CHICAGO -- AND ARMED SELF-DEFENSE (personal experience)

Some weeks ago, when it was obvious that the long standing local campaign against us here in Idaho was yet again picking up steam -- it's gone on since we came here 16 years ago -- I commented that it was "old hat" for our family.  We know well how to handle these kinds of threats and hostile actions. My life-long "controversial" social justice organizing career began in the mid-1950s in Arizona. In almost all of the places that I've lived and worked, armed and cool-headed self defense on our part has been a signal necessity -- sometimes occasionally and often consistently.  Our first line of defense is prevention via "getting our word out" as widely as possible -- but, if necessary, we can strongly and sensibly handle matters that go beyond that.  

Here's Chicago -- where we lived and organized for over four years.

A couple of related dimensions:  I don't expect "gun control" to make any significant headway in this country.  And, for all of the youth violence in Chicago, we see no effort to initiate a substantially feathered-out version of the old Neighborhood Youth Corps, a good first step.  (H)

CHICAGO -- AND ARMED SELF-DEFENSE  
(From  http://hunterbear.org/BLOODSTAINED%20TRAIL.htm )
  
From the always colorful Redbadbear Discussion:


John [oldest son] writes and I add some thoughts:

"I have a vivid memory of living in Chicago in the early 1970s, when Hunter was doing his typical dangerous and good works.  The phone would ring and someone on the other end would threaten to kill us all.  Luckily Hunter was armed so even as a child, I didn't feel particularly worried.  So put that in your Goetz pipe . . ."

My [Hunter's] add-on:

"John's quite right about our experiences in Chicago.  In addition to loaded firearms, I had a heavy chain across the front door of our home, with just enough slack for the kids to go in and out of the yard.  I purchased and installed dead bolt locks -- and secured window bars from Sears and placed those on all first floor and basement windows --  and I set up an elaborate booby trap with concealed barb wire in the lower four step back stairway which went down to the basement door.  When a hate call would come, I had this message. "Come on over.  I have a special welcoming weapon for you -- a Marlin .444 lever action."  I would not have hesitated to use it lethally -- a life-long policy of mine [to this moment.]

Many police were hostile or, in any event, took between 30 and 45 minutes to answer a call -- especially in neighborhoods that were significantly "minority" in nature.  On one occasion, I went out of town to give a speech at Coe College in Iowa.  That information was top-secret, shared only with three key staff members of mine. But the police had wiretaps which explained why,  at 2:30 am, while I was still in Iowa, men tried to break into our home.  They couldn't because of the locks and window bars.  Eldri turned on all lights and called two of our close by neighbors, Jenkins [who was Black] and Drew [who was white] and they watched the house until I came back next day.

Minority people in Chicago have always been heavily armed for self-defense.  This ruling [and the probable ones to come] makes it easier.  And, hopefully, Chicago will have to dig deeper into the real sociological causes of crime and violence and maybe, maybe, act constructively in that context.

It's hard to explain things like this to, say, conventional  liberals and many radicals who have never been in these kinds of situations.  Mostly, groups like ACLU have been unwilling to defend firearms rights.  Glad to be a Life Member of NRA for most of my life [having joined as a Junior Member at age 15.]

Hunter Bear


A little more.  In large urban areas, handguns are now the defense weapon of choice. [I'm good with several types of firearms -- but I always prefer a lever action big bore rifle. I do have a small caliber revolver.]   Using Chicago as an example, Black migration into it was especially heavy from the World War I period into the '80s, joined in time by a growing Mexican population, and then a significant number of Puerto Rican in-migrants.  With the exception of the Puerto Ricans, the Black and Mexican adults and many young people coming in had hunting knowledge from "down home" and self defensive weapons often tended to be rifles and shotguns.  But, in time, the younger Black and Chicano generations, lacking hunting experience, used handguns for defense.  The Puerto Ricans mostly did all along.  The earlier waves of European newcomers -- Irish, Poles, Italians, Lithuanians and others -- often hadn't had much hunting experience -- and used handguns from the outset.  Upshot is, again, handguns are the defense weapon of choice in large urban areas..

As I've noted, the police dimension in big urban areas can often be very problematic in this country -- and often in smaller communities.  Equal protection for the poor and minorities can frequently be minimal.  And equal justice? -- well, we know the answer to that.

When those were banned by Daley et al., a vast number of law abiding people became, technically, criminals.  Many -- probably most -- didn't give up their handguns but many who "came" after the ban couldn't buy them comfortably -- and no law abiding peopole could use them comfortably.  Even before the ban, Illinois --  under pressure from Cook County/Chicago -- had  "white tape" re firearms purchases of any kind, and Chicago metro had a great deal if one wanted to purchase a handgun.

As I've often said, the causes of crime -- and gang culture -- are complex and involved:  racism and ethnocentrism, unemployment and sub-employment, poor schools, urban congestion and interpersonal and value alienation.  "Gun control" doesn't scratch more than a little surface with these.  Most politicos  aren't about to dig deeply into the causal factors and spend the necessary monies to prevent, control, and eventually eliminate much, if not most crime.

Hunter Bear 
From Hunter to K.:

  
Obviously, K.,  you didn't answered my question on just what you -- you -- would do under the Chicago circumstances described by John and myself. But at least you do seem to recognize that people must do that which they have to in those situations.

Yesterday's gun rights decision was -- to be personally redundant -- a signal victory for Constitutional civil liberties and gun rights and gun owners.  All of this has been in jeopardy, in fact attacked and mangled, in the larger urban areas.  But generally in this country, state and local jurisdictions haven't been nearly the problem compared to that of the Federal government.  [Of course, the passage of time and population expansion in the "hinterland" could see threats in the future in those jurisdictions -- so yesterday's is Good Medicine.]  But the Federal dimension has been extremely problematic -- as per the Clinton witch hunt through most of the '90s -- and that's been nicely taken care of by the Heller decision of two years ago.

So "we" are as pleased as you are displeased.  I'm much hoping that, in due course, Clinton's ill works in  this realm will be dismantled.

Here's a comment from a Chicago friend on my post re personal self-defense strategies:

"Nice piece, Hunter.  Chicago is less politically violent nowadays, but the goons are still there.  Matt Reichel and I have had our vehicles bashed for opposing the machine.  Other Greens on the south side have had to deal with arson and bullets through windows.

Congratulations to us all on the partial restoration of our constitutional rights in Chicago and the other big repressive cities.  We're expecting more in the not too-distant future.  The VP of the ISRA [Illinois State Rifle Association] said that he expects concealed carry to become law in IL in a year.  Hard for me to believe, but..."

Alex 

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq / 
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO

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