Many are singing praises to God in thanksgiving for the quick thinking of Elisjsha Dicken, who, within a mere 15 seconds of a gunman’s shooting off a round, stopped the would-be serial killer dead and forestalled a massacre at an Indiana mall.
Elisjsha Dicken
Elisjsha, a young man who was legally carrying a firearm, providentially stopped short a gunman wreaking havoc in an Indiana Mall earlier this month. In the state of Indiana, constitutional carry legislation allows folks like Elisjsha to carry a gun without government permission. This enabled Elisjsha, without any police tactical training, to swiftly bring an end to what could’ve been an even more tragic shooting. Elisjsha’s quick thinking and use of the handgun he carried averted the mall shooting from becoming the tragedy that occurred in the Fourth of July parade massacre in Highland Park, Illinois. (Notably, in the Highland Park parade massacre, Robert Crimo III killed eight people and injured two dozen parade attendees.)
Despite Elisjsha’s saving numerous lives with his handgun, many Democrats have weighed in heavily against the young man and constitutional carry. Who would have thought both Elisjsha and constitutional carry legislation (constitutional carry is the law in 25 states) could both be disparaged after Dicken’s actions so clearly prevented a full-fledged mass murder? Yet the Democrats are deprecating both the young man and pro–Second Amendment laws.
Democrat mayor Nancy Rotering
Among Elisjsha’s naysayers is Democratic mayor Nancy Rotering of Highland Park. Before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 20, Rotering claimed, “A good guy with a gun would have had no impact on the shooter.”
It takes a lot of chutzpa to call for more federal gun laws when the existing laws, both federal and state, are not implemented with any consistency by licensing authorities. And, for the record, Crimo’s own father signed off on the culpable gun purchase. What will any additional gun legislation accomplish when existing laws are readily circumvented? It’s ludicrous to think that additional legislation is going to do anything to avert another tragedy of this sort.
The Highland Park massacre could have easily been prevented if just one person had intervened in some fashion before Crimo literally “went to town” and shot up Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade. The massacre could have been averted if Crimo’s mom had simply taken her car keys away from her son! Is it not a crime to provide a getaway car to a criminal?
Or if just one concerned friend called the local police to say, “You know, officer, Robert is serious about his posts on the internet. He intends to kill people. His obsession with death and mayhem is real.”
Robert Crimo III
At this point in time, nothing can bring back to life those whom Crimo killed. It’s pointless to talk about what people should have or could have done. But it is important to talk about how government agencies and police authorities can and should do a better job of vetting those who are given gun permits and so forth. For crying out loud, Crimo had posted violent content for years. How in the hell did he obtain an Illinois gun permit?
In this instance, I am not speaking “tongue in cheek.” I’m making the simple observation that a ton of violent content is posted by individuals on the internet daily, and most of it’s simply ignored by authorities.
Gay banner burning
Yet we have the weird phenomenon of what happened to me in fall 2018, wherein I was run out of my parish and the city of Chicago because I was labeled a “hater.” Threats were made against my person and my pastorate of more than a dozen years, not because I posted violent content on the internet but simply because the Guadalupanos at my parish burnt my predecessor’s gay banner in a private ceremony (to exorcise the parish once and for all of the LGBTQ curse).
Burning a moldy banner promoting the LGBTQ thing calls for quick action by the mayor and police, yet posting death threats against the masses goes ignored? The state of Illinois is far from good, and Illinois politicians bear a lot of responsibility for how bad Illinois currently is.
One of Illinois’ senior politicians responsible for the Prairie State’s dismal status is Sen. Dick Durbin. The Democrat has served on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for more than 22 years and is the current committee chair.
Durbin boasts about how he’s a good Catholic. This, despite his own pastor denying him Holy Communion for years because of his staunch pro-abortion advocacy. In the recent Senate Judiciary hearings on “civilian access to military-style assault weapons,” Durban, as committee chair, orchestrated a theatrical production in which Highland Park’s Mayor Rotering starred, giving a riveting blow-by-blow “witness testimony.”
The old adage goes, “You get what you ask for.” Durban in the well-orchestrated hearing got the answers out of Rotering that he wanted — in order to further curtail America’s Second Amendment right to bear arms. As Durbin and the rest of the Democrats cannot eliminate outright the Second Amendment, they continue to do their darnedest to get guns out of the hands of law-abiding Americans at every turn by adding more and more restrictions. The irony is that only law-abiding Americans keep the law, register their guns and so forth; whereas criminals just blow off all laws. This is why lawbreakers get free access to attack the defenseless populace.
What Elisjsha did to thwart the shooter at his local shopping mall in Indiana runs against Durbin and the Democrats’ gun control narrative. The poor young man has to be chastised for what he did to save lives, and we’re told we must pooh-pooh the idea of concealed carry!
I, for one, would have liked to hear Durbin, as Senate Judiciary chairman, ask Mayor Rotering some real questions:
Why were Illinois’ gun licensing laws ignored for Crimo?
Why were the numerous red flags not noticed for this overtly disturbed young man (when he publicly posted his intent to harm people)?
Why was Crimo given the green light to purchase a gun?
Sen. Dick Durbin
Illinois has some of the strictest gun laws in the United States; but, apparently, no one in that state, its counties, or its cities is currently enforcing these laws. Do officials have any answers as to why all these laws are being ignored to the detriment of, among others, the citizens of Highland Park? Do they really think that by adding more laws to the books, their state agencies will do a better job at denying licenses to those who publicly threaten to become mass murderers?
Durbin did not ask any real questions in his judiciary production because he didn’t want any real answers. So men like Elisjsha have to be gaslighted and Democratic mayors like Rotering handled with kid gloves to hide their utter incompetence in protecting citizens.
Durbin, despite his claim of being Catholic, never once talked about the virtue of defending oneself and the defenseless. The Catholic Church, in her 2,000-year-old wisdom, has long lauded the virtue of a person defending his family. Yet, despite this teaching being common knowledge, Durbin and his ilk of fake Catholics feign ignorance.
Back when I was a young man, I recall vividly my own father talking about the importance of a man defending his family, and how it was not sinful but virtuous to stop an intruder. My father, up until he took ill with cancer, always slept with his shotgun loaded alongside his bed. He did not live in Chicago for 35 years without learning about defending himself and his family. As a veteran of the Korean War, he knew firsthand that some evil men will only show you respect if you pack a gun. It’s an unfortunate reality of life in this fallen world.
As a priest for 23 years and counting, I greatly value the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right for all men to bear arms and the concomitant right to use arms to deter bad guys. Stalwart Americans need good guns these days to fight back against the enemies of God and country, who, alas, are “packing.” It’s such hypocrisy for Durbin and the rest of these Democrats to do all they can to limit the Second Amendment rights of the average American and yet ask taxpayers to fork over millions of dollars to cover their own security details.
Just recently, I had a long conversation with a good friend in the Chicago police department who told me Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot’s taxpayer-funded security detail has quadrupled since she moved from her residence in Logan Square to the John Hancock building.
A security detail that necessitated just a few CPD officers per shift now involves a couple of dozen per shift, to ensure Lightfoot’s safety at her residence in the large skyscraper in the downtown area (with its multiple public restaurants, stores and other facilities). The hypocrisy of these Democrats — who preach gun control at every opportunity yet spare no expense in keeping themselves and their families safe from all the riffraff — is astounding.
Elisjsha, I want to publicly thank you for the lives you saved. Your bravery is something to be extolled. And for all those out there who want to disparage constitutional carry, I say, grow a brain! The bad guys will have to think twice before wreaking mayhem when considering whether grandma, although old and feeble, is packing.
It’s a virtue to defend oneself and one’s family. These days, a gun makes all the difference in doing so.