Chicago Police: If You Carry a Gun, We're Trained to Shoot You
If you remember, Illinois recently enacted a concealed carry law, albeit a very restrictive one. The Chicago Police Superintendent isn’t too happy with it. He thinks that more guns equals more crime. He also warned that the new law will create more incidents of cop-on-civilian shootings. He made his warning known in a radio interview:
“You put more guns on the street expect more shootings. I don’t care if they’re licensed legal firearms, people who are not highly trained… putting guns in their hands is a recipe for disaster. So I’ll train our officers that there is a concealed carry law, but when somebody turns with a firearm in their hand the officer does not have an obligation to wait to get shot to return fire and we’re going to have tragedies as a result of that. I’m telling you right up front.”
He acknowledged that unfortunately there are many cases of police shooting innocent and unarmed citizens, but having concealed carriers around will only make that problem worse.
“You say concealed carry, I say Trayvon Martin. Police officers make mistakes all the time. We spend six months in the police academy, six months of field training and ongoing training on a regular basis and the fact is once in a while we’re going to shoot someone with a cellphone; we’re going to shoot somebody with a flashlight and none of that is okay. But now you take John Q. Civilian, you give them six weeks or 10 weeks of training and you say ‘have at it?’ The fact is more guns are not the solution to the firearm gun violence problem in this country. Less guns and reasonable gun laws are. And just because it’s 49 states to one doesn’t mean the state of Illinois is wrong on that one.”
GunsNFreedom.com pointed out the not-so-subtle irony in the police chief’s warnings and criticisms. On one hand, he doesn’t want civilians carrying guns, because they’re not trained like police officers are, yet he acknowledges that highly trained police officers will shoot an innocent person with a cellphone or flashlight.
And now his highly trained officers will shoot at someone carrying a gun, regardless of whether or not that person has done anything wrong. Police are trained to shoot to kill when they feel their lives are being threatened. So now, all a police officer in Illinois needs in order to feel like his life is being threatened is witness a law-abiding citizen carrying a gun.
He’s sending a message to gun-owners in Illinois: If you have the audacity to exercise your 2 nd Amendment rights, don’t be surprised if you end up dead as a result.
