What doesn't work in Chicago may also not work in Cheyenne

what doesn't work in chicago will get you laughed at and run out of office in... well, pick your state.

The Constitution reads the same in Seattle as in New York as in DC as in Dallas. Fundamental rights are the same all across the US. Such a difference would never be tolerated in voting, or sitting on a jury or for the 1st Amendment, and the right to self-defense secured by the 2nd is every bit as important as those other enumerated rights. By contrast, we now have an un-enumerated Federal right to kill unborn infants which must be the law of the land in every state.

A poster on another thread correctly pointed out that the 2nd Amendment doesn't so much "secure a right" as it does provide an absolute limit on government intervention.

I keep looking at the post-Heller commentary and thinking that we may have one THAT battle, but by letting the enemy choose the battleground (letting the government define the question), they will win the war.

We're looking to the 14th Amendment for salvation (through incorporation), but the 14th is also the primary vehicle for strengthening federalism, which in may ways is the problem. A stronger Federal government leads to more authoritarian control.

I almost think the better solution is to strike at a weakness on the flank of the issue, but I haven't figured out how to phrase that yet. I almost want to see a new Constitutional Amendment limiting the Commerce clause, or repealing the 11th (limiting lawsuits against the government) or 16th Amendment (Income tax), or strengthening the 10th Amendment.

The Founders were right. The enemy is government and we need to cripple it's expansionary tendencies.

(In para 2, "one" should be "won". At least I spelled it right...)

Indeed ... what exactly is it that's working so well in Chicago?

This idea - "what works in Chicago (e.g. gun bans) doesn't work in Cheyenne" is part of the official party platform, is supported by Obama, and was supported by H. Clinton.

This argumentation is nearly guaranteed to backfire on them in a substantial way. For one, gun bans don't work as is being increasingly shown via criminological and social science research. Moreover (and as importantly), the philosophy is morally and constitutionally bankrupt. In other words, it is simply untenable, and this position or philosophy will almost certainly die a welcome death in an upcoming 2A incorporation case.

In the mean-time, we watch the deomcrats dig themselves deeper into a second amendment hole.

What we should do is take every opportunity to point out that the phrase "we know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne"
is essentially racist in construction and intent: It's a message to middle class white men saying "we don't want to take your deer rifles, shotguns, or Colt Peacemakers, we just want to take guns away from black people.

Of course, this is generally the intent of gun control in the first place, and has been since the first gun control laws in the colonies back in the 1600's, but it never hurts to point out the racist implications of what they are saying.

+1 to Bill Twist. This is exactly what anyone else would be charged with on any other issue regarding what is right for some and not for others.

Actually, the current Chicago murder rate is closer to 17.5. It's most likely higher as the population has decreased since the last official count. That's 5-6x higher than the rest of the state.

I wish I could find the numbers I worked out last spring for an op-ed submission I made to the Chicago Tribune. Maybe I will later.
Illinois' murders are basically concentrated in a tiny zone centered just south of the Loop (the downtown business district).
As I recall, something approaching 90% of Illinois murders occur in Cook County (which includes Chicago and contains approximately 20% of the state's entire population- quite a thing for one county of 102).
Over 80% occur in that little rectangle in the city that's about five miles wide and fifteen miles tall; about one-tenth of a percent of the state's total area.
You'd think it'd be easy to spot.
Meanwhile, to explain the gun laws in the state, refer back to that thing about Cook containing 20% of the population.
The six-county metro area is now more than half. Much of the "collar" counties' former moderating influence has disappeared as those populations are swelled by escaped Chicagoans.

WP Zeller:

Here are the numbers based off of the 2006 IL UCR:

Illinois had a population of 12.8 million w/ a murder rate of 6.1/100K (780)

Chicago had 22.2% of the population of Illinois yet accounted for 60% of murders w/ a per capita rate of 16.4/100K

Cook County had 41.4% of the population of Illinois yet accounted for 73.6% of murders w/ a per capita rate of 10.83/100K

The Cook County murders in raw number/per capita increased 4.4% and 4.9% respectively while arrest numbers and rates dropped over 18% from '05 to '06.

If Chicago were to fall into Lake Michigan, the Illinois murder rate would drop to 3.14

Were the rest of Cook County to follow suit, the rate would drop to 2.74

I guess Chicagoans are just retarded, and cannot be trusted with a full set of rights.

If they can't be trusted with the RTKBA, then they certainly can't be trusted with something far more dangerous ... the right to vote.

Based on the stats provided above, it appears to me that maybe Chicagoans have an urgent need to protect their RKBA.

Unless one agrees with the inverted logic of Justice Breyer in his risible *Heller* dissent:

"In my view, there simply is no untouchable constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment to keep loaded handguns in the house in crime-ridden urban areas."

....yewbetcha....