Durbin law lacks 'common sense'

Recently, Senator Dick Durbin announced a new "common sense" gun law that changes how law enforcement will monitor criminals.

A lot of politicians tell us that to be safe, we should support their "common sense" gun laws, such as limiting the purchase of guns to one a month and mandatory trigger locks.

I don't believe anyone who is willing to kill someone or is a drug dealer or any other criminal will obey the laws.

It has been illegal since 1982 in Chicago for anyone except a sworn officer to have a loaded handgun in their possession. It was reported a few months ago that, in the city of Chicago in 2006, the police arrested over 10,000 people for having a loaded gun in their possession.

The police confiscate the guns and the courts give the people probation and let them go. Not one of them was put in jail.

Illinois has a law that says that anyone who is not a sworn officer and has a loaded handgun in their possession is committing an X felony with a mandatory sentence of six years. I don't know why they're not enforcing that law.

Common sense to me says that if we want to be safe, we have to put those 10,000-plus people in jail for six years like the law says. If Mr. Durbin wanted to monitor these criminals, he would know exactly where to find them.

Steve Riedner

Schaumburg