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As solutions begin with honesty, it’s time to put the focus on Chicagoland, lest its problems spread like a cancer through the rest of the country.As the body count rises, Chicago’s officials and many in the media are blaming guns and law-abiding gun owners—yes, you and me—for the city’s out-of-control violence.
First, I should note that Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been criticized for the city’s rising homicide rate. Last January, for example, the Chicago Tribune’s John Kass wrote that police are saying Emanuel has assumed the “fetal” position. They said this after a video showing a police officer shooting Laquan McDonald, a teen with a knife and PCP reportedly in his system, 16 times from about 10 feet away was withheld from the public for 13 months—until after Emanuel’s re-election.
Kass wrote: “Gone are the days when Emanuel can talk about being tough on crime, because that would involve his officers getting tough on it, too, and putting their hands on people and making arrests.”
As Emanuel played politics, Chicago actually ranked dead last in federal enforcement of gun laws per capita, according to a report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data gathering and distribution organization at Syracuse University.
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