As reported, Oak Park handgun ban continues to keep law abiding citizens vulnerable to criminals, while failing to prevent those criminals from having guns:
An Oak Park woman walking near her home was robbed at gunpoint on the 200 block of North Euclid. A criminal approached the woman and brandished a black semi-automatic pistol, and demanded her purse. After stealing the woman’s property, the criminal escaped.
Once again, the Oak Park handgun ban has failed to prevent a criminal from using a gun to commit a crime. Indeed, the handgun ban has failed to prevent the dozens of armed robberies that have sent this year’s Oak Park armed robbery statistics soaring to 250% of last year’s numbers. The handgun ban also fails to prevent shootings on the street, or inside houses.
The failure of the handgun ban should come as no surprise. A criminal who commits armed robbery or another serious crime faces years in jail if caught – which means the up to $2,000 fine for violating Oak Park’s handgun ban is of no consequence. The only people who obey the handgun ban are the law abiding citizens who weren’t going to commit a crime in the first place, which leaves them at a disadvantage relative to the armed or physically stronger criminals.
I sincerely hope that Oak Park follows the lead of other suburbs and repeals its pointless handgun ban.