The state of Illinois has a lot of gun control. In fact, Cam wrote about that earlier today. They love gun control up that way and they resent the hell out of any effort to dial back the infringements on people’s right to keep and bear arms.
To proponents of gun control, everything Illinois does is key in fighting violent crime. Without those laws, Illinois would have major problems.
So, what does it say that even with all those gun control laws, the state is knee-deep in violent crime anyway?
A new study conducted by a nonprofit advocating for gun control shows Illinois ranks fifth in the country in homicides among Black people. Ninety percent of those victims died from gun violence.
Violence Policy Center Executive Director Josh Sugarmann explained why his organization conducts the study each year.
“The goal of our work for this study is to help support community advocates, organizations on the ground working to stop this violence,” said Sugarmann. “At the same time, we’re helping educate policy makers and the public regarding the reality of gun violence in America.”
Kathleen Sances, President of the Gun Violence Prevention PAC, stressed Illinois is leading the nation for all the wrong reasons. In fact, she said the Violence Policy Center’s study only increases the need to pass Senate Bill 568.
“Gun violence is an equity issue,” said Sances. “We must act now to get communities across our state moving in the right direction.”
Democrats have pushed for several gun reform proposals this year to try and find a solution to this problem. One of the plans would increase restrictions for gun owners by requiring fingerprints and increasing background checks.
The problem is, Illinois already has some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation. Clearly, if more gun control were going to work, the already existing gun control would already have worked.
Now, the easy response is to say that more guns mean less crime. There’s data to support that assertion, too.
However, let’s be honest, some people aren’t going to accept that, and let’s also admit there’s a reason to reject that. I mean, it’s hard to fathom that more of what’s being used to kill people is somehow better. The problem is that they’re not thinking about the difference between armed citizens and armed criminals.
The problem in Illinois is that it’s only the criminals who are having an easy time getting guns. For them, it’s simple and they bypass all of the things like FOID cards and background checks. They’ll skip fingerprinting, too, because they don’t go through channels to get their guns.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loves to blame Indiana for her city’s issues, but the truth of the matter is that the guns are going to flow into the city no matter what you do. If they didn’t come from Indiana, they’d come from somewhere else. That’s because criminals will continue to get guns.
And who pays the price?
Well, in Illinois, it sure does look like black people pay that price. Especially since it’s more expensive to buy a gun in Illinois than most other places and the median income for black households are a fraction of what they are for white households throughout the state. That means it costs more as a percentage of total income for black people to obtain firearms to defend themselves with.
In other words, I can make a pretty damn good case that the reason it’s so high in Illinois, especially for black people, is because of gun control.
Oh, I’m sure anti-gunners would deny that to be the case, but I’m pretty sure that I’d be right to make that argument.
Meanwhile, as I said, the criminals continue to do whatever they want. You’d think they’d realize that at some point.
