Rahm Emanuel Goes After 1st And 2nd Amendments
Posted 06:51 PM ET
Guns: A 15-year-old
girl who performed at the president's inauguration is gunned down by
gangs less than a mile from Barack Obama's home. What does Chicago's
mayor do? He blames banks who lend gun makers money.
Hadiya Pendleton, who just days before had performed with her high school band at President Obama's inauguration, was gunned down Tuesday afternoon in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood, just blocks from the high school she attended.
The park where she was killed is a little less than a mile from President Obama's Kenwood home.
In addition to Hadiya, two men were killed and eight other people wounded Tuesday night in Chicago, arguably the most violent city in the country despite having the most restrictive gun laws.
Chicago by Sunday had reached 41 homicides, surpassing the January 2012 homicide toll.
With seven homicides, Saturday was the deadliest day of the young year as the Windy City exceeds the deadly toll at Newtown, Conn., without much media fanfare. The carnage included a 34-year-old man whose mother had already lost her three other children to shootings.
Confronted with a rising body count that exceeded 500 in 2012, Chicago Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, not letting this crisis go to waste, has sent letters to two major financial institutions, TD Bank and Bank of America, which offer lines of credit to gun makers.
He suggested that they stop lending money to the manufacturers and come out for new gun restrictions.
"TD Bank currently aids the gun manufacturing industry through a $60 million revolving line of credit with Smith & Wesson, a gun manufacturer that produces the AR-15 — an assault weapon that was used by James Holmes to kill 12 people and wound 58 in a crowded movie theatre in Aurora," Emanuel's missive to TD CEO Bharat Masrani states.
The fact that no one in the Aurora theatre had a Smith & Wesson to shoot back and save lives or that the Aurora shooter had a choice of seven movie theaters that were showing the Batman movie he was obsessed with within a 20-minute drive of his home escapes Mayor Emanuel.
The Cinemark Theater he chose wasn't the closest, but was the only one that banned customers from carrying their guns (allowed under Colorado law) inside.
Mayor Emanuel sent a similarly worded letter to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, a bank that does business with Sturm Ruger.
Sturm Ruger's and Smith & Wesson's profits don't come from gun violence or selling to gangs, but rather from the millions of law-abiding American citizens legally buying their completely legal products, including military and law enforcement.
How many lives their weapons have saved in thwarting home invasions or other instances of self-defense against criminals and predators is not known.
Chicago does a lot of business with these banks and does business with vendors who bank there. The thinly veiled "Chicago way" message is that the city can deny these and other financial institutions that lend to gun manufacturers a lot of business unless they cease and desist and come out publicly for gun control.
Mayor Emanuel already did that with Chick-fil-A when Chicago wouldn't let the fast-food chain open new restaurants in Chicago after the CEO spoke out against gay marriage.
Texas freshman Sen. Ted Cruz has written a letter to both gun makers and both banks inviting them to come down to Texas where both the First and Second Amendments are respected.
"We do not accept the notion that government officials should behave as bullies trying to harass or pressure private companies into enlisting in a political lobbying campaign."
The right to bear arms and the right to oppose gun control without coercion are critical aspects of freedom and liberty. Rahm Emanuel should go after the gangs, not the banks.
Hadiya Pendleton, who just days before had performed with her high school band at President Obama's inauguration, was gunned down Tuesday afternoon in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood, just blocks from the high school she attended.
The park where she was killed is a little less than a mile from President Obama's Kenwood home.
In addition to Hadiya, two men were killed and eight other people wounded Tuesday night in Chicago, arguably the most violent city in the country despite having the most restrictive gun laws.
Chicago by Sunday had reached 41 homicides, surpassing the January 2012 homicide toll.
With seven homicides, Saturday was the deadliest day of the young year as the Windy City exceeds the deadly toll at Newtown, Conn., without much media fanfare. The carnage included a 34-year-old man whose mother had already lost her three other children to shootings.
Confronted with a rising body count that exceeded 500 in 2012, Chicago Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, not letting this crisis go to waste, has sent letters to two major financial institutions, TD Bank and Bank of America, which offer lines of credit to gun makers.
He suggested that they stop lending money to the manufacturers and come out for new gun restrictions.
"TD Bank currently aids the gun manufacturing industry through a $60 million revolving line of credit with Smith & Wesson, a gun manufacturer that produces the AR-15 — an assault weapon that was used by James Holmes to kill 12 people and wound 58 in a crowded movie theatre in Aurora," Emanuel's missive to TD CEO Bharat Masrani states.
The fact that no one in the Aurora theatre had a Smith & Wesson to shoot back and save lives or that the Aurora shooter had a choice of seven movie theaters that were showing the Batman movie he was obsessed with within a 20-minute drive of his home escapes Mayor Emanuel.
The Cinemark Theater he chose wasn't the closest, but was the only one that banned customers from carrying their guns (allowed under Colorado law) inside.
Mayor Emanuel sent a similarly worded letter to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, a bank that does business with Sturm Ruger.
Sturm Ruger's and Smith & Wesson's profits don't come from gun violence or selling to gangs, but rather from the millions of law-abiding American citizens legally buying their completely legal products, including military and law enforcement.
How many lives their weapons have saved in thwarting home invasions or other instances of self-defense against criminals and predators is not known.
Chicago does a lot of business with these banks and does business with vendors who bank there. The thinly veiled "Chicago way" message is that the city can deny these and other financial institutions that lend to gun manufacturers a lot of business unless they cease and desist and come out publicly for gun control.
Mayor Emanuel already did that with Chick-fil-A when Chicago wouldn't let the fast-food chain open new restaurants in Chicago after the CEO spoke out against gay marriage.
Texas freshman Sen. Ted Cruz has written a letter to both gun makers and both banks inviting them to come down to Texas where both the First and Second Amendments are respected.
"We do not accept the notion that government officials should behave as bullies trying to harass or pressure private companies into enlisting in a political lobbying campaign."
The right to bear arms and the right to oppose gun control without coercion are critical aspects of freedom and liberty. Rahm Emanuel should go after the gangs, not the banks.
Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/013013-642578-rahm-emanuel-threatens-banks-on-gun-control.htm#ixzz2JWRnKfPB
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