As reported, a Chicago home invasion ended with the 80 year old victim unharmed, and the violent felon who broke into his home fatally shot in self defense:
Police say that the elderly homeowner, who is a veteran of the Navy, was asleep in his East Garfield Park home at 5 AM, when a burglar broke and entered. When the homeowner went to investigate the noise, the burglar reportedly opened fire but missed, at which point the homeowner fired his own gun in self defense, striking the burglar and ending the violent home invasion. A suspect, reportedly identified as 29 year old Anthony Nelson, who was on parole and has convictions for drug and weapons offenses, was found dead, according to police. Neither the 80 year old homeowner nor his wife were harmed. The elderly homeowner reportedly purchased his self defense gun after suffering an armed home invasion robbery several months ago, at which point her vowed not become a victim in the future. Chicago’s Mayor Daley has refused to say whether the city of Chicago will attempt to prosecute this elderly man for violating the Chicago handgun ban by possessing the gun that saved his life.
Gun control advocates believe that infringing the right of law abiding citizens to own a gun for self defense will somehow prevent criminals from having a gun and using it to commit a crime. The fact is that criminals ignore the laws that tell them not to have a gun, just as readily as they ignore the rest of society’s laws. The result is that criminals remained armed, and are able to prey upon their defenseless victims with impunity. Adding insult to injury, gun bans lead to situations where those citizens who fire in self defense end up prosecuted for saving their own lives.
Amazingly, many Chicago politicians still blame guns for Chicago’s high crime, and trot out more ineffective gun control laws during each legislative session, completely ignoring the fact that existing gun control laws have failed and a criminal willing to break the law against murder or robber will be just as willing to break another half dozen gun control laws. Adding insult to injury, these same politicians are protected by armed bodyguards (at taxpayer expense), while denying ordinary citizens the right to armed self defense. Hopefully, the soon to be decided McDonald v. Chicago case will put an end to Chicago’s handgun ban and the injustice that goes along with it.
My thanks to the many, many people who emailed me about this self defense shooting.
Chicago's laws against gun ownership are unconstitutional. Until the law is challenged and apealed will there be more helpless victims in Chicago. The criminals and hoods have plenty of guns.
The handgun ban is unconstitutional, and we have the ruling in DC v. Heller to back that up.
The registrations are unconstitutional, and is the first step toward gun confiscation (see Britian and Austrailia for examples)
The fee to register is unjust, as that is a tax on a Constitutional right. Image if you had to get a "freedom of speach" or "freedom to worship" permit from your city.
The requirement to re-register every year is unjust as the guns markings, caliber, manufacturer do not change. So the only reason the city of Chicago requires one to re-register is to make gun ownership a hassle.
Lastly, the condition of lapsed registration invalidating any further registration is a childish attempt to make gun ownership into a legal headache, just like forcing one to re-register.