When we talk about how gun control isn’t really an answer to violent crime, we tend to point to Chicago. This is a major city in a state with pretty extensive gun control laws and sky-high violent crime rates.

It’s not a good look for gun control, to be sure.

The problem really is that violence is a complex thing, with many factors all contributing to a single, horrifying issue.

As a result, people are constantly looking for a solution.

One alderman in Chicago thinks he has a brilliant idea. The concept? Let’s just get bad guys to limit what times they go and try to kill one another.

A Chicago politician and a community group desperate to slow the city’s spiraling crime problem is begging for 12 hours a day where people don’t shoot their guns.

Alder Maria Hadden, a Democrat, boosted a proposal by the group Native Sons calling for ‘The People’s Ordinance’ – a ceasefire between 9am and 9pm.

‘PROTECT THE YOUTH NO SLIDING WILE THE SUN IS OUT’ reads the all-caps promo, titled United For A Safe Summer.

They’re asking for the refrain from gunshots to reduce risk to Chicagoans who are ‘not involved in high risk activities.’

‘We have to start somewhere,’ Tatiana Atkins, co-founder of Native Sons, told CWB Chicago.

‘Our goal is to approach our city’s gun violence problem strategically and not all at once. Things didn’t become this way overnight, and change won’t happen overnight.

They’re also asking, as part of the ordinance, for people to ‘stop associating with and glorifying’ shooters.

‘When those who live a certain lifestyle try to hang with ‘regular’ class citizens, they put everyone at risk,’ Atkins said.

Apparently, there isn’t any formal proposal up for a vote, but proponents claim there’s no need to wait, that people can start acting accordingly right here and now.

Some critics are likening this to The Purge, and I get the comparison. After all, you’re basically implying it’s somehow OK to shoot people from 9 PM to 9 AM, which is kind of the concept behind the popular movie. The difference is that The Purge was once per year and this is every night.

That said, there are some key differences we need to acknowledge, and these differences are part of what makes this whole proposal so very stupid.

For one thing, it doesn’t appear that this is actually trying to legalize homicide during the night. That makes it very different from The Purge, thankfully. In the movie, The Purge is a 12-hour window when all crime is legal, so you can do whatever you want during that timeframe without repercussions, and that’s not quite what is being suggested here.

Instead, even if this city ordinance has any kind of teeth, it’s still not going to accomplish much. I mean, these are people ready to risk a murder charge. I’m pretty sure the misdemeanor for violating a city ordinance isn’t exactly going to dissuade them from trying to kill someone at noon.

Look, I get what they’re trying to do here, and the concept of shootings happening in the middle of the night so that there’s less chance of innocent people being shot and killed would certainly reduce the risk to the people of Chicago that just want to go about their lives.

But nothing here is likely to accomplish much more than simply asking, “Pretty please?”

Chicago isn’t actually accomplishing much of anything here, but then again, it’s not like anything else they’ve tried has accomplished all that much, either.