Chicagoans are hoping that a gun bill proposed by President Obama will help reduce gun violence in the city, mostly taking place in poor, urban sections.  Chicago is a fantastic city. It’s home to great restaurants, culture and nightlife but to think guns are the problem is naive and silly.  Yes, guns alow people to kill each other more easily but they are not root cause of the problem.  Even if guns laws become more restrictive, the murder rate in Chicago will not decrease.  There are two main reasons for this; first, just like the war on drugs has been a complete failure, so will the war on guns.  They are everywhere and the bad guy who wants one will always be able to get one.  Just like the person who wants cocaine will always be able to get it.  The second problem is, the type of violence that occurs in the inner city is not the same kind of violence that happens in a Newtown Connecticut massacre.  In urban areas, it’s about young, angry males, involved in drug trafficking or other illegal activity and one individual or group has a gripe with another individual or group.  There is a target in mind.  These young people, don’t need an assault rifle, a simple .38 revolver or 9mm will do the trick.  In fact, very few of the five hundred gun murders in Chicago in 2012, involved an assault type weapon.  The real problem in Chicago is that many of the urban areas, where mostly decent people live by the way, are not fit for human habitation.  Of course there’s violence.  Public housing needs to be razed and decent, affordable housing needs to rise in its place.  People who have decent homes and things they like or respect, don’t act with indifference or worse, violence.  Abject poverty, lack of education, lack of cohesive family units; those are the root causes of violence and must be addressed if the violence is to diminish.  Without guns, people will use knives or bats.  Should we ban those as well?  It’s time our politicians start addressing the real issues.  But don’t expect them to, because the real issues are much more difficult to solve.