President Trump tweeted on Friday morning that Chicago gun crime has reached “epidemic proportions” so he is “sending in federal help.”
Trump tweeted:
Breitbart News reported that Chicago had nearly 4,400 shootings and nearly 800 homicides in 2016. Moreover, there were more than 300 individuals shot in the first 30 days of 2017 alone. As violence surged, Breitbart News reported that Chicago Police Board Chairwoman Lori Lightfoot wanted federal help. NPR quoted Lightfoot saying:
We need to have more federal gun prosecutions in Chicago. Our federal partners from the U.S. attorney’s office, the ATF, the FBI need to be much more invested in this overall strategy. Chicago Police Department cannot tackle this issue by itself.
Gun crime raged in gun-controlled Chicago to such a degree that on April 25, 2017, the Chicago Tribune reported that the Windy City passed “1,000 gunshot victims for the year.” Now Trump indicates “1714 shootings” by June 30.
On January 24, 2017–just days after his inauguration–Trump addressed the “carnage” in Chicago, pledging to “send in the feds” if local leaders could not stem the tide of violence. He is now signaling that the feds are on their way.
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.