Sarcasm is a Dangerous Weapon, as Chicago Tribune Writer Shows

This article was published by the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, April 20, 2018: 

Sarcasm, in the hands of an expert, can elucidate without harm. In the hands of an amateur, it offends and reveals a supercilious attitude toward the intended victim. Rex Huppke is an amateur.

Rather than examine the desire of the board of Effingham County, Illinois to be left alone, he attacks it with his pen:

Do you think minor changes to gun laws [proposed by anti-gun liberals in Springfield, the Illinois state capitol] … is a direct threat to your personal safety? Then pack your bags and head on down to Effingham County [about 75 miles southwest of the capitol]. It will soon be a veritable haven of heavily armed people who think the government is out to get them.

Huppke doesn’t intend to build bridges, but walls. What he does is confirm the supercilious mindset of liberals who know it all and who look down on anyone who might disagree. The fact that the Chicago Tribune gave him space for his rant tells more about the paper than it does about Huppke. Clearly its position is that anyone who thinks there’s a movement afoot to remove all weaponry from law-abiding gun owners is a fool and should be ridiculed into sullen silence.

All that the Effingham County board did was to express its opposition to anti-gun liberals in Springfield, the state’s capitol, who want to infringe further on their precious Second Amendment rights. It was nearly unanimous: 8-1 last Monday night. Joe Thoele, a member of the board, persuaded seven of the other eight board members to declare his county a “sanctuary” county, ordering county employees not to enforce any new infringements coming from Springfield, the state’s capitol. Said Thoele, “I would just like to send a statement to Springfield that I don’t want them to be infringing on our Second Amendment rights as legal gun owners.” After all, echoed Effingham state’s attorney Bryan Kibler, “If you can be a sanctuary county for undocumented immigrants, why can’t you be one for firearms?”

The board meeting was attended by a near-record number of Effingham County’s 34,000 residents, according to local news sources. The Fox News affiliate reported that the resolution was motivated by a similar resolution passed by Iroquois County, Illinois in March, “opposing the passage of … any bill where the 100th Illinois General Assembly desires to restrict the individual right of U.S. citizens as protected by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.” That resolution resolved

that the People of Iroquois County, Illinois, do hereby oppose the enactment of any legislation that would infringe upon the Right of the People to keep and bear arms and consider such laws to be unconstitutional and beyond lawful Legislative Authority.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Iroquois County Board demands that the Illinois General Assembly cease further actions restricting the Right of the People to keep and bear arms, and hereby demands that the Governor of Illinois veto all such legislation which restricts the Right of the People to keep and bear arms.

This is clearly a push back to the movement to declare cities and states, mostly in California, “sanctuaries” for illegals. It was also likely motivated by the decision taken by Deerfield, Illinois to ban just about anything that even looks like an “assault” weapon, which ban goes into effect on June 13. On June 14, thousands of law-abiding gun owners in Deerfield will suddenly find themselves declared to be criminals, with their weaponry now subject to fines and confiscation.

Effingham’s resolution is mostly symbolic, as are the other “sanctuary” cities and states (as California is discovering) declared by liberals in their haste to enact laws to protect the guilty while infringing on the rights of the innocent. But Huppke’s rant reveals an appalling lack of knowledge of his state’s history regarding gun laws. Back in 1982, Morton Grove, Illinois passed a virtual ban on guns, causing Kennesaw, Georgia to reciprocate with an ordinance requiring “every head of household residing in the city limits to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition.” Since then, Kennesaw has enjoyed a violent crime rate that is 60 percent below the national average and a property crime rate that is about 50 percent below both national and state averages.

In addition, Kennesaw has enjoyed a population growth rate that is far higher than both the state and national averages.

Huppke has offered (tongue in cheek) to help gun owners to pack up and move to Effingham County, thus virtually guaranteeing that the county will shortly become the safest in the state, and one of the most prosperous, both of which Illinois desperately needs.

Sarcasm in the hands of an amateur is dangerous, and more often than not, backfires.

Sources:

Best definitions of sarcasm

Rex Huppke’s article in the Chicago Tribune: A ‘sanctuary county’ in Illinois for paranoid gun owners? I’ll help you move!

Fox23Chicago.com: Effingham considers ‘sanctuary county’ for gun owners

KansasCity.com: Effingham County declares itself sanctuary for gun owners

Guns.com: Illinois county votes to become ‘sanctuary’ for gun owners

EffinghamDailyNews.com: Effingham County now a ‘sanctuary’ for gun owners

Background on Effingham County, Illinois

Background on Kennesaw, Georgia

THE COUNTY BOARD OF IROQUOIS COUNTY, ILLINOIS RECESSED SESSION March 13, 2018

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