Chicago is ramping up the propaganda machine before the fight with gun-rights activists in McDonald v. Chicago. Chicago public radio this morning briefly mentioned that homicides in Chicago were down in 2009 partially due to taking more guns off the streets. Then on the bus ride home, going past the NBC building I saw on the marquee news scroller that the number of police deaths in Chicago had increased in 2009, presumably due to “guns on the streets” (I’m still looking for a link for this one).
I also found a decent analysis by Josh Blackman, of Chicago’s Respondent Brief in McDonald v. Chicago here. Some of his more accessible and salient points:
Because guns lead to violence, in order to promote liberty, the states must be able to ban guns. To eliminate the states ability to ban gun [sic] actually decreases liberty. This is a very curious definition of liberty. Under this interpretation, in order for some people to be free from violence, others need to be forcibly disarmed and denied of their liberty.
[...]
…their reliance on Federalism to justify the ban is questionable. While the states can, and should be, laboratories to experiment, legislatures are still bound by the Constitution as a floor.
A state cannot act as a laboratory by infringing a person’s freedom from unreasonable search and seizure because the person is dangerous. No more should a state be able to deny a person’s right to self-defense because it could be “dangerous.” The Federalism argument just seems rather weak.
[...]
A right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures should mean the same thing in Chicago as it does in Cheboygan. The Second Amendment should receive the same treatment.
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