Top Chicago cop blames gun lobbyists and Sarah Palin for gun violence.

Courtesy of Fox News (Yep you read that right, Fox News.):

Facing a surging homicide rate and several headline-grabbing murders, Chicago’s top cop is taking aim at lobbyists who he says prevent politicians from implementing more gun control measures. 

Appearing on a local Windy City Sunday morning talk show on the radio station WLSAM, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said special interests that lobby politicians to influence their opinion on gun control are the real problem. 

“If there was a special interest influencing police work, I believe that would be called corruption,” McCarthy said. “So, if it has to do with donating money, versus a popular vote, I think we have a bigger problem in this country and someone has to wake up to that.” 

McCarthy told FoxNews.com he never advocated “getting rid of the Second Amendment.” He said he was making the point that there is popular support for new gun control laws and that lobbyists are stopping elected officials from reflecting the will of the people. 

“How is it [special interests] are controlling politicians?” he said. “How are they controlling elected officials? It’s not by popular vote.” 

McCarthy in the past has blamed “government-sponsored racism” and Sarah Palin for Chicago’s gun violence. He has been outspoken in his opposition to handgun proliferation, telling a radio panel last month he equates fewer guns with improved public safety. 

“When people say concealed carry, I say Trayvon Martin,” McCarthy said, referring to the Florida teen who was shot and killed last February by a neighborhood watch volunteer, sparking controversy across the country. “I say Trayvon Martin because the answer to guns is not more guns, and just simply putting guns in people’s hands is going to lead to more tragedy.” 

McCarthy backs banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, requiring background checks for anyone who buys a gun, mandatory reporting of the sale, transfer, loss or theft of a gun and mandatory minimum prison sentences for people convicted of illegally possessing a gun. 

The guy's not wrong. In fact he is absolutely dead on in his assessment that fewer guns, and stricter gun laws, of COURSE lead to fewer gun deaths.

The gun lobby has certainly used their influence to pressure politicians into avoiding the creation of laws to curb gun violence in this country for decades, and have even threatened those that have taken up the cause of tightening gun control laws into dropping them for fear of losing tier House of Senate seats in the next election.

And politicians, most notably Sarah Palin, who romanticized the idea of owning guns, and made it seem as American as apple pie, are most definitely a large part of the problem.

In the case of Palin she has glamorized the idea of guns to the extent that it has made the idea of gun ownership almost seem like a badge of honor, and that only those who hate the Constitution would walk around unarmed.

Of course the big joke here is that, as has been shown over and over again, Palin is really not at all proficient or comfortable with guns, and is simply being used as a tool of the gun lobby to further their agenda.

But that's Sarah Palin for you, always a tool and never a very useful one either.