Murders Surge 51 Percent in Mayor Lori Lighfoot’s Chicago

The time-frame January 1, 2020, through October 31, 2020, saw murders surge 51 percent in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago compared to the same calendar period in 2019.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports, “There have been 655 murders this year through Oct. 31, while the city had 431 during the same period in 2019 — a 51% increase.”

And if we look at the number of shooting victims in general, not limiting it to those who were murdered, we see a 56 percent in increase January 1, 2020, through October 31, 2020, as compared to 2019. “At least 3,465 people were shot in Chicago through Oct. 31 this year” compared to “2,221 shooting victims during the same period” in 2019.

Most recently, 29 people were shot, four fatally, over Halloween weekend in Mayor Lightfoot’s Chicago. Breitbart News reported that 27 were shot,  two fatally, Friday into Sunday morning alone.

President Donald Trump’s offers of federal help to halting the gun crime were rejected during the summer by Mayor Lightfoot.

For example, on August 8, 2020, Breitbart News reported Lightfoot rejection of calls for federal HOPE response to the looting and violence overnight in Chicago, opting instead to push for more gun control.

Lightfoot called for “common sense gun control,” saying, “We cannot continue to have circumstances where anybody and their brother can go across the border, or into other parts of Illinois, and bring illegal guns into the city of Chicago.” And she had made the same argument weeks earlier during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

The Hill reported Lightfoot’s July 26, 2020, appearance on CNN’s State of Union, wherein she said, “We are being inundated with guns from states that have virtually no gun control, no background checks, no ban on assault weapons — that is hurting cities like Chicago.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot / Periscope

She did not mention that between state and local ordinances, Chicago has licensing of gun owners via state required FOID cards, an “assault weapons” ban via a Cook County ordinance, a 72-hour waiting period on gun purchases via state law, and a red flag law, which is statewide as well. Yet murders are still 51 percent higher than they were in 2019.

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 at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.