Gun Control Goes International

Damon W. Root | July 12, 2010

Writing at Cato@Liberty, Reason Contributing Editor Walter Olson reports on how anti-gun advocates like Chicago Mayor Richard Daley are hoping to use international human rights law to target American gun manufacturers. As Olson writes, “Daley is seeking an international end run around both the Bill of Rights and the democratically expressed will of the American people. Aren’t Chicago voters tired of this yet?” It’s a good question.

Meanwhile, The Chicago Tribune notes that the Windy City's new post-McDonald v. Chicago gun control laws "may not be bulletproof."

Comments

WTF|7.12.10 @ 5:06PM|#

When will someone finally stand up to that thug and ask him, "at long last, sir, have you no decency?"

Or - better yet - simply say, "shut your stupid fucking cakehole, you goddamn cocksucker!"

I would like either one, but I think the latter would be more fun.

|7.12.10 @ 6:13PM|#

Better yet, if I can get him to insult me I won't have to pay weregild on his worthless carcass. Of course, that assumes he would have the honor to meet me in an island walk, which he clearly does not.

mad libertarian guy|7.13.10 @ 12:53AM|#

No wergild for the wicked! Of course it isn't that he has no worth, but that he is no longer a man due to his status as statist fuck wad. Of course it also means he has no worth other than how much the state deems him valuable. But it seems clear that no matter who one is, you are worthless to the state.

|7.13.10 @ 11:37AM|#

Little Richie is a dim bulb. Took three cracks to pass bar exam (over 75% pass on first try). An idiot son of an idiot son. He also has a full-time posse of armed police bodyguards with him and outside his house. He is a dim-witted phony.

Jason|7.12.10 @ 5:09PM|#

Maybe Chicago can regulate printing presses in the same way...

Geotpf|7.12.10 @ 5:11PM|#

"Aren’t Chicago voters tired of this yet?"

Did they survey the graveyards?

|7.12.10 @ 5:12PM|#

It continues to astonish me the extent to which this scumbag, big-fish-small-pond creep will go to to maintain this little extra level of power over the people.

Warty|7.12.10 @ 5:31PM|#

"Those little pissant fuckers at the Supreme Court think they can strike down MY fucking law! Who the fuck do they think they are? I'LL FUCKING KILL THEM!"

juris imprudent|7.13.10 @ 2:23AM|#

I smell a Michael Bay directed Downfall sequel.

|7.12.10 @ 5:16PM|#

Richie, why not just secede from the Union?

mad libertarian guy|7.13.10 @ 12:55AM|#

I read some libertarded fuck from CA suggest secession just last night as a means to free the west from the south draining their economy.

Alice Bowie|7.12.10 @ 5:25PM|#

Remember,

Guns don't Kill People.

Cops Kill People

WTF|7.12.10 @ 5:28PM|#

And their little dogs, too!

|7.12.10 @ 5:29PM|#

I look forward to the thoughtful Kagan opinion on how international law isn't subject to the Second Amendment, and is thus a good foundation for restricting the right to keep and bear arms.

To be joined, I'm sure, by Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and, via an agonized "more in sorrow than anger" concurrence, Kennedy.

Jeffersonian|7.13.10 @ 12:04AM|#

I'm looking forward to the Supremes citing Saudi law one day on an adultery case. Anyone else?

Michael Ejercito|7.13.10 @ 10:38AM|#

I'm looking forward to the Supremes citing Saudi law one day on an adultery case. Anyone else?

That would be interesting.

JB|7.13.10 @ 1:40AM|#

I look forward to them all hanging by the neck til dead.

Treasonous fucks.

|7.13.10 @ 1:52AM|#

I'm an agnostic, but I'm suddenly inspired to pray for the health of Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito...

!|7.12.10 @ 5:56PM|#

Shortshanks, J-Fled and Masters oh my!

hmm|7.12.10 @ 6:01PM|#

As the gitchy bandit guy has stated ad nauseam. "There is no such thing as international law. There is no enforcement mechanism."

|7.12.10 @ 6:04PM|#

And yet the anti-gunners still insist on trying to persuade us that "nobody is trying to take your guns away" and "all we want are a few reasonable gun laws".

Colin|7.12.10 @ 6:19PM|#

Without guns on the street, Daley can recreate the Chicago of his Daddy's era.

Specifically, 1968.

ChrisO|7.12.10 @ 6:22PM|#

It might be time to consider a U.S. invasion and occupation of Chicago.

mad libertarian guy|7.13.10 @ 12:58AM|#

Think Barry has ideas for the reverse; a Chicago invasion of the US in order to bring civility to the rest of us gun nuts.

Robert|7.12.10 @ 7:02PM|#

I've been wondering for a long time what the leaders of the anti-gun movement really think they can accomplish. They're not stupid, they can't be that naive, so they must intend something that has a reasonable chance of succeeding, but what?

LarryA|7.12.10 @ 7:53PM|#

They're not stupid, they can't be that naive...

[cite?]

