Chicago Gun Violence in 2016 Already Worse Than This Time Last Year

During the first ten days of 2016, “three times as many people were shot in Chicago” as were shot over that same period in 2015.

According to New York magazine, there had already been “120 shootings,” which resulted in 19 deaths in Chicago.

Chicago Police Department spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi blamed the shootings on gang activity fueled by social media, and suggested the solution is even more gun control. Guglielmi said, “Every year Chicago Police recover more illegal guns than officers in any other city, and as more and more illegal guns continue to find their way into our neighborhoods, it is clear we need stronger state and federal gun laws.”

But Chicago already has a “violence tax,” which raises the price of every gun and bullet sold at retail, an “assault weapons” ban, limits on the number of gun stores and the locations of those stores, and what The New York Times describes as handgun restrictions that let city leaders “get as close as they could get legally to a ban without a ban.”

Yet the Chicago Tribune reported that there were nearly 3,000 shooting victims in Chicago during 2015. The actual figure was 2,986; the number of homicides among those victims was 470. This gave Chicago the distinction of having “the most violent year of all major U.S. cities.”

And 2016 started more violently than 2015.

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.