Man of the Month: Rep. Ken Dunkin
Chatting gun control, family and Blagojevich with the 5th District representative
In a lower level office in Old Town, a wall-mounted TV is turned up to full volume. “You have watch this,” says Ken Dunkin, a state representative for Illinois’ Fifth District, directing his staff’s attention to breaking news that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled to invalidate Chicago’s longstanding handgun ban. At the mention of proposed legislation (HB0687) that would require all Illinois firearm owners to carry a $1 million insurance policy, Rep. Dunkin pumps his arm in victory. “That’s my bill!” he says.
Later, seated and with his tie neatly folded and placed on the corner of his desk, Rep. Dunkin defends the bill that he says has made him the “number one public enemy” of the National Rifle Association. When someone in Chicago is injured or killed by someone else’s gun, he says, “Who picks up that tab? Families are left fending for themselves. When they go to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, who pays for that? The general public. All my proposal is, is, let’s have a minimum liability insurance. If your gun is used illegally and someone is maimed or killed, let your insurance pick it up.” He adds, “But the handgun ban [law being struck down], this is going to set back the city of Chicago decades.”
In a conversation that covered topics from immigration laws to religion to Blagojevich, Rep. Dunkin’s boisterous energy never lagged – an asset for a father of three managing a career that spans the state.
You grew up in Cabrini-Green, but went to Morehouse College in Atlanta. Was there ever a doubt you’d return to Chicago?
Being from Chicago, there’s no way in the world that you can avoid a great city forever. I wanted to come back here with some completion, some satisfaction, and that was to get a degree from one of the greatest colleges in the nation.
How does your background as a social worker and director of the Robert Taylor Boys and Girls Club of Chicago inform your work as a state rep?
[It helps me] understand that human dynamic with constituents who, it takes a lot for them to make their problems public. For them to go to a public aid office or a social service program…that takes a lot of pride adjustment and action toward really getting themselves together. Issues of domestic violence, in particular, are very private for a lot of people, but very public when you’re calling the police and engaging in victim assistant services. Legislation coupled with my understanding of that social service component, that’s a direct correlation.
Tagged as: Man of the Month
is managing editor and electronic media editor of Today's Chicago Woman. She is active in various local and national women’s groups, including Step Up Women's Network, Rape Victim Advocates and the TCW Foundation, and is a member of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Young Professionals. She writes and speaks about local, national and international women's issues, including in her blog, “Twice As Well."
Comments (2)
LAMONT ROBERTSON Posted on 08:22, Dec 28th 2010
In a follow-on thought: Maybe Kenneth should consider legislation that would require known gang bangers, rapists, thugs, and drug pushers to carry multi-million dollar liability insurance since these are the ANTI-CITIZENS that are responsible for the gun violence in the streets in the first place… just being facetious now.
LAMONT ROBERTSON Posted on 08:12, Dec 28th 2010
Considering how we grew up in Chicago’s Cabrini Green housing project, I am not surprise that Kenneth has taken an anti-gun approach in his legislative career. We lived through a period of time when it was unusual to NOT hear guns blazing in the night by criminal gang members. I recall a time when we attended Jenner elementary school where conversations about who got killed the night before due to gun violence was a common topic amongst children.
However it surprises me (given my colleague’s level of intelligence); that Kenneth seemed to have negated to give a proper analysis of the gun control debate, and the logic behind the decision of the Supreme Court on the issue of gun rights in McDonald v. Chicago. The unconstitutional Chicago gun law that prohibited law abiding citizens from possessing hand guns did nothing to curtail the violence for nearly 30 years of its passage – in fact, the city saw itself amongst the top ten murder capitals in the U.S., at one time besting Detroit, MI and East Saint Louis, IL. Honest Chicago citizens were left to be the sacrificial lambs of the criminal elements. The Chicago gun ban thereby became a reward for the gangbangers and drug dealers who were not going to recognize the gun ban anyway - that is the reason why they are CRIMINALS!
I cannot imagine anything that’s more un-American than law makers who relegate their citizenry to perpetual victimization by stripping them of the means to defend themselves and their families. Law makers need to busy themselves with ensuring that the laws that are already on the books are actually enforced. If that tweak is ever addressed in our American Criminal Justice System, then law makers will have plenty of time to draft bills and make laws that make sense.