Ever since McDonald vs. Chicago, the Windy City hasn’t really had their own gun control schemes in place. That’s generally been OK, though, because the city has such an impact on Illinois politics that they can push whatever they want through at the state level. As a result, Illinois is one of the most gun-controlled states in the country.

Yet, despite (or because) of all that gun control, Chicago is one of many cities seeing a massive spike in violent crime in the wake of weeks of civil unrest.

According to CNN’s Don Lemon, though, there’s really only one reason for Chicago to be having this problem.

During the nightly handoff with “Cuomo Prime Time” anchor Chris Cuomo, Lemon expressed gratitude that crime in Chicago is being discussed but warned that political motivations could be behind it.

“I’m glad that people are starting to pay attention to crime, especially in cities like Chicago. But it is sad that they’re doing it in a year where they can use it as a political cudgel to hurt someone and try to help someone else,” Lemon said.

“Listen, there’s spikes in crime and there’s real work that needs to be done, right? Needs to be fixed. I lived in Chicago for a while. Every night when I lived in Chicago, there was a crime story, a shooting story. I’ve been doing stories about crime at this network for so long. I’m glad people are paying attention to it but it’s been an issue for a long time. And do you know one of the biggest issues is? The availability of guns. And you won’t hear that from some people.”

Probably because there’s tons of gun control in place in Chicago and none of it is doing a damn bit of good.

While officials in the city love to blame nearby Indiana for their woes, the truth is that Indiana doesn’t have that kind of violent crime despite the availability of guns actually being higher than Chicago.

Of course, this is the same Don Lemon who mocked the idea of violent crime increases not too long ago. It wasn’t an issue then, but it is now that it’s convenient.

Regardless, the problems in Chicago have little to do with any availability of guns, even on the black market. There’s been no appreciable increase in firearm availability in recent weeks, yet there’s been a massive surge in violence all over the country in cities of various sizes. All without any liberalization of gun laws in the vast majority of these locales.

Yet people like Lemon don’t like guns, so they grab hold of the most simplistic explanation they can find, one that feeds their innate desire to disarm the American people, then push it over any other potential cause. The truth is, violence is far more complex than many people want to hear.  There are no simple solutions because the problem isn’t simple.

Not that I expect a CNN host to grok that. So far, none of them have shown me they’re capable of understanding that simple concept, but especially not Don Lemon.