National Rifle Association's Wayne la Pierre

On Fox News Sunday, National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre came out with both barrels blasting, singling out the gun violence in Chicago.

Chicago, a city with one of the nation’s strictest gun control laws, is also one of the nation's most violent, leading it in death by gunfire.

LaPierre took on the violence in Chicago and noted that if federal gun laws already on the books were enforced, instead of putting even more restrictions on gun legal ownership, it could help solve the city’s violence problems.

"We are all obsessed with the Taliban and we ought to be. What about the gangs?"  "They are ruining neighborhoods all over the country? We need a federal task force, if it takes 500 agents; if it takes a thousand agents, go into Chicago."

"Every gang member on the street of Chicago, starting tomorrow morning, let's pick 'em up, we've got a federal law to get them off the street and put them in prison, and that would cut crime and we're not doing it."

There seems to be a lack of will to enforce existing gun laws. New York for example, has a mandatory law requiring prison time for anyone found with an illegal gun in his possession…Yet the law is full of loopholes and less than half of those arrested for illegal gun possession face any prison time.

There are over nine thousand gun laws on the books already. Perhaps it’s time for existing gun laws to be enforced, before any new laws are proposed.

Several years ago a city in the San Francisco bay area was suffering from a massive wave of violence.  East Palo Alto was becoming a shooting gallery; so violent it was dangerous for the thousands of motorist who used its main artery daily to travel to other parts of the bay.  Shootings, rapes, armed robbery, arson, carjacking and open drug dealing were the norm.  The local police department was not up to the task to protect its citizens and put a halt to the crime.

To combat this unprecedented crime wave, communities in the San Francisco bay area & the state of California pitched in with extra police forces to swarm the city.   They soon had rounded up gang leaders and the violent individuals who were creating much of the crime.  They had a task force that instantly responded to crime and aggressively hunted down the criminals.  Existing laws were enforced and soon the streets of this city were relatively safe.  The criminal element had been broken.

LaPierre’s suggestion for federal intervention in Chicago is a good one.  Bring in federal police forces to help patrol the violent streets.  Make it a national priority to protect the law abiding citizens of Chicago. When the criminals are taken off the streets, the percentage of gun violence will be drastically reduced.

This same formula should be used to target other crime and violence plagued cities.  Disarm and jail the criminals who use guns, enforce the existing gun laws.