Chicago, Chicago, Chicago. Whenever the subject of guns and stronger gun laws comes up, that’s Donald Trump’s answer. Chicago, according to Trump, is “the city with the strongest gun laws in our nation,” yet still has a lot of gun violence. It’s not actually true that Chicago has the strongest gun laws, but that’s not even the main problem with Trump’s position. See, Chicago is not an isolated island. It’s surrounded by other parts of the United States, many of them within easy driving distance and with weak gun laws, and Chicago’s gun laws definitely don’t include searching vehicles at the city limits and confiscating guns. That means most of the guns in Chicago didn’t come from Chicago:
Tracing nearly 15,000 weapons recovered from 2013 to 2016, Chicago police discovered about 40 percent originated from Illinois firearms dealers, while the remaining 60 percent came from out of state.
Indiana, which borders Illinois, supplied most of the outside guns — about 20 percent, according to the report. Indiana is also home to gun shows where no background checks are required for firearms purchased from private sellers.
Mississippi and Wisconsin, which also have more lenient gun laws, are the source of about 5 percent and 4 percent, respectively, of firearms into Chicago, the city's report says.
Only 40 percent were even purchased in the state of Illinois, let alone the city of Chicago.
So when you talk about Chicago gun laws and Chicago gun violence, a lot of the time you’re talking about Indiana guns. Or even Mississippi guns. Which is one more reason we need the federal government to act to protect us from gun violence—and it’s not just Chicago. The vast majority of guns in New York come from other states. Virginia and Florida and Alabama and Georgia are sending guns to New York, and Massachusetts and Maryland for that matter.
But Donald Trump would rather tell a race-baiting lie than talk about what’s really going on with guns in America.