Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Sessions’ Enforcement Of Gun Laws Will Save Lives In Inner Cities

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Sessions’ Enforcement Of Gun Laws Will Save Lives In Inner Cities

“Eleven-year-old Chicago shooting victim dies, toddler gunned down hours later.” 

That Feb. 14, 2017, headline on NBCNews.com in Chicago tells the story of two tragic deaths that should not have happened but for the intentional and aggressive malfeasance of the gun-ban political class who refuse to recognize the existence of harsh federal penalties for criminal use of firearms. 

With former U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions taking the reins at the U.S. Department of Justice, that malfeasance is about to end. Countless lives will be saved.

Attorney General Sessions and President Donald J. Trump have pledged to vigorously enforce the federal law—especially to relieve the good citizens of the nation’s inner cities of the daily terror of the most dangerous armed thugs and drug dealers. Chicago police reported that the man charged in Takiya’s murder “has an extensive criminal record, including a pair of domestic battery charges last November.” 

Had those laws been enforced during the past eight years, Chicago