Chicago in 1932 and Milwaukee Today

Written by Micah Clark

There is a perception that Chicago was a war zone during the time of Al Capone and alcohol prohibition.  Not long ago, I watched a Jimmy Stewart movie based upon a true story of a person falsely convicted of killing a police officer in 1932.  The 1948 movie began with an attempt to shock the audience by reminding them of that “most violent year in Chicago history” in which one person died from a gunshot each day of the year.

Last weekend 52 people were shot in President Barack Obama’s hometown. Even with modern medical technology, nine of those individuals died.    In 2015, Chicago experienced 490 gun homicides.  As of August of this year the Democrat run city has already seen 443 deaths from shootings.

Yet, Chicago has the kinds of laws many politicians seem to think America needs from coast to coast.  Chicago has an “assault weapons” ban.  It has a state imposed waiting period for gun purchases.  The city limits how many gun stores can exist, and where, within in its limits.  It strictly regulates who can buy, carry and possess any firearm, including rifles and shotguns, not just pistols.

In 1932, firearms laws were few and far between.  Machine guns were not even restricted until the National Firearms Act of 1934.   Guns could be purchased through the US mail.

Certainly, laws play a role as a teacher and as a moral consensus.  Still, it seems that as we watch violence erupt in cities all across America, our greatest problem today is not the lack of laws on the books, but our lack of spiritual laws written on the hearts of Americans.

We war against faith, particularly Christianity, in society today. We teach kids that we are all here created by random chance. We have scarified babies’ lives by the millions on the altar of choice . . . while we wonder why our cities are on fire.

It reminds me of the C.S. Lewis quote from The Abolition of Man, “We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”