Chicago’s Bloody Weekend Is A Deadly Example Why Strict Gun Laws Do Not Work

At least 60 people were shot in Chicago between 3 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Monday, including an 11-year old girl.

The mounting tragedies are just the latest in a double-digit increase in the city’s gun violence over last year, according to The Chicago Tribune.

This, despite last year’s alarming increase in homicides and shootings across Chicago.

The news also serves as a poignant reminder that unconstitutional restrictions on gun ownership by law-abiding citizens do next to nothing to prevent criminal behavior.

Indeed, it’s almost as if criminals purchase and use guns regardless of the law. Who would have thought?

Perhaps nowhere is this more clear than on the bloodied streets of Chicago, where gang violence is running rampant and deadly despite some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.

“Much of the violence we see in Chicago is about the gang cultures, revenge, retaliation and street justice,” police Superintendent David Brown said at a Monday news conference, the Tribune reported.

And those gangs clearly have guns, no matter what the law says.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the city had an all-out ban on all firearms not registered with Chicago police from 1982 until 2010, when the law was struck down by a judge.

The report also notes that the city’s gun laws only fall short of those in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco in terms of restrictiveness.

Chicago, New York and Los Angeles are America’s three largest cities, and are all witnessing a horrific increase in shootings and homicides following the destabilizing unrest of last year’s George Floyd riots, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In a commentary piece printed by The Chicago Tribune in April, Jens Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, documented a 55 percent increase in homicides across the city last year over 2019, and a 110 percent increase in gun carrying. Of those caught illegally carrying, nearly 68 percent were between the ages of 18 and 30.

But truly, how could this be? How could murders be increasing and how could children be getting caught in the crossfire if Chicago has such tough gun laws? After all, Illinois requires that all residents obtain a Firearms Owner Identification Card to purchase firearms or ammunition, according to the NRA-ILA.

Alas, when it comes to the ineffectiveness of such laws, the proof is in the pudding.

The hyper-restrictive gun laws in cities like Chicago and New York do not prevent criminals from engaging in crime. This weekend’s rampant violence is proof enough of that, to say nothing of the last year of skyrocketing crime.

Such laws do, however, prevent decent, law-abiding people from practicing their constitutional right to bear arms, and Americans ought to be prepared for the left’s coming attempts to capitalize on the gun tragedies in order to push more unconstitutional legislation.

The fact is that most of the common-sense legislation that actually works in curbing gun violence was already implemented long ago, and all that is being pushed now under the guise of “preventing gun violence” are blatant power grabs that serve only to disenfranchise law-abiding citizens and embolden criminals.

America’s cities deserve better, and they will only get it when Americans stop accepting garbage laws and start investing in good old-fashioned police work.

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Andrew Thornebrooke is a writer specializing in foreign policy and national security. He is the executive editor of The Rearguard and a MA candidate in military history at Norwich University.

Andrew Thornebrooke is an American writer working at the crossroads of communications and policy advocacy. He is an expert in intranational conflict and national security.

He is the founder of The Rearguard, a weekly column dedicated to exploring issues of culture, defense, and security within the context of a receding Western Civilization.

Andrew is a MA candidate in military history at Norwich University where his research focuses on non-state military actors, partisanship, and the philosophy of war. A McNair Scholar and public speaker, he has presented research at several institutions including Cornell, Fordham, and the CUNY Graduate Center.

His bylines appear in numerous outlets including The Free-Lance Star, Independent Journal Review, InsideSources, The Lowell Sun, and The Western Journal.

Nationality

American

Topics of Expertise

Defense; Military Affairs; National Security