Assault rifles are deadly, but handguns are a more bloody culprit

This year, up until July 30, about 190 teenagers 17 and under in Chicago have been the victims of gun violence, either killed or wounded. The overwhelming majority of the shooters are most likely teenagers themselves. Add those numbers to the rest of Chicago’s shootings in the last two years and one can readily see that handguns, not the so-called assault weapons, are indeed the weapons of mass destruction.

The number of teens with guns is reaching epidemic proportions in Chicago and the rest of Cook County. After the Highland Park massacre, the calls to ban assault rifles came from as far away as the White House. Make no mistake, the assault rifle is a deadly weapon in anyone’s hands. But the handgun is the more monster culprit.

A few weeks ago in Oak Lawn, a teen who fled the police while resisting arrest was caught on a cell phone camera allegedly being punched by Oak Lawn Police officers. When anyone resists arrest it becomes just what it is — a fight and flight to avoid arrest. After 33 years working on Chicago’s streets, I can honestly say that sometimes there is no delicate way to stop offenders from escaping. In my opinion, the overwhelming cries to get the guns out of the hands of teenagers sometimes is not as easy as just saying “You’re under arrest.”

The news media has already covered this incident extensively and soon the facts and the law will determine if the officers responded with the right amount of force. Just as we rightly questioned where and how the Highland Park shooter got his weapon, we can also ask the same in this latest incident in Oak Lawn.

Bob Angone, retired Chicago Police lieutenant, Austin, Texas

Columbus statues an affront

The suggestion from a certain segment of the Italian community that the Columbus statues should be brought back to parks at taxpayers’ expense is outrageous.

Columbus was a murderer, enslaver and rapist who committed genocide on Indigenous people. The disgusting way Italian immigrants (and many others) were treated pales in comparison to the treatment natives received and still do. That statue is a grave affront to all Indigenous people, just as a statue of Hitler is to the Jewish community or a Confederate statue is to the African American community. It does not belong in our public park, and certainly not at our expense.

Marjorie Fritz-Birch, Edgewater