There are a number of issues, including drugs, guns, prostitution, abortion, pollution, homosexuality, and pornography, where lots of people simply can't get past the idea that what they see as bad things need prohibiting. All arguments that prohibition doesn't work, that the cure is worse than the disease, simply will not penetrate the "it's icky and makes my skin crawl so ban it" mindset.

Michael Ejercito|7.12.10 @ 9:23PM|#

And who is going to enforce international law?

WTF|7.13.10 @ 12:14PM|#

They wear blue helmets.

|7.21.10 @ 2:24PM|#

...with holes in them.

|7.12.10 @ 10:24PM|#

And to think, Mayor Daley was just saluted by the Reason Foundation last year as an Innovator in Action 2009:

The City of Chicago, under the leadership of Mayor Richard M. Daley, has led the nation as the first local government to pursue and successfully close innovative leases of a toll road and an underground parking system. Most recently, the City of Chicago entered into an agreement for Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, to operate, maintain, and collect its parking meters. Together, these transactions have provided nearly $3.6 billion for Chicago residents and taxpayers.

Mayor Daley has prudently and responsibly used the proceeds of these concession agreements to protect taxpayers over both the short and long term, improving the quality of life for Chicago residents.

My relatives who live in Chicago have a bone to pick with that assessment. As the Chicago Reader put it but a few months after the Reason Foundation published their Daley hagiography:

The origins of the meter debacle actually date back to 2005, when Mayor Daley began selling off public property for up-front cash payments without much scrutiny from the City Council or the public. Then last year, when tax revenues plummeted, the mayor increased the pressure, directing his staff to be "creative" in attacking budget problems. But even as city officials celebrated privatization agreements for Midway Airport and the meters, both worth billions of dollars, they refused to release the most basic information about how they'd been reached—such as which firms had bid, how much they'd offered, and short-or long-term cost-benefit analyses. Both plans were hustled through the City Council in less than a week. As one alderman told the Reader, but not for attribution, during a hearing on Midway: "Somewhere in this deal we're getting screwed. I just can't figure out where yet."

We can help with that. First off, a private company gives the city—i.e., the mayor—a big pile of cash that conveniently isn't subject to the same oversight as the rest of the budget. Eventually the private company will make a fortune off the deal—but by then everyone now running the city will be gone. In the meantime, fees are raised and management is moved out of the reach of voters.

With the parking meter deal the mayor has figured out how to get the public to pay more for less control. Daley gets more control over resources—and less responsibility for delivering services in return.

The ever-fearful City Council let him run roughshod over them, passing the deal with virtually no consideration. The citizenry never even had a chance. Now, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, we've obtained documentation of the process that should have been made public in the first place.

Who would have thought that a "privatization" scheme whereby a politically connected private interest gets a 75-year monopoly on a city revenue stream could go wrong. Has the Reason Foundation ever met a "privatization" it didn't like?

|7.12.10 @ 10:29PM|#

Oh, lest I forget, here's the blurb about the author of the Reason Foundation piece:

Gene Saffold was appointed Chief Financial Officer of the City of Chicago by Mayor Richard M. Daley in March 2009. Prior to his appointment, Saffold was Managing Director–National Accounts for JP Morgan Chase & Co. and previously served as Head of Public Finance Investment Banking for J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. He has served as Trustee of the Chicago Board of Education and of the Teachers Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago, and has been honored for his public service by organizations such as the Chicago Youth Centers, National Conference for Community and Justice and the Urban Financial Services Coalition of Chicago.

Nary a mention of the fact that a subsidiary of JP Morgan -- the author's former employer -- got the lucrative parking meter deal. And Reason Foundation now lets government officials write propaganda so that they can publish it under the Reason name?

hmm|7.12.10 @ 10:46PM|#

So you don't disagree with the privatization, but the method? Which was done in typical crony Chicago style. Surprised?

|7.13.10 @ 12:53AM|#

I disagree with the privatization too.

Handing over city services to a private monopoly usually makes things worse than just having direct government control of it. Competition is what creates efficiency, not merely private ownership, a fact our friends at Reason Foundation don't seem to have grasped yet.

juris imprudent|7.12.10 @ 11:03PM|#

Alt-text: Mayor has 12 gauge shit-fit.

Playa Manhattan|7.13.10 @ 12:08AM|#

Chicago has always had a "gun control for thee, but not for me" attitude:
http://www.learnaboutguns.com/.....r-himself/

Reason also noted that one elected, Chicago Aldermen are "peace officers" entitled to carry concealed handguns:
http://reason.com/archives/200.....cago-style

|7.13.10 @ 6:05AM|#

Is it my imagination or has Richard Daley turned into a Harryhausen claymation monster?

http://secondnature.rmit.edu.a.....e/5/27/228

NOBACONCPD|7.13.10 @ 11:39AM|#

Dick Daley before Daley dicks you

|7.13.10 @ 12:03PM|#

I would love to see video of that short fat jackass choking to death on a Chicago HotDog. No no the liberals have no desire to take away anyone's guns or deny them their rights.

|10.12.10 @ 1:58AM|#

Last I checked, conspiring with foreign governments to suborn the government and Constitution of the United States was one of the legal definitions of TREASON.