13 Year Old Critical After Being Shot

Photo from You Don't Know Football

Thirteen year old Zarriel Trotter is in critical condition at a Chicago area hospital after being shot in the back, this past weekend.  While on his way home, he came upon a brawl when shots were fired, one of which struck him.  Not a part of the may-lay, Trotter was apparently caught in the crossfire.  He was said to be in critical condition, as of this morning.

According to Time.com, there were 468 murders in Chicago in 2015, up 12.5% from 2014, giving Chicago the most murders for any US city, that year.  In all, there were 2,900 shootings, a 13% increase.  While nearly 7,000 guns were confiscated, information on how many convictions there were in relation, was not readily available.

ABC News reports that in one weekend, July 4^th 2015, there were dozens of shooting.  All told, there were 48 shooting victims in 34 separate instances, including seven deaths. (NBC reports 53 shot with 9 dead.)  This is typical of most holidays and weekends in Chicago, anyway.

In 2016, shootings are up 200%.  In the first month of 2016, there were nearly 300 shootings, with three dead and 21 injured on New Years Eve, alone.

There is an ironic twist to this story.  Last year, at age 12, young Mr. Trotter appeared in a public service announcement decrying the black on black crime that is devastating his neighborhood and the people in it.  In the PSA Zarriel says, "I don't want to live around in my community where I got to keep on hearing and hearing people keep on getting shot, people keep on getting killed."

Further ironies are the other things these cities share in common.  They have the most restrictive gun control laws in the country, rivaling those of Europe.  Yet, in spite of draconian restrictions on law abiding citizens, criminals seem able to get their hands on plenty of weapons.  Clearly, they are willing to use them.

Statistics have shown since the mid 90’s that crime rates are continuing to drop for most of the country, while at the same time firearms ownership has increased, significantly.  Statistics also show that when places like Chicago and DC are removed from the equation, the crime rate in America is among the lowest in the world.   These same statistics also prove that where there are more guns in the hands of law abiding citizens, there is less crime. (According to FBI stats)

Statistics also bear out that it is safer for a young black man to be in a combat role in Afghanistan than to merely live in Chicago, where the leading cause of death for their demographic is murder.  Chicago isn’t alone on its perch as the murder capitol of the free world; it has the company of other cities such as St. Louis, Detroit, DC, Philly, LA, etc., that rank close seconds.

These cities have been under control of Democrats for decades, with few, if any Republicans ever elected to city office during that time.  The cities are crumbling from within from the weight of the policies creating the environment allowing, nay encouraging, a society to decay into sloth, ignorance, violence, addiction and dependency, and leading to the destruction of the nuclear family structure. 

I don’t know what can be done to rid the decay, but what ever it is, it will take a generation or more just to begin turning things around.  Change is slow to happen.  We know the Democrat policies that brought some of our once-great cities to ruin will not work to restore them.  I know too, that government cannot, and will not be the source of change; that must come from the people, themselves.

Editor