students react to gun violence

[villager]

Run time: 01:33 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XrCuSeRbMs   Posted on YouTube: May 19, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 29, 2009 By DU Member: villager Views on DU: 793

 

[DonP]

1. They know who did the shootings?

Did I hear that right? The boys know who did the shootings but "wont snitch"?

We have the same thing in Chicago. A shooting takes place, the police move in to interview the neighbors and witnesses and nobody will talk to the police. There is a march by ministers and other activists in the community and things go right back to normal until the next gang related shooting.

I'd love to hear a serious, practical proposed answer to the problem when the victims won't help their own community.

[villager]

2. often -- but of course, they live in terror of ...getting shot!

n/t

[DonP]

3. Can't be, in a city that bans all handguns and registers all long guns?

The only state with a requirement to be pre-licensed with a Firearm Owners ID card before you can buy a gun or ammunition?

Even gun shows here in IL forbid the sale of guns or ammunition without a FOID card or NICS check.

Next thing you'll tell me that there are elements in the community that illegally acquire guns without abiding by all the gun safety laws.

I feel for each of these families that loses a child, even if they were a gang member themselves, it still doesn't ease the pain.

But every one of our local ministers knows damn well who is doing the shootings. But the families are members of their congregation and no one is talking. It's easier for Daley and the ministers to try and pass another round of feel good laws that will only have an impact on a target shooter in Bonfield Illinois or a pheasant hunter in Watseka, than to address the real problems in these communities.

No jobs, no hope and no alternative to joining a gang.

[villager]

4. Right -- how on earth is anyone in *Virginia* getting guns!?

I see how this might be a puzzlement to you...

[DonP]

5. They stop me in Indiana and Wisconsin

When I drive across a state line and if I'm interested in a gun I have to show them a photo ID. I looked into buying an original Winchester '92 a few weeks back at the Cabela's in Hammond Indiana so it's freah in my mind what I would have had to go through. I can buy a gun in another state, if I'm legal to do so in my home state, but I have to have it shipped, following a NICS check, to a valid Class 001 FFL in my home state. All the usual rules and waiting times apply.

The idea that you can drive to another state and just hand over your cash and drive home with a gun from a store or a gun show is another gun control myth.

I don't think the Chicagoans in Englewood, Chatham or the other neighborhoods being shot up by gangs, are going through all the laws put in place to inhibit their activity. Another 8 or 9 layers of restrictions will have no impact on their activity. It's easier for Mayors to ignore the root causes than take the political gamble and lose the votes.

[villager]

6. These kids live in Virginia -- nice touch of empathy for their plight, btw...

n/t

[DonP]

7. Still ...

... I'd love to hear a serious, practical proposed answer from you, or anyone out there, about how to seriously address the problem when the victims won't help their own community and without putting unreasonable restrictions on the law abiding.

In many of these cases in Chicago their "plight" is self induced.

e.g. Your brother, uncle, cousin etc. is shot by A. You refuse to point the police at A and decide to handle it yourself and wind up shooting B, A's cousin. So A decides to take a shot at your Aunt, and the cycle continues ad infinitum, punctuated by neighborhood marches demanding the mayor and police superintendent do something about it.

[Seldona]

8. How about seriously funded witness protection programs?

Not everyone wants to take on a gang by themselves because they were standing on the wrong street at the wrong time. Unless there is someone relatively big involved, the best the kid can hope for is being put into the system themselves. That is until they are done testifying. Than the majority are on their own.

It's very simple really. Perhaps witnesses would come forward if police and DAs did anything other than show up to clean up the mess, and try to find out who did it afterward, when a witness is shot. People are going to do what makes THEM safer.

[villager]

9. well.... that's a start....

n/t

[Seldona]

11. Seems answers are hard to come by on this topic.

What will make a citizen feel comfortable in coming forward? Why don't they, and what can we do about the reasoning behind that psychology?

[villager]

12. you also need to de-glamorize guns and gun violence

so that they don't become the only means of defining "manhood" or "coolness" in such broken communities...

Bad enough it's pervasive in the American male psyche -- but it's deadly when societal conditions are falling apart around those psyches....

[X_Digger]

10. Witness tampering / intimidation is often under-investigated

and under-prosecuted.