Eric Pollards

“My idea is one that has been used-more of those gun buy-backs. Because that is how you get to the heart of some of these people right now. You tell them you will give them money for it. So that is the main one. I could say tougher gun laws, but the gun buy-backs, to me, is the biggest thing.”

Erice MaGee

“In regards to guns and control in the city of Chicago, there is really no way to control them. The ones who have the registered weapons-which is our right as citizens-they should allow those people to protect themselves as they have in the past. Look at the south; definitely look at Texas, even Las Vegas, and the way things are here in Illinois. That is something they should adapt and consider. If that policeman’s father had not had a gun, all those people would have gotten away, and he is a resident of Chicago. I understand he is a retired police officer but everybody should be allowed to protect their family.”

Bessie Bonivel

“I think if you have a gun in your house, it is not bad if you’re going to use it the right way to protect your family. People are afraid and the police cannot be everywhere. Law abiding people should be able to protect themselves and their families.”

Tom Jackson

“The easiest way is to require that everybody be licensed to have one, and that the license be restricted on the basis of the qualifications of the person. If there isn’t a legitimate reason for having a gun-like a law enforcement officer or security, or if they are in some jeopardy that they need to have a gun-then there should not be any guns in the city of Chicago. My family does not believe in keeping guns. I don’t believe in keeping guns.”

James Green

“I don’t really have the answer, but it is getting bad and they need to do something about it. Guns are too easy to get. If you can’t get them in the city, you can go right to the suburbs and come back to the city with it. Maybe they should start with the gun shops.”

Debra Karapetian

“I really don’t have any ideas about gun control; it does need to be contained. I don’t agree with the National Guard being here-that is an absolute no, no. This isn’t a Third World country; this is America. What really needs to happen is police officers need to actually control neighborhoods. They need to walk beats again. They need to ride bikes again. They need to be four, five or six on a corner as the drug dealers are.”

“They used to call Arkansas ‘the land of opportunity,’ and black people said, ‘Opportunity for whom?’…Today, we can say
‘Opportunity for all,’ and Arkansas can be proud of this moment.”
–Ernest Green, one of
the Little Rock Nine, the first black students to attend the
all-white Arkansas high school
in the 1950s