Opinion: Downstate Republican Compares Gun Control to Castration

I don’t know if Rep. Jim Sacia is racist because he suggested Chicagoans are having too many kids.

But he is ignorant.

On Thursday, Sacia, a Freeport Republican, said taking guns away from rural Illinoisans because Chicago has too many murders would be like castrating rural Illinoisans because Chicagoans breed too much.

“Here’s an analogy, folks,” Sacia said during an overwrought floor speech. “I want you to think about this: you folks in Chicago want me to get castrated because your families are having too many kids.”

Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, called that “one of the most offensive statements I’ve heard.”

“That epitomizes the view of … the Republicans or some Downstate Democrats, their view of African Americans, minorities or people from the city of Chicago, that all we do is lay around and make babies,” Davis said.

In fact, the Chicago metropolitan area only has the sixth highest birth rate in Illinois, with 51 babies per 1,000 females between 15 and 50. Even if Sacia was trying to single out African-Americans, his analogy falls apart, because the nationwide black birthrate is 61.7 -- lower than the whites of Southern Illinois.

    Here are the top five:

    Marion-Herrin   64    
    Danville              57    
    Decatur              56    
    Rockford            54    
    Galesburg         52    

If we have an overpopulation problem in Illinois, it’s the men in the southern part of the state who need to regulated, not the men in Chicago.
    






 

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