Richard M. Daley, the longtime Chicago mayor, held a press conference Thursday in which he discussed, among other things, the fate of the city's controversial handgun ban. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to overturn the ban with a ruling in McDonald v. Chicago, which should come down in June.
Daley outlined plans of how the city would restrict gun ownership if the ban were reversed, including measures like mandatory firearm training, fingerprint registration and regular background checks for gun owners.
But he also had some choice words for opponents of the measure.
First, he took on the Supreme Court. He told reporters that the ruling wasn't certain yet, and that he was hopeful that their minds could still be changed, with a pretty ominous comment.
"You have to have confidence in the Supreme Court. Maybe they'll see the light of day. Maybe one of them will have an incident and they'll change their mind overnight," Daley said.
(Scroll down to see NBC Chicago video of Mayor Daley's comments.)
Then, Chicago Reader reporter Mick Dumke raised the question: if the handgun ban is so valuable, why is the city is suffering from an epidemic of gun violence?
Daley responded by -- no joke -- threatening to shoot Dumke in the rear end to prove how effective the gun ban has been. WBEZ recorded the mayor's explanation:
"It's been very effective," he said, grabbing the gun off the table in front of him. "If I put this up your -- your butt, you'll find out how effective it is. If we put a round up your, ha ha."
Click here for WBEZ's audio recording of the comment.
Dumke, who wrote about the exchange for the Reader, reports that the mayor continued on an unrelated tirade about weapons, effectively dodging the question and amusing the press corps:
"Next will be hand grenades, right? We'll say that hand grenades are OK. I mean, how far can you go in regards to mass weapons? To me, any gun taken off saves thousands of lives in America. I really believe that, I don't care what people tell me. You have to thank the police officers for seizing all these weapons. We lead the country in seizing weapons. This is unbelievable."
I had to agree.
Watch Mayor Daley talk about the Supreme Court gun ban case: