Concealed Carry Disparity in Chicago

One of the racial disparities liberals don’t care about is the rate of abortion. Black women kill their babies at three times the rate of white women. At about six percent of the U.S. population, they account for 30 percent of the abortions.

A liberal might object to my pointing this out. He/she might say, “Disparity or not, black women are exercising their constitutional right of privacy to an abortion. We don’t want to tell women what to do with their own bodies!”

Although there is no right in the U.S. Constitution for women to kill their unborn children, the U.S. Supreme Court fashioned one in Roe v. Wade. Now it’s the law of the land that a woman can kill the baby in her womb as long as the baby isn’t able to live outside the womb.

But there’s another racial disparity liberals don’t care about, and this one is in the Constitution. It’s called the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The Washington Times reports on the racial disparity in concealed carry permits between whites and blacks in the nation’s murder capital.

If you live in 60624, the ZIP code where the shooting took place, you don’t expect your streets to be safe. In the last 30 days, that neighborhood has recorded more homicides, robberies, assaults, thefts and narcotics charges combined than any other ZIP code in Cook County when measured on a per capita basis. Its population is 98 percent black and averages a median income just above the poverty line.

It also is one of the ZIP codes that registers the fewest active concealed carry firearms permits per capita in the county, according to concealed carry numbers obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by The Washington Times.
…
It’s a completely different story in affluent Palos Park, located in southwestern Cook County…It also has the most concealed carry licenses in Cook County this year, with 1.24 percent of its residents authorized to carry a gun. The majority of Illinois’ 73,714 active concealed carry licenses — 90 percent — have been issued to white people, demographic data shows. Only eight percent of African-Americans have secured licenses, according to the FOIA information.

A racial disparity isn’t evidence of illegal discrimination, but that’s how liberals tend to frame the issue. They typically view any standard or measure that adversely impacts members of certain racial and ethnic groups (East Asians excluded) as discriminatory. That’s why taxpayer-supported colleges and universities across the country lower standards to admit certain racial and ethnic minorities. Blacks and Hispanics tend to have lower scores on standardized exams. That’s why fire and police departments have to water down recruitment exams to make them easier to pass. Blacks and Hispanics fail at higher rates.

What’s causing the disparity in concealed carry permits in Illinois?

Illinois residents say the disproportionate statistics all boil down to cost. Of right-to-carry states, Illinois has the highest registration and training fee, costing an applicant about $650 on average for fingerprinting, taxes and logistics — excluding the price of the gun.

Should officials eliminate the cost of the license, lower the cost, or subsidize it for “poor” people? I say eliminate it. Better idea: eliminate the requirement to obtain a permit to carry.

Resident and U.S. veteran Shawn Gowder says he saved money for the permit after a court struck down the state’s ban on concealed carry permits. He attributes the disparity not only to cost, but ignorance of the law.

“It’s one of the best-kept secrets in the state. Chicago’s politicians aren’t even informing us this is an option. It’s people like me getting out the word. As soon as the criminals know more of us are armed, the crime rates will drop.”