On January 24 Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted that Chicago’s gun violence is the result of “lax gun laws” at the federal level.
He did not explain how Congressional refusal to pass more gun control would increase Chicago violence while passing over so many other cities, leaving them safe and sound.
Murphy tweeted:
His tweet was issued in response to President Donald Trump’s tweet, sent earlier on the 24th, which said:
Murphy’s message is clear–law enforcement, even at the federal level. would be powerless against Chicago gun violence unless coupled with more gun control. But this message is flawed because Chicago has been a gun control testing ground for nearly 40 years.
For example, Chicago banned handgun ownership in 1982. That ban stayed in place until being struck down by the Supreme Court in 2010 (McDonald v Chicago). The whole of Illinois–which includes Chicago–had a ban on concealed carry after the handgun ban was struck down. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled the ban on concealed carry “unconstitutional” in December 2012. And the city had a de facto ban on gun ranges until the 7th Circuit struck it down on January 19. In many of the examples listed above, the city’s Democrat leaders have responded to judgments against gun control by seeking ways to hold to vestiges of the vanquished laws. For example, Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) responded to the judgement against the concealed carry ban by seeking to implement numerous safety corridors throughout the city. These would be gun-free zones where criminals would still carry but concealed permit holders could not.
And this about this–the state of Illinois requires residents to get a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card before they buy a gun or get a concealed carry license. So in addition to requiring a license to exercise Second Amendment rights, the state of Illinois requires that you get an FOID card in order to get your license.
Yet all these controls–and the vestiges of these controls–have correlated with “carnage” and death, rather than safety. But Senator Murphy believes more gun control for Chicago is the solution–especially if that gun control is issued by the federal government, thereby further restricting Second Amendment rights in other cities around the country as well.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.