That Horse Is Dead Jim.

I intend to keep saying this as long as they keep claiming we have gun problem: We have a criminal problem, not a gun problem.

Chicago man, 72, shot dead on way to dialysis treatment

CHICAGO – A 72-year-old man waiting for a ride to his dialysis treatment has been shot and killed outside his home on Chicago's South Side.

William Strickland was waiting to be picked up for kidney dialysis treatment around 3:30 a.m. Saturday in the Roseland neighborhood.

Middle of the afternoon. In front of his own home. Shot dead, allegedly in a robbery, in a city that had until very recently banned handguns in the only state in the union with no legal carry of firearms. But we need a ban on "assault weapons". We need a ban on "high capacity" magazines. We need to cap purchases to one gun a month. Would any of these proposals stop a vicious thug from murdering an old man for the few dollars in his pocket?

Why is it that we all know the answer to that, yet our politicians push the same tired, failed arguments over and over? How on earth is anything they're proposing going to do a damn thing about a criminal element that fears neither judicial punishment nor effective defense from their victims? "Ban Assault weapons!" "High capacity magazines!" - they're like twisted parrots, spewing out their bumper sticker slogans without ever stopping to think about what they're saying.

I mean, they can't tell a barrel shroud from a folding stock - how on earth are they ever going to know what might help gun violence?

That is all.

Another dispatch from...

(image courtesy of Robb Allen)