Supreme Court Guns Down State Firearm Restrictions, The Chicago Way

Abstract

It was February 14, 1929.  The United States was still experiencing the “Roaring Twenties”.  The stock market had not yet crashed, and Prohibition, that ‘noble experiment”, was nearing the end of a tumultuous decade.  A group of five apparent law enforcement personnel, some in uniform, some not, paid a visit to a warehouse on the north side of Chicago.  Illegal/bootlegged booze trafficking was the ostensible target.  When the “visit” was over, 6 men lay dead, and the apparent lone survivor, rushed to the hospital where he declined to elaborate on the incident, promptly passed away. The departed were part of the George “Bugs” Moran organization, while the visiting “police” contingent was actually made up of members of the Al “Scarface” Capone mob.  The event would go down in history as The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and the main method of communication at the warehouse was the Thompson submachine gun. In the aftermath of that notorious gangland rubout, and other instances of outlaw use of machine guns, the automatic weapon was virtually taxed and legislated out of legal existence.  Along with the abolishment of legal automatic weapons, restrictions on all types of firearms became a cause and a reality. Yet, in 2008, a group of five black-robed members of a Washington, D.C., organization took aim at the outright restriction on handguns in the District of Columbia.  The result was a rubout of the D.C. restrictions.(1)  Then, two years later, the same Gang of Five donned their black robes, and, in essence, paid the City of Chicago a “visit” regarding its ban of firearms.  The outcome was a bloodbath that may end up being remembered by Gun Control enthusiasts on the same level as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.(2)