Gun control isn't making society safer

I agree with James Foley's Jan. 1 letter that "keeping guns out of the hands of gang members and criminals is a good idea" and "common sense." Unfortunately, one cannot hide the fact that 24 percent of U.S. homicides in 2004 occurred in four cities comprising only 4 percent of the total U.S. population -- New York, Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C. -- and each has a virtual prohibition on private handguns.

Even more disturbing is that the places where gun control laws are most restrictive tend to be the places where the most crime is committed with illegal weapons. Chicago's virtual ban on firearms will soon be expanded to all of Cook County if the majority of its 17 commissioners get their way with legislation now in their queue.

Few jurisdictions in the United States work with such vigor to disarm law-abiding citizens as do Chicago and Cook County.

Punishing law-abiding Illinoisans is a curious way to combat crime. If the popular slogan "if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" is true, then the balance of power shifts more decisively to the criminal. Then, the demand for police to defend us will increase in proportion to its citizenry's inability to defend themselves.

Once Illinoisans become unwilling or incapable of protecting themselves they will lose their rights as a free people, becoming either servile dependents of the state or of the criminal predators. Illinois' "victim disarmament" legislators are in a state of delusion, and their delusion, like all delusions, will collapse under the weight of reality -- or the people's voice.

Chicago's severe gun laws and the exportation of that failed policy are all about feeling safe -- not actually being safe.

Philip Huff

Naperville