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Chicago Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy said on a Feb. 17 radio talk show that firearm owners who lobby their representatives, or who donate money to political campaigns, for pro-Second Amendment issues are guilty of corruption and of endangering public safety.
Apparently in Chicago, where 26 alderman have been convicted of corruption since 1978, and in Illinois, where four governors over the last four decades have served time in prison for corruption, participating in a participatory democracy is viewed as suspiciously seditious.
McCarthy, who has previously opined that the Second Amendment itself is a threat to the nation’s security, blames “government-sponsored racism” and Sarah Palin for Chicago’s escalating gun violence in a city that makes it nearly impossible for an honest citizen to legally own a firearm.
Appearing on a pre-recorded edition of “Connected to Chicago” on Feb, 17, McCarthy further cemented his growing reputation as a constitutional scholar by stating that the Second Amendment allows for governments and police agencies to impose mandatory liability insurance requirements on gun owners, that GPS tracking devices can be lawfully affixed to firearms sold to civilians, and that law-abiding gun owners who lobby elected officials through organizations like the NRA and the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) are corrupt and endanger public safety.
“If there was special interests affecting police work, I believe that would be called corruption. So, if it has do with donating money versus a popular vote, I think we have a bigger problem in this country and somebody’s gotta wake up to that,” he said. “Well, how is it that they’re controlling politicians. How are they controlling elected officials? It’s not by popular vote,” he said when asked how gun rights groups are corrupting public safety.
McCarthy also said that judges and lawmakers should focus more on public opinion polls when considering constitutional matters.
“Garry McCarthy’s understanding of our Constitution barely qualifies him as a meter maid, never mind the chief of the nation’s third-largest police department,” Illinois State Rifle Association Executive Director Richard Pearson told RedState.com. “What on earth would possess McCarthy to assert that constitutional rights should be meted out based on public opinion polls?”
Pearson noted that if public opinion polls were the deciding factors for constitutional law, women may never have received the right to vote in1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment.
“It has been said that our Constitution exists to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority,” Pearson told RedState.com. “McCarthy’s view of our Constitution is dangerous and unbecoming of a civil servant.”
For more, go to:
— Chicago police chief: Second Amendment supporters guilty of corruption
— ISRA: Chicago Police Superintendent McCarthy Crosses The Line
— Chicago police chief: Law-abiding gun owners corrupt, endanger public safety
— Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy says lawful firearm owners are corrupt