Chicago’s former handgun ban still wreaking havoc on Windy City

When it comes to the Second Amendment, things are quite simple, really:  It shall not be infringed.

There’s no need for an evolution or a revision to the right to bear arms, and those who believe otherwise tend to have a difficult time admitting to the fact that they have no frame of reference in the argument.

You see, the men who guaranteed us this right lived through something that no one in America today has:  A revolutionary way against a tyrannical government hellbent on exploiting the good people of our fine country.

Yet still, they try.  In Chicago, this misguided missive came in the form of a handgun ban that lasted from 1982 to 2010.

While the intention of the ban was to make handguns less prevalent in a city with a violent history, it also emboldened criminals who, by definition, weren’t likely to adhere to the law anyway.  The handgun ban just made them outlaws by default, freeing them from the burden and worry of attempting to keep their firearms legally.

Now, almost a decade since the ban was rescinded, Chicago is still feeling the effects of this criminal-friendly legislation.

At least 52 people were shot across Chicago over the weekend, the most violent of the year with a toll even higher than during the long Memorial Day holiday just a week earlier.

More than half the victims were wounded during a 12-hour burst of gunfire from Friday evening to Saturday morning. At least four of the 31 people shot during that time died after attacks on the West and South sides. By the time the weekend ended, at least 10 people were dead, according to the Chicago Police Department.

Holiday weekends have long been subject to spikes in gun violence for the Windy City, but the past few days have been even more damning than Memorial Day.

The level of violence eclipsed that of the three-day Memorial Day weekend, when at least 43 people were shot, seven of them fatally. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has scheduled a news conference for 9:30 a.m. Monday to “discuss weekend violence and enforcement initiatives.”

It took Chicago 28 years to reverse course on their handgun ban, but how long will it take for its repercussions to wane?