Orwellian Gun Quote of the Day: Chicago Police Chief McCarthy

Guns Collected by Phoenix PD in May, 2012

Chicago Police Chief McCarthy was recently involved in a bit of agit-prop produced by NBCChicago.  In the video, he makes the following comment:

"We've recovered more than 6,500 guns so far in 2013, and every year for I don't know how long the Chicago Police Department has recovered more guns than any police department in the country,"

This is pure Orwellian newspeak. Almost none of the guns that he is referencing were actually "recovered". Recovered implies that they were returned to their rightful owners. However, very few of the 6,500 guns were returned to their rightful owners. In many cases, they were taken from their rightful owners. Chicago is still in the process of starting to follow the rule of law and honor the the highest law in the land, the U.S. Constitution and the second amendment. The proper terms that Chief McCarthy could have used were: confiscated, impounded, or simply, seized.

But those terms would have made what is happening all too clear. The police are confiscating guns from people. Sometimes, they are justified in doing so, sometimes, they are not. But they are not recovering the guns. To say so is to imply that everything belongs to the state, and that individuals are simply allowed to "borrow" things for a while, until the government "recovers" them.

It is classic Orwellian newspeak.

©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.   Link to Gun Watch