Chicago may just be one city in Illinois, but because of its population, it has a very strong say in what laws the state passes. After all, outside of the big cities, many in the state value their gun rights. They don't want the same gun control Chicago does.

But, they're outnumbered, which means what Chicago wants on gun laws, Chicago gets.

And yet, it really doesn't seem to help all that much, now does it?

The Windy City is a wonderful city in so many ways--it's one of my favorite cities to visit--but it's got a problem with violent crime, a bad one. It might not be the worst city in America for violence, but it's up there.

Which, of course, is used to justify more gun control. 

Overnight, the city saw five people murdered. In a single night.

Chicago police are investigating multiple deadly shootings across the city overnight, including one involving a man on a CTA bus.

Police say the violence, which erupted over a period of about two-and-a-half hours late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, left five people dead, the youngest a 15-year-old girl.

There is nobody in custody for any of the shootings, according to police. 

...

Additionally, police say two women were critically injured around midnight in the Austin neighborhood on the city’s West Side.

According to police, two women, both 22, were standing on the sidewalk just after midnight Wednesday in the 5000 block of West Gladys Avenue when a white sedan approached and an unknown offender fired shots in their direction.

One woman was transported to an area hospital in critical condition with gunshot wounds to the neck and right shoulder, and the other woman was transported to an area hospital in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the back.

Again, police say nobody is in custody for any of the shootings, and area detectives are investigating.

Five people were killed, two more wounded over the course of one night and these aren't from a single mass shooting attack. And this in a state that has all kinds of gun control.

Let's not forget that earlier today, I wrote about Gun Owners of America asking the Supreme Court to overturn the state's assault weapon ban. That ban, however, is in place right here and now, and how's that working out?

The truth of the matter is that the problem is people and it's always been people. Chicago has a lot of people and they're densely packed together, which is always a recipe for some kind of violence. People aren't really meant to be that crammed together, I suspect.

And gun control laws won't prevent that.

Illinois restricted magazine capacity and certain types of weapons, yet five people were gunned down overnight just the same. That's roughly a third of the homicides that a state like Maine sees in an entire year. That's over a single night.

I'm sorry, but you're never going to convince me that gun control works when this is what we see in a gun-controlled state like the Land of Lincoln.

Illinois probably deserves better, but until they start voting for it--and by "they" I mean Chicago--this is what they're going to keep getting: Blood and pain.