Chicago’s Mayor Daly proposes “common sense” gun laws.

If ever there was a misleading headline, that’s it.  Mayor Daly wouldn’t know common sense if it jumped up and bit him in the rear end.  Daly believes that ANY law restricting law-abiding citizens from owning firearms is “common sense”.

Yet, as shocking as it might sound, there is one thing about his latest round of so-called common sense gun law proposals I actually agree with.

Now, before you fall out of your chair, of break into convulsions of laughter, thinking that I’m being my usual sarcastic self, hear me out.

The lame-duck mayor, as the Sun-Times article called him, proposes the usual amount of asinine laws, but there is one, as I said before you started laughing uncontrollably, that I agree with.

If you have already been convicted of violent crimes and you’re caught with an illegal firearm, then you should not be eligible for probation.  You should rot in jail until your full sentence is completed.

Notice please, my inclusion of the word “violent”. It’s important. Critically important, actually.  People convicted of paperwork violations (in other words, manufactured crimes) would not be in jeopardy under this provision.  The only people who should be forced to serve out their full prison terms are those who, by their own violent acts and convictions in a court of law, have proven they are a menace to society.

It is truly tragic that Thomas Wortham IV was murdered by four pukes who wanted to steal his motorcycle.  It’s shocking and repulsive that we live in a world where people are willing to kill a man for something as mundane as that.

It’s a tragedy that Wortham could survive two tours of duty in Iraq, only to be murdered in his parents’ front yard.

One of the young men charged in his murder was on probation for illegal possession of a firearm.

The justice systems on both sides of the border are far too lenient with real violent offenders, and it’s costing the lives of good, hard-working, honest citizens.  It needs to stop.

If that means some punk who thinks he’s kool, and defines that by armed violent behavior, has to rot in a prison cell for a few years, I can live with that.

It’s better than attending the funeral of another decent citizen, gunned down because some thugs want his property.

As Carolyn Wortham so rightly pointed out at a Chicago news conference,

“A person who is trying to rebuild his life is not going to go out and get a firearm. It can only be assumed at that point that another crime may be committed.”

The rest of Mayor Daly’s propositions are redundant.  There are already plenty of laws that make it a crime to point a firearm at someone.  We hardly need another one.

What we DO need, however, is judges who are willing to actually hand out sentences that will put a stop to the likes of the murderers who so crassly took the life of Thomas Wortham IV.

Because they wanted to steal his motorcycle.

They deserve to rot in prison for that.

The unfortunate result of their heinous actions, aside from the obvious loss of a decent man, is that they’ve given Mayor Daly another platform for his endless assault on freedom.

I sure hope the good citizens of Chicago elect a decent mayor next time around.  I’m getting pretty sick of the current one.