I was so excited my sister and I had just moved into the city.

Sure it was a poorer area but we

would be able to get a job along with all of the perks that go into city life. We moved into a

poorer area in Chicago. The apartment building wasn’t great but we would pretty much only be

there to sleep anyways and I was off to get myself a gun just in case anything bad were to

happen.

Once I got to the gun shop I started looking at different models of guns and seeing what

kind would be the most practical to protect my sister Lydia and I in case of an emergency. I

picked out a handgun that I would be able to protect myself with in case something happened

with reasonably priced ammo for the gun. When I got up to the gun counter to pay for my gun

and get everything registered I found out that they had way more gun control laws and fees then

back home in Utah.

As the gun store owner was explaining the training fees, background checks and training

that you would have to take in order to get a gun, I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to have

enough time or money to get everything done for the gun certification that I needed. I kindly

explained the situation to the owner of the store who didn’t seem surprised at my reaction and I

headed back to the apartment to try to come up with a different solution in case we needed

protection.

Once I finally got back to the apartment I told Lydia that I wasn’t able to get a gun

because of Illinois gun control laws. Even though we needed a gun as two women living alone in

a more dangerous part of the city there gun control laws included too many fees and permits that

would cost too much money so we couldn’t get a gun.

We went to bed that night and I made sure that I locked the door and all the windows and

hoped that we would be ok for the night so I could go out to the store the next day to get a
baseball bat or pepper spray or something because we weren’t able to get a gun. My thought of

getting some other form of protection however was too late. Around 1:30 that night I woke up to

a loud crash. I ran out of my room to see what was happening. There were two men there who

had broken down our door. Lydia quickly ran out of her room at this moment and all she could

do was scream. There was nothing that I could do at this point to protect Lydia and I besides

showing them where the most valuable items were and hoping that they don’t physically hurt us

and trying to call the police and hoping that they would get there in time.

They quickly ran through the apartment grabbing everything. When they left the room I

called 911 and tried to explain the situation as calmly as I could with a bunch of robbers in my

apartment. The men left and even though we live inside of the city it took the police 15 minutes

to get to us. They asked us a bunch of questions about what the men who came to the apartment

looked like and said that they would keep an eye out for us but that was pretty much all that they

could do because the men had already left.

Lydia and I had nothing else left in the apartment and didn’t even have a penny anymore.

I then did the only thing that I could do which was to call our parents to send us some plane

tickets to get back to Utah, pack up whatever few belongings were left and head to the airport

and move back home. Our dreams of living in the city were absolutely crushed.

If only things were different, maybe Lydia and I would still be in Chicago trying to make

our own way but due to Illinois gun control laws we weren’t able to get a gun to protect

ourselves due to all of the fines and training involved. This kept us from getting ourselves a gun

even though we really needed one. Things would have also been different when I called the

police. They were able to show up quick enough to protect us but that just isn’t always a

possibility.