This is sort of old but I just saw it.

1/ There have been nearly 40 shootings involving concealed carry holders in Illinois since 2014. State police, who oversee holder training and licensing, know nothing about most of them. https://t.co/6sYhxpVUVK pic.twitter.com/oAuqCMaghZ

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) June 16, 2018

2/ Since the state police don’t keep a list of shootings by concealed carry holders, the Tribune combed through police files, court records and news reports to compile our own list. Explore the data here: https://t.co/ub0MYUC6HU

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) June 16, 2018

3/ Janique Walker’s 17-year-old brother was killed by a CCL holder while trying to steal a Jeep on the West Side last August. He did not have a gun on him. Walker believes her brother was found guilty by one man with a gun. https://t.co/0DGZ8cp9Tv pic.twitter.com/07Tdgh48PF

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) June 16, 2018

The last Tweet is the most insane, but we’ll get back to it.

The Chicago Tribune wants to destroy concealed carry in Illinois.

The have put together a list of the concealed carry shootings in the state since the system was implemented in 2014.

The did this because the Chicago Tribune hates privacy and peasants defending themselves.

Almost nothing is known about dozens of concealed carry shootings in Illinois. Why?

Dozens of shootings.  Oh, no.  That’s like… a weekend in Chicago.  But all across the state and by people with background checks and permits.

It took days to figure out where all the bullets flew when a man licensed to carry a gun exchanged shots with a masked 16-year-old boy and killed him on a busy street in Oak Park last year.

Investigators counted about a dozen shell casings outside a bank on Madison Street, according to police reports. They dug bullets from the man’s Buick Regal.

The man, who worked for the Chicago Park District, was released within hours after a prosecutor determined over the phone he had fired in self-defense. Nothing was said about him randomly shooting behind him, even though an investigator later questioned the action. And nothing was reported to the Illinois State Police, even though they oversee the training and licensing of concealed carry holders.

The state police know nothing about the nearly 40 shootings by people with concealed carry licenses since Illinois became the last state to allow them four years ago.

The state police have not collected any information that might improve the training of license holders and possibly better protect them and the public — a reform suggested by police and gun instructors interviewed by the Tribune.

“That’s not our role,” explained Jessica Trame, chief of the Firearms Services Bureau for the state police. “We have to abide by the concealed carry act. … We issue cards; we revoke those cards from those who are prohibited from having them. And if they are not prohibited, there’s no other action on our side.”

How dangerous are CCW permit holders to the public?  Seems like of the 38 shootings, 33 have been good shoots in self defense.  No innocent bystanders were hit.  The 16 hours of training are not enough?  Do we need more?  Since the Chicago Tribune sides with the Chicago Democrat Machine, the big problem they have is with CCW holders purging the IL voter rolls of robbers and muggers.

Lt. Matthew Boerwinkle, a spokesman for the state police, believes

problems with concealed carry holders are few and there is no need for more oversight or transparency.

“You rarely hear of an instance where a CCL holder is using their firearm in an unlawful manner,” he said. “They’re generally law-abiding citizens, and they’ve gone to great lengths to get to where they’re at to have a CCL. And they’ve taken training to get there. And most of them, they understand what the requirements are to use force to defend themselves.”

That is pretty damn honest.

But the state police cannot support those conclusions because they do not have any data on whether CCL holders have been adequately trained for the situations they have met.

When the cops don’t agree with your narrative, you must disagree with the cops.  And it’s not like CCW holders are going into battle, most of these cases are muggings.

It’s unclear if any state does. The last official survey of concealed gun permits in the United States was in 2011 by the General Accountability Office, two years before Illinois’ law went into effect.

The GAO estimated there were more than 8 million concealed carry permits but included no information about training and public access to records. The Crime Prevention Research Center, a conservative think tank, estimated last year that the number has grown to 16.3 million permits.

All these people walking around with guns, not under constant surveillance.  It’s almost like America still has some freedom in it.

In Illinois, more than 265,000 people have licenses, about 2 percent of the adult population. The law prohibits the release of any information more specific than how many CCL holders are in each ZIP code.

Damn privacy rights.

The Violence Policy Center, which supports gun control, said it had to rely largely on news reports to compile a list of fatal shootings involving concealed carry holders because Illinois and many other states bar release of such information.

The center said it found more than 1,200 deaths across the country since 2007 that did not involve self-defense. They included suicide, murder-suicide and cases where CCL holders were charged or convicted of murder.

“We need the information to evaluate whether the system is working,” said Kristen Rand, the center’s legislative director. “The statutes were put in place with the idea that they’re going to make the public safer. We should measure whether that’s actually the case.”

By all means, get rid of privacy rights to give the VPC the rope to hang the gun owning public.  That seems totally fair and unbiased.

Most of the incidents seem to bolster the idea that concealed carry is a good idea – for rational people, that is.

Two were accidental discharges, and there was one suicide, and one murder suicide.  The overall balance of these cases were people defending themselves from robberies and break-ins.

“Rational” and “Leftist anti-gun activist” don’t go together, so the Chicago Tribune has to go to emotions to justify their stance.

(Now we get to the third Tweet.)

‘When has it ever become legal to shoot someone because they’re pulling off in your car?’

It hasn’t, but that’s not the whole story is it.

Janique Walker knows the cost of a split second.

Her younger brother, 17-year-old Charles Macklin, was killed while trying to steal a Jeep from a Chicago fire lieutenant on the West Side last August. The lieutenant had left the Jeep running, and Macklin jumped behind the wheel.

The lieutenant ran in front of the Jeep and shouted, “Get out,” according to a police report. When Macklin began pulling away, the lieutenant drew his gun and fired through the open driver’s side window, hitting the teen in the chest.

Macklin’s last words were, “Sorry, bro,” according to the police report. The teen died on the pavement. He did not have a gun on him.

Sounds like the teen was trying to run the lieutenant with his own jeep.

The lieutenant had a concealed carry license. He was not charged and he was not disciplined by the department, according to spokesman Larry Langford.

“That was investigated by us, and we found no violation of any rules,” Langford said. “The police didn’t arrest, the state’s attorney found no reason to charge. There was no wrongdoing as far as the Fire Department is concerned.”

Not just is the lieutenant not in jail, he didn’t even get fired for defending himself.  What is this world coming to.

Walker, 20, has organized protests, started a Facebook page and launched a hashtag on Twitter. She says she hasn’t given up hope of getting justice for her brother.

Mob justice.  Guilt by protest.  This is the Left, Democrats always love a good lynching.

She believes her brother was found guilty by one man with a gun. Walker said her brother should be alive to stand before a judge and take responsibility for his actions.

No, he wasn’t “found guilty.”  He was in the middle of a crime.  This equivalence of a self defense shooting and trail needs to stop.

“When has it ever become legal to shoot someone because they’re pulling off in your car?” she asked. “Even if (Macklin) did that, if he did steal the car. You’ve got insurance — let him go to jail. I would’ve rather had to get a call to go bail him out of jail than to get a phone call that he’s dead.”

The second bullshit trope of self defense shootings. “You have insurance, why not let the criminal get away with whatever he wants.”  Why stop bank robberies now that we have FDIC.  Just let criminals walk all over society and insurance companies can just pick up the cost.

Maybe next time Macklin will use a gun or break into a house with a crowbar.

What has become one of my favorite quotes “crime will expand according to our willingness to put up with it.”

Well, Macklin didn’t put up with it keeping Macklin from expanding until he hurt someone.

David Lombardo, a concealed carry instructor who said he has trained more than 7,000 people to get state licenses, said he would let an armed carjacker take his car.

“You want my car? You can have it and I’ll hand over a (credit) card for gas, too,” he said. “I’m not going to defend a car with a gun, that’s what insurance is for. I’ll get a better one.”

A guy who wrote for Bering Arms said that?  Really?

I don’t know about Lombardo, but half the time I am driving I have a kid in the back seat.  You try to take my car, I’ll kill you then sue your family for the cost of having to shampoo the blood out of the upholstery.

Lt. Matthew Boerwinkle, a spokesman for the Illinois state police, said it would not be appropriate for his agency to comment, even though it oversees the issuance of concealed carry permits. He responded with a copy of the Illinois’ “use of force” statute, which says a person is justified in using force to defend his life or the life of another if they reasonably fear similar force against them is imminent.

I guess the police decided that a firefighter lieutenant not wanting to get run over with his own Jeep was a good shoot.  The sister of the criminal can protest all she wants but she’s recycling the same old tired garbage of “my scumbag family member didn’t have to die for being a criminal threatening peoples’ lives.”

If there is any conclusion that I can come up with, it’s that concealed carry is working in Illinois.  At least 33 lives were saved by it already.  Seems good to me.