This Isn't Working
A Lake Forest Police Officer holds his head in his hands as he walks among abandoned lawn chairs and bicycles in the aftermath of a mass shooting at the Independence Day Parade in suburban Highland Park Monday. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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OPINION
I live exactly 15 miles from the spot where a gunman started shooting over an Independence Day parade in Highland Park yesterday morning. Had we all not currently found ourselves on the COVID list, there’s a pretty good chance we would have been at the parade in our suburb.
It could have easily been our town.
It could have been a 22-year-old deranged kid with a rifle and an axe to grind against someone, Jews, Blacks, government, or a girl that dumped him.
I could have been desperately shielding my 7-month-old from gunfire.
It could have been us.
It could have been you.
I’ve said before and it has lost me subscribers on the right, but I’m both pro-gun and pro-gun control. I grew up on a farm with both a .30-06 and a 12-gauge in a closet by the front door. I’m trained and licensed and know how to protect myself and my family. But even in a situation like that, a good guy with a 9mm is overpowered by a much stronger, more damaging round.
As I write this, police haven’t updated the type of weapon the suspect (who I will not name here because I refuse to allow him to become a celebrity or martyr) used, how he got it, or if he were legally allowed to own or possess it. A quick search of court records in Lake County shows no serious criminal charge in his past just a minor ordinance violation when he was 16.
If he were legally allowed to own or possess a firearm, we need to have a serious discussion about who we are allowing purchase guns. Where was the failure? FOID? The national firearm background check?
I don’t know if he owned it legally or not, though I’m sure those details will come out.
As your politicians talk about this incident and others like it in the coming days and months, don’t let them retreat into their traditional partisan corners. As your Republican officeholders how they plan to keep guns out of the hands of people like this person. They’ll hem and haw about following the laws already on the books, but we haven’t been told of any laws that were violated up until he pulled the trigger.
Your Democrat officeholders need to be asked how they want to limit firearms, but they need to give you a plan about how to do it without infringing on the constitutional rights of gun owners. There aren’t a lot of rights laid out in the constitution, so clearly the founders meant something about personal protection.
This society needs to change. Instead of blaming Republicans or Democrats for laws or positions, let’s remember that a clearly troubled 22-year-old man is alleged to have committed these heinous murders. This isn’t hypothetical. He climbed on top of a building, pulled out a rifle, and started shooting.
Every single one of us, no matter our partisan affiliation needs to accept that can’t happen. Now, how do we get together and stop it from happening again?
