As the year ended and the bloodletting in Chicago was tallied at nearly 800 murders, President-elect Donald J. Trump took to Twitter to decry the massive loss of life and chided the Windy City’s mayor for his seeming inability to do anything about the mayhem in his city.
Trump went to Twitter on January 2 after stories hit the nation of the tremendous number of murders in Chicago, and he pleaded for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to turn to the federal government for help if he cannot solve the problem himself.
“Chicago murder rate is record setting – 4,331 shooting victims with 762 murders in 2016,” Trump tweeted. “If Mayor can’t do it he must ask for Federal help!”
By some accounts, 795 citizens of the Windy City were murdered in 2016; by others the toll was 779 — but whatever the actual number is, the deaths numbered close to 800 and measured almost 300 murders above the total from 2015.
Of those murdered in Chicago, well over 700 of them were killed by illegal use of firearms. But with over 4,300 people shot, the number of deaths pales in comparison to the number of Chicagoans shot during the bloody year.
It is a trend that has continued on an upward trajectory throughout former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s tenure as Chicago mayor.
In a city famous for its long-term gun bans, the bloodshed reveals the utter uselessness of the city’s gun laws.
Breitbart’s AWR Hawkins wrote this week, “Chicago has been a testing ground for gun control for decades. The city put a ban on handgun ownership in place in 1982 and the Tribune reported that the next 10 years witnessed a “41 percent” jump in murders, “compared with an 18 percent rise in the entire United States.” And why shouldn’t such a ban lead to an increase in murder? After all, when bans are enacted, only the criminals remain armed.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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