Chicago's sacrificial lamb has been released with a sentence of one year supervision, and time served. Ex marine, Vietnam vet, and urban outdoorsman Martin Beuck was arrested in the shooting deaths of six people in Chicago. Beuck was not the shooter, nor did he know the shooter. He was not even the person who sold the gun to the shooter. Beuck was the man who had owned the gun for 26 years, without incident. He had legally registered it, and legally sold it to a policeman.

Being homeless, however, Beuck had made the unfortunate mistake of throwing out his paperwork for the sale after a mere 9 years. If only Beuck had kept that paperwork, perhaps the murders committed by Salvador Tapia could have been prevented. Ok, well, maybe not. Still, Beuck made a good scapegoat, considering Tapia is dead, the two policemen who illegally owned the pistol are both dead, and the police are clueless as to how Tapia even got his hands on the gun in the first place. Beuck had the unfortunate distinction of being the only man they could throw in jail. Of course, given that the shooter, Tapia, had a long criminal history, was not allowed to own a gun, and had made numerous threats of violence with firearms, the killer should not have even been on the streets in the first place.

Media Bias Alert: Adding further insult to injury, after Beuck's lawyer expressed his "heartfelt sympathy", the Chicago Sun Times ran the headline Original gun owner apologizes for workplace massacre. (Apology: noun - an admission of error or discourtesy accompanied by an expression of regret.)

The entire episode is a good example of how powerless the Chicago police are to prevent crime, and how their strict gun laws, which even the police (whom are sworn to uphold the law) chose to ignore, actually put people in danger rather than protect them.

While I've been to Chicago a few times, I could never live there, or even in Illinois. It was a fun place to visit, but the oppressive government regulations are just too much to put up with over the long term. Thanks, but no thanks Chicago.