Recognition of budget cuts not enough, time to ‘ fund up’

READER FEEDBACK

The recent editorial (“Cracking down on armed carjacking in Chicago and the suburbs,” Feb. 12) correctly points out the need for Illinois to “face up to the effects of drastic budget cuts to programs to stop crime before it starts.” But “face up” mustmean more than simply acknowledging that funding cuts have damaged public safety and eviscerated opportunities for youth to avoid delinquent behavior and, in turn, escape poverty and prison. We must domore than face up; we must “fund up” and then “drive down” the proliferation of illegal guns.

The General Assembly must findmoney to pay for services and end payment delays to after- school program providers, youth jobs, and mental health services. Members should enact common- sense policy changes, such as state licensing of gun dealers to help prevent illegal guns from getting into the wrong hands.

Both Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Supt. Eddie Johnson have endorsed the proposed Gun Dealer Licensing Act ( SB 1657), but we need more than talk.

City leaders should get more serious about curbing violence by delivering services to struggling families, enforcing existing laws to stop the resale of lost and stolen guns and enacting laws to crack down on corrupt gun dealers who make it easy to put illegal guns on our streets.

Instead of a city known for putting youth behind bars for crimes they might not have committed, we should become a city where kids don’t have easy access to guns but have the basic necessities such as a home, food, health care and education to enable them to envision a productive future.