Gun Violence? In Chicago? I'm Stunned.

Life goes on in the gun-free Utopian paradise of Chicago.

Nearly 24 people shot in less than 12 hours

Shots rang out across the city Saturday night and Sunday morning -- from the Far North Side to the Far South Side -- with preliminary reports of nearly two dozen people shot.

The overnight tally -- which is unofficial -- included two shootings on the same corner, a fatal shooting near the Taste of Chicago and several on the West Side, where detectives were swamped.

"We're just spinning up here," one detective said.

Numerous incidents of gunfire and related injuries were reported overnight Saturday. Among them:

*At 9:45 p.m. Saturday, 20-year-old Christopher Sanders of Chicago was fatally shot during a fight one block from the Taste of Chicago.

*At 6:06 a.m. Sunday near Damen and 38th, a man was shot in the shoulder, police said.

In between:

*A man was shot in the head at 11:52 p.m. at 4129 W. Van Buren.

*A 38-year-old man was shot and killed at 3:15 a.m. in the street in the 1400 block of West Carmen.

*And a man was left in critical condition after a drive-by shooting at 5:30 a.m. at 12434 S. Wentworth, police said.

There were two shootings at the corner of 52nd and Mozart.

*The first came at 9:47 p.m. when a man was shot in the foot.

*Hours later, at 1:38 a.m., two men sitting on a porch at the corner were shot by someone who pulled up in a dark Ford Escort wagon, police said.

So, aside from all the shooting victims being dragged into area morgues and emergency rooms, what else could we use as an indicator to gage the success of Chicago's "common-sense", "for the children" handgun ban?

Well, how about this?

Chicago pairing surveillance cameras with gunshot recognition systems

City officials are using new technology that recognizes the sound of a gunshot within a two-block radius, pinpoints the source, turns a surveillance camera toward the shooter and places a 911 call. Officials can then track the shooter and dispatch officers to the scene.

Yes, gun control has been SO successful in Chicago that an expensive surveillance system of high-tech cameras and microphones is now being installed to detect and track down the source of all that gunfire that must not exist in the first place.

And you thought Massachusetts was fucked up.

I especially love this line:

In Chicago, police hope the gunshot detection systems will add momentum to a technology-fueled crackdown on guns and gang violence. The city in 2004 reduced its homicide rate to its lowest level since 1965 and police seized 10,000 guns -- successes that were in large part credited to a network of "pods," or remote-controlled cameras that can rotate 360 degrees and feed video directly to squad-car laptops. The SENTRI systems are an addition to that network.

"Successes"? Are they on glue?

Even if their "Big Brother" surveillance system was responsible for this "success" of getting 10,000 guns of the street, would that not, by default, prove beyond any doubt that their gun ban has been nothing but a complete, dismal failure? I know it's not fair to present these people with any argument rooted in logical thought, but I figure I'd throw the question out there anyway.

(links via Drudge)