- Brian Jackson/Sun-Times Media
- Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy: It’s time to lock up more gun offenders.
Garry McCarthy has identified the enemy, and it is all the politicians who won’t pass tougher gun laws.
But his boss, Mayor Emanuel, had already announced his intention to continue the city’s long-running policy of pushing for tougher firearm laws, which had offered mayors and aldermen a political shield even when it didn’t stop the flow or use of guns.
Some opponents noted that similar laws haven’t been effective in other states. Others pointed to crowded state prisons and said they weren’t willing to support more lockups.
In fact, it’s sometimes unclear which side of the drug issue McCarthy hasn’t taken. He’s described the police approach to the drug trade as a “ground war” that’s meant to prevent violence—and, at the same time, he’s said that the police can’t solve what’s fundamentally an economic issue.
The mayor and police chief have been criticized for paying so much attention to gun laws while saying little about the social conditions that spawn violence.
