Rahm Surrenders....Sort Of

Instead of wasting many more hundreds-of-thousands of dollars, Rahm is bowing to the inevitable....with conditions:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel indicated today that he won't fight a federal court ruling that struck down Chicago's ban on gun stores and instead will ask for six months to come up with rules.
  
  The mayor didn't offer specifics on how his administration will try to retool the city's gun ordinances to meet the court standard. But he said he isn't appealing the ruling because the city keeps losing the court cases and he doesn't like litigation for litigation's sake.
  
  “Though I fully disagree, the city has little option but to follow the ruling of the court. I’ve instructed the Law Department to work with public safety experts and community leaders to create a comprehensive set of restrictions on the sale of firearms to ensure that illegal guns don’t find their way into the hands of criminals or straw purchasers,” Emanuel said.
  
  The strategy is a departure from that of predecessor Richard M. Daley, who tended to appeal setbacks on Chicago's strict gun laws all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

According to our good friend and NRA Lobbyist Todd Vandermyde, the fees alone for this latest court fight are already in the neighborhood of $500,000. We expect that giant City of Chicago novelty check with the mayor's signature prominently displayed will be making the rounds shortly.

Rahm has conditions though:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday he will abide by a federal court ruling he views as a “straitjacket” — by allowing gun dealers to set up shop in Chicago — but needs six months to figure out where to put them.
  
  Aside from building a protective bubble around schools, Emanuel refused to say where he believes gun shops should be confined or how he intends to comply with Monday’s ruling and still keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals and straw purchasers.

Vandermyde has a suggestion to the city's foot-dragging:

• Todd Vandermyde, legislative liaison for the National Rifle Association, welcomed the mayor’s decision to throw in the towel, but not the six-month delay.
  
  “The city is becoming a little more sensical in their litigation approach, but they can figure this out a lot quicker than that,” Vandermyde said.
  
  “There are a lot of other towns that have gun shops. They seem to have figured out that it’s a retail business that fits in a retail zone.”

And of course, it wouldn't be proper if the supernintendo didn't have something nonsensical to say:

• After joining the mayor in presiding over a CompStat hearing at police headquarters, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy noted that Chicago’s second murder of 2014 involved a legal handgun that was stolen in a burglary because the gun owner “did not properly safeguard” that weapon.

So you see? It's all the fault of you legal gun owners that a criminal burglarized a house, stole whatever wasn't nailed down, and sold it for pennies on the dollar for a quick heroin fix and then that gun ended up being used in a crime. And don't you dare bring up the massive manpower shortage that enabled a criminal to break into a house unmolested by the police. Or the complete absence of Evidence Techs that don't even show up to print a crime scene any more. Or the lack of detective manpower that might have pursued and apprehended the ne'er-do-well before he was able to sell the gun. Or the Cook County justice system that set him loose twenty times before this burglary.

It's the eeeeeeevil guns that are to blame!