‘Chicago Guns Matter’ Founder: Citizens Have Same Right as Mayor to Protect Themselves

Chicago Guns Matter founder Rhonda Ezell says citizens have same right as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to enjoy protection via firearms.

Ezell founded Chicago Guns Matter amid her ongoing fight for a change in city ordinances to allow more shooting ranges in more places for better accessibility.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, 49-year-old Ezell has suffered from serious health problems throughout her years and the 50-mile drive to the nearest shooting range is physically draining for her. To remedy the situation, she joined with the Illinois State Rifle Association in a lawsuit aimed at eliminating Chicago’s strangle hold on new shooting range construction. The suit, Ezell v. Chicago, resulted in Chicago’s myriad regulations on shooting ranges being tossed.

Subsequent with these things was the fact that Ezell received a kidney transplant, which improved her health and encouraged her to launch Chicago Guns Matter. She said, “The mayor walks around every day with armed security paid for by the taxpayers of Chicago, yet he doesn’t want you to go to a gun range and be efficient with the firearm you choose to have in your home for the safety of you or your loved ones.”

Ezell has a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card and a concealed carry permit. She stresses that “black Chicagoans need to realize they have the right to carry handguns in the city.” Yet she laments that Chicago gun controls remain so tight that in traveling to do her interview with the Sun-Times she was forced to leave her firearm at home, because concealed carry by law-abiding citizens is prohibited on Chicago public transportation (and she took the L to reach the interview).

Illinois State Rifle Association executive director Richard Pearson stands with Ezell in her fight to roll back Chicago gun control. He said, “We have this crazy idea that civil rights means everybody. We also think your ZIP code does not dictate what your rights should be.”

Ezell wants to use Chicago Guns Matter to help expose black Chicagoans to freedom and to train them in how to use that freedom to defend their lives and property.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.