Chicago Senator Wants To Name Gun Bill After Slain Teen
This week, Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk announced plans to name a bipartisan gun safety bill after the Chicago teen.
“Today, I sat down with Illinois families who lost loved ones due to senseless gun violence,” Kirk said in a statement released Wednesday. “I asked Cleopatra Pendleton, mother of 15-year-old Hadiya who was shot and killed by gang gunfire in Chicago, for permission to name anti-illegal gun trafficking legislation after her daughter.”
According to the Chicago Tribune, a Kirk spokesman said Hadiya’s parents were “receptive” to the idea of naming the bill for their daughter and added: “We will work with them on it.”
The Hadiya Pendleton bill would aim to make gun trafficking a federal crime and to end so-called straw purchases of guns in order to dry up the supply of guns to what he termed “dangerous drug gangs.” A straw purchase occurs when someone buys a gun on behalf of another person, usually someone who could not pass a federal background check.
“For Hadiya and thousands of other victims of gun violence, we must break through the typical Washington process and actually get something done that will save lives,” his statement said.
In the most recent developments surrounding Hadiya’s death eighteen-year-old Michael Ward and 20-year-old Kenneth Williams have been charged with first degree murder and have been denied bail. Apparently the shooting involved two rival guns and mistaken identity. Williams allegedly said he and ward were searching for members of a rival gang who had killed a friend of Ward’s.
“I am very excited that the murderers who hurt my baby have been caught,” Hadiya’s mother, Cleopatra Cowley, told WBBM. “I’m happy that she’s not a cold case.”
We must respect her parents’ decision, but I am hoping they will give permission to name the bill after Hadiya. I am having high hopes this bill will help stop the majority of the violence there.
Black America is so dumb these days,sometimes i wonder what trunup truck these people have feel off of. Because banning guns is not going to stop chicago shootings, remember its illegal for young people 12-16 and people on probation or ex criminals to purchase guns, the guns these people are using are illegal guns. For me i dont support any gun bill because when the revolution starts I’m going to want a gun. What chicago needs is law similar to new york , like the 5 year jail time for illegal guns and stop and frisk. All this other stuff is pure smoke, to push a agenda. Wake up black people, what people should be looking at is where are these kids getting the illegal guns from..
why is it not already a federal crime to traffic guns?!! illinois has some of the strictest gun laws in this country yet they still live in hell on a dily (chicago) b/c of illegal guns. i hope the bill passes and actually makes a difference so that young black people live to see old age.
I thought the same thing. Shouldn’t anything that can cause systemic harm to masses of people at once be considered a federal crime?
“I don’t think it’s about more gun control. I grew up in the South with guns everywhere, and we never shot anyone. This [shooting] is about people who aren’t taught the value of life.”
- Samuel L. Jackson
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-connecticut-shooting-samuel-jackson-gun-control-20121216,0,2690925.story
Jackson is spot on. My grandfather in Georgia was a gun owner, but I don’t recall him randomly shooting other Black people when I visited him. The reason is because he RESPECTED life and used his gun responsibly for self-defense.
Until Black people again embrace self-control and a culture of life, all the gun control laws in the world won’t make our kids any safer.