Roy Exum: Chicago’s Gun Buyer

  • Thursday, June 23, 2016
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

In the days following the horrifying massacre of 50 people at an Orlando nightclub, several of the crazies in the media have dashed about trying to prove how easy it is to obtain an assault weapon. Some guy in Philadelphia claims he bought one in seven minutes when, in fact, we would all have been better served if he had written how long it took him to get a psychiatric exam and bared its results.

In the first place, no one really knows how many non-military/law enforcement guns are in America but the universal logic is that there are about 350 million – that’s right; one for every four people. Our liberal friends insist firearms should be outlawed and that is after they know better than the rest of us that is never going to happen. More claim assault pistols and rifles should be banned, which quite candidly means only that sales will increase.

As a matter of fact, gun sales have never been as good but that’s just because the general public has never been as scared. Eliminate the fear and you’ve mastered the equation. The most glaring truth the zealots refuse to accept is that guns don’t kill people. So help me, you can take any weapon you want, leave it cocked-and-loaded next to your front-porch rocker for a long weekend and, when you get back, I can guarantee that it alone will have harmed no one.

The raw truth is that people kill people. If we spent half the time worrying about the catastrophic state of mental health in our country as we do arguing so very senselessly about guns, the number of shootings in America would drop dramatically. Congress should outlaw any more gun conversation and get to the jugular – this nation is desperate for mental health in any direction you care to point.

Want to solve our raging opioid addiction? Find the real pain instead of temporarily numbing it. Want to improve classroom scores? Heal a scared six-year-old’s anxiety, then stand back and watch.  Show me a bully and I’ll show you a kid hiding his own hurt. Want to stop mass shootings? Let’s identify and seek out the mass shooters ahead of time. Ah, but I digress … I’ve got a funny story.

A week or so ago Neil Steinberg, a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, drove about 20 miles to Maxon Shooter’s Supplies is Des Plaines, Ill., to prove how easy it is to buy an assault weapon. He wrote that with the horror of the Orlando massacre “still echoing in my mind,” he admitted he had never bought a gun before and, as he went to do so, “even the pleasant summer day … took on a grim aspect, the sweetness of fragile life flashing by as I headed into the Valley of Death.”

Please! The Valley of Death? Oh, mother of pearl! Remember this wizard is from Chicago, where everybody in the rest of America knows somebody has gotten shot on an average of every two hours and 17 seconds this year. Last Sunday alone – Father’s Day – 54 people were shot, 12 fatally. Police believe this year (now with 1,780 shootings) will be the worst year in the past two decades, with a 75 percent increase over this time last year. So, pray tell, where is the logic behind some Sun-Times editor sending this stumbler out for an assault rifle?

Our boy Neil played his story to the nines, charging $842.50 on his credit card for a 30-round semi-automatic weapon. In Illinois there is a 24-hour waiting period between the time you purchase a gun until you can actually take possession so Steinberg was quite surprised when a clerk at the store called him late that same afternoon to tell him the sale was being cancelled and his card was being refunded.

That really sent the writer on a tear. He wrote:

* * *

“At 5:13 Sarah from Maxon called. They were canceling my sale and refunding my money. No gun for you. I called back. Why? ‘I don’t have to tell you,’ she said. I knew that, but was curious. I wasn’t rejected by the government? No. So what is it? ‘I’m not at liberty,’ she said.

“Gun dealers do have the right to refuse sales to anyone, usually exercised for people who seem to be straw purchasers. I told her I assume they wouldn’t sell me a gun because I’m a reporter. She denied it. But hating the media is right behind hating the government as a pastime for many gun owners. They damn you for being ignorant then hide when you try to find out.”

* * *

Oh boy, by now the Sun-Times, its journalistic integrity suddenly as high as the arched back of some angry cat, was also in for the kill and demanded under the Freedom of Information Act or something equally insane that the store give the reason. Okee-dookie, replied the folks in Des Plaines and provided a lengthy statement to the newspaper, the gist of it revealing, “It was uncovered that Mr. Steinberg has an admitted history of alcohol abuse, and a charge for domestic battery involving his wife.”

Steinberg fired back, “I’ll state what I believe the real reason is: Gun manufacturers and the stores that sell them make their money in the dark,” he furiously wrote. “Except for the week or two after massacres, the public covers its eyes. Would-be terrorists can buy guns. Insane people can buy guns. But reporters … that’s a different story.”

Oh, really … then let’s – instead -- have the real story? This is priceless. About seven years ago a newspaper reporter named Neil Steinberg wrote a book entitled, “Drunkard: A Hard-Drinking Life.” In Amazon’s description of the book, we read, “As Steinberg claws his way through recovery, grieves the loss of the drink, and tries to shore up his faltering marriage, he is confronted by the greatest test he has ever faced, and finds himself in the process.”

It doesn’t say how long it took Neil to find himself but Maxon’s Shooter’s Supplies in Des Plaines, Ill., found him in less than 12 hours. And that was when Steinberg wrote easy and away his best line, “Well, didn’t see that coming.”

royexum@aol.com

Latest Headlines
Opinion
Democratic View On Top State Senate Issues - March 18, 2024
  • 3/18/2024

Campbell bill seeks to save lives by studying suicide trends in Tennessee 3 p.m. Senate Regular Calendar — SB 1787 , by Sen. Heidi Campbell, would require state health officials to produce ... more

The Odor Of Mendacity - And Response (2)
  • 3/16/2024

The Fulton County judge, Scott McAfee, overseeing the Fani Willis prosecution of Donald Trump and eighteen other defendants has spoken. In response to a motion by defendants to remove Willis ... more

Capitol Report From State Rep. Greg Vital For March 15
  • 3/15/2024

General Assembly confirms new Tennessee State Supreme Justice Members of the General Assembly confirmed the appointment of Mary L. Wagner to the Tennessee Supreme Court in a joint session ... more