Chicago and New York City have gun problems. They have an exploding criminal violence epidemic, exacerbated by lax enforcement at the prosecutorial level. They do not have a law enforcement problem. The police are undermanned, overwhelmed, hamstrung, and unsupported by city administrations and the District Attorneys to whom they hand the criminals they apprehend.

Nor, for all the dire federal insistence to the contrary, do they have a white supremacist problem. There is a cultural divide being fed by policies, a race war purposefully pitting white against black, and, especially for the kids of the inner city, it is stripping the last semblance of childhood from them.

These are 8th graders in Chicago, celebrating after graduation.

Underage Chicago teens show off their firearms following their 8th-grade graduation. America here's a big part your problem. pic.twitter.com/awOqFtg2h6

— Dave the realist 🇩🇪 (@bigdave2022) September 29, 2022

Children casually wave weapons around, extended magazines with full auto switches on many, and tuck them away in their pants. Any adult caught in possession of such a weapon (outside of one of these Soros-DA jurisdictions) would feel the wrath of God smite him. Yet, here is a gaggle of 13-year-olds, and every last “youth” has a weapon. Every last one. I cannot believe they were all purchased legally in Indiana, whose “easy” gun laws Mayor Lori Lightfoot has blamed repeatedly for the proliferation of firearms in her city.

So where did they come from? Where does an 8th grader get the cha-ching to buy one? Do the parents (I know I’m being optimistic using a plural) not have a clue/care what’s going on? Does no one ask those questions at city hall? It’s easier to ignore the problems and point fingers when you’ve got your own security detail rather than take the issue by the horns.

Invariably, one of those weapons will be pointed at another human being, either defensively or aggressively, and someone will die. In the unlikely event the person who fired the shot is arrested, odds are they will be returned to the street almost immediately, and have suffered little but a slight inconvenience. They already knew life was cheap, but now they know they have the power to take it without consequence. There’s no reflection involved, no assessment of life’s direction perhaps needing a heading change. “They can’t do anything” is the message taken back to the street. It’s creating and empowering future monsters.

One of the most egregious examples of releasing an underage felon who used a gun occurred in NYC in May of this year. A 16-year-old “rapper” (I mean, you already know you’re in trouble with that) named Camrin Williams aka “C Blu” was charged with attempted murder when his gun went off while he was throwing down with an NYPD officer.

…A 16-year-old gang member was charged with attempted murder on Wednesday night over the shooting of an NYPD cop in the Bronx a night earlier, police said.

The suspect’s gun went off while he was tussling with the officer – identified by sources as Kaseem Pennant, 27 – outside a building at Lorillard Place near East 187th Street in Belmont around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.

The single round struck the teen in the groin before hitting Pennant in the right leg, police said.

In a too familiar scenario, the next step? See you, C Blu! Scot free out the door.

Charges have been dropped against the teenage rapper accused of shooting an NYPD officer during a scuffle in the Bronx earlier this year, officials confirmed.

The gun and assault case against Camrin Williams, a 16-year-old reputed gangbanger and rapper who goes by the stage name C Blu, “cannot be prosecuted,” the city Law Department said in a Friday statement, without elaborating.

You knew there was a third act – there always is. Arrested on “a new gun charge,” to his utter shock, C Blu wound up in jail. All that masculine street bluster blew apart.

A teenage drill rapper who walked off scot-free after being accused of shooting a cop during a scuffle earlier this year cried after he was ordered held on $100,000 bail on a new gun charge Thursday.

Camrin Williams, a 17-year-old gangbanger who goes by the stage name C Blu, broke down in tears as he was led out of Bronx Criminal Court in handcuffs following his arraignment.

Crips gang member C Blu has gun busts on his record going back to when he was 14. The judge said he wasn’t having any more of it, and good for him.

…The teen’s lawyer, Dawn Florio, said her client was “traumatized” by the new arrest.

…“Prominent drill rapper persona of posting on social media dissing other people,” Florio told the judge. “He didn’t get into a fight. He’s scared. He’s really traumatized by the whole event. He lost all his month. He is a boy.”

But McCormack wasn’t moved.

“I know this is the third contact [with the criminal justice system,” the judge said. “This is a serious offense.”

Leaving court, the teen’s family screamed at reporters and lunged at a photographer.

Reporters and photographers had nothing to do with your repeat offender, gang member teenager.

When we were first stationed in SoCal, there was an awful story on KTLA’s evening news about a 7-year-old, who’d been killed in a gang drive-by – spraying the sidewalk with bullets as they are wont to do. We were horrified. But then more came out about it. It happened at 3 in the morning! “WHAT?!” we looked at each other, thinking the little guy had crawled out a window or something, but no. Interviewing the mother the reporter went there and asked, “What was he doing on the street at 3 a.m.?”

Dang, didn’t she ruffle up, and fire back, “I can’t control a 7-year-old!”

Somebody has to. God almighty, somebody better start.

Demonizing and punishing legal, law-abiding gun owners and dealers will not do a thing to take those weapons from the clutches of those children. It hasn’t and it won’t, as your draconian Illinois/New York gun regulations have proven repeatedly (and as they will assuredly find out to their horror when Governor Pritzker’s Safe-T Act comes into force in January.). Indiana didn’t do this, Colt firearms didn’t do this, my 12 gauge didn’t do this. The 2d Amendment had nothing to do with it.

The complete disrespect for education did this, the cultivated, active disrespect for authority and law did this, the welfare mentality did this, and above all else, the breakdown of families did this. Losing fathers did this.