russia.

 

[71buickfreak]

I actually like Chicago, but not for their politics.

 

[cjjtulsa]

Sad thing about it is, Hitler never said that. Contrasting that fact with the article shows just how corrupt and controlling our American "leaders" and officials are as opposed to some of the more oppressive dictators in history.

 

[ByrdC130]

I'd think that it'd get shot down buy the Supreme Court in a heartbeat. They've already shot down one Chicago firearms ordinance in 2010, McDonald vs Chicago, and it was less restrictive than this proposed new pos.

So with this kind of thinking, to pay to exercise your constitutional rights, you'd have to pay $65 to register your typewriter?????

 

[mightymouse]

This from a city where the motto, "Vote early and often", was coined, where the dead regularly voted both early and often, where machine politics was turned into a modern art form; the same city wherein two veteran newspaper reporters where covering a meeting of the city's government. One of them, only half-awake, was suddenly jolted into complete consciousness by the elbow of his comrade. The wide-awake reporter then pointed toward an irate citizen earnestly haranguing the city's aldermen about some grievence or the other and commented, "Get a load of this, Joe, this guy thinks all this is on the up-and-up". Sweet home Chicago, indeed.