wilson.qxd
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
I know obnoxious rhetorical questions from the “Dept. of Clear Thinking” aren’t supposed to be answered, but here’s a try. First of all, one might normally think that handguns everywhere are somehow associated with handgun violence, but that’s probably my muddy liberal brain at work again. Perhaps more important is the fact that under a 1995 law Philadelphia is required to grant a concealed handgun permit to any law-abiding citizen, and since that time the number of concealed permits has increased tenfold. Coincidence, perhaps, but I’m more inclined to think that guns contribute to gun violence. In a country with a gun for every adult (and most children) and a rate of violent crime far above the rest of the world, perhaps we need to consider the possibility that the guns killing nearly 10,000 Americans every year are, in fact, at fault.
Chicago
