Six years later, another suspect in a high profile Chicago
gun murder case also killed himself when police closed in. In a suicide note, Bart
A. Ross, an electrician from Poland, confessed to killing the husband and
mother of federal Judge Joan Lefkow after breaking into their residence. Ross,
despite issuing a series of gun threats to his enemies in the medical and legal
professions, passed a background
check and bought at least one of his weapons legally in the Chicago suburb of Bensenville,
said police. Suburban Chicago gun shops, like Chuck's, linked to 1,300
crime guns since 2008, are blamed for many of the criminal guns flooding the
Chicago market.
Finally, Chicago just commemorated 25 years since another
legal gun owner issued death threats, killed people and then killed herself.
Laurie Dann was investigated by authorities in three states for repeated
threats to kill people and even stabbed her ex husband with an ice pick. Yet
Dann had no trouble
purchasing Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, telling the salesman that she
needed it for self-defense. Thank you, NRA. Let's enforce existing laws.
The 30-year-old former babysitter shot six students at an
elementary school in an affluent Chicago suburb, one of whom died, and another
man. The police knew she was armed and "unsuccessfully tried to persuade
Dann and her family that she should give up the gun," according to news
reports.
Dann mailed arsenic laced snacks to former acquaintances and
her psychiatrist and started fires at a Winnetka home and a different school
from the one she shot up. "Laws Failing To Keep Guns Out Of Hands Of
Disturbed," and, "Suspect Had History Of Bizarre Acts," wrote
the Chicago Tribune . Who has heard that
before?
Twenty-five years after Dann's rampage and eight years after Ross', violent criminals still sail through background checks, including those who threaten to kill . Fourteen years after Byrdsong's murder, illegal gun dealers still flourish thanks to laws the NRA has pushed through to protect them, largely behind the public's back.
Clearly "voter power" will not pry lawmakers out of the NRA's cold dead hands but "consumer power" can and will. Ninety percent of the nation wants universal background checks and the fight is moving out of the legislature and into the marketplace.
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