Mayor Lori Lightfoot: Gun Control Hasn’t Failed Chicago

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot rejects claims gun control has failed her city and instead blames states without as many gun laws.

In an interview posted by New This News only days removed from a weekend in which 41 were shot, nine fatally, in Chicago, Lightfoot blamed Chicago’s gun crime on Indiana. She described Indiana’s laws as too lax, and suggested the laws allow criminals to travel out of state, acquire guns, then return and use those guns criminally on the streets of Chicago.

Lightfoot then suggested more federal gun control is the central solution for Chicago gun crime, that universal background checks must be enacted from the top down.

Mexico has top-down gun control. The country has universal background checks and one gun store, and CBS News reports the store is the “one place in all of Mexico where you can legally buy a gun.” Despite these things, Mexico witnesses 94 firearm homicides a day compared with the 30 to 33 firearm homicides daily in the U.S.

Mexico’s example is a stark reminder that gun laws, by their very nature, only impact the law-abiding. In the end they put the law-abiding in a more defenseless position, making them easier prey for the criminally-minded.

Chicago proved this by enacting a ban on handgun ownership in 1982. That ban, which was in place until 2010, witnessed skyrocketing homicide figures for the city.

For example, the Chicago Police Department reported 850 homicides during 1993, or nearly 100 more homicides than the city tallied in 2016. Moreover, the Chicago Police Department shows there were 930 homicides in 1994; 921 homicides in 1991; and a startling 940 homicides in 1992.

How could this be? How could a total ban on handguns actually correlate with higher murder numbers instead of the peace and safety promoted by the left?

The answer is criminals did not give up their handguns. Rather, the law-abiding surrendered theirs and were immediately transformed into sitting ducks. But Mayor Lightfoot sees more gun control as a way fix Chicago’s gun crime.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.