In Chicago, Some Want More Guns, Not Less

From ABCNews.com via Newsalert:

In too many Chicago neighborhoods, gun violence rules the block. And some say the time has come to fight fire power with fire power.

"I need a handgun in my home," said Chicago resident Colleen Lawson. "It comes down to an issue of life or death."

In fact, Lawson and her husband do own a handgun. But because of Chicago's ban on handguns, it's illegal to keep it in their home. The weapon was locked up outside the city when three men recently broke into their house.

Lawson was unharmed, but she says the incident turned her into a critic of the city's gun ban.

"It makes me feel as though I'm relatively helpless to keep my promise to my children to be able to protect them," Lawson said.

Minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Washington, D.C.'s gun ban on Thursday, Lawson and her husband joined others in a lawsuit challenging Chicago's gun ordinance, which has been in place since 1982.

Chicago's mayor said changing the law would be disastrous.

"Why don't we do away with the court system and go back to the Old West? You have a gun, and I have a gun. We'll settle it on the streets," Mayor Richard Daley said.

But many say a number of Chicago neighborhoods already resemble the Wild West. In this city, it's been an epic year for violence. Chicago's murder rate is up a startling 13 percent. Police have responded to 27,000 reports of "shots fired," an average of one every 10 minutes.

Too often, the victims have been young and innocent.

Read the whole thing! It may not be an indicator of the support over turning the gun ban might be. I suppose that there are those who wants to see it.

I don't want to beat this issue to death here. And since this affects the city expect to find more stories about the legal action against Chicago's gun ban.