CHICAGO — A federal judge has called gun trafficking "the biggest public safety issue" in Chicago as he sentenced a 53-year-old Post Office worker to 24 days in prison and three years' probation for buying three guns stolen from a Norfolk Southern train yard.



Lori Shelton told Thursday's hearing she bought them because she needed them for self-defense in her high-crime Englewood neighborhood. The mother of two insisted she was "only protecting" her family.



But Judge John Tharp said buying stolen guns only encourages the violence "tearing" her "neighborhood apart."



He cited her otherwise clean record for the lenient sentence. He said she'd serve her prison term on weekends so she won't lose her day job. But for her own good, he said she needed to know the "bitter taste" of prison.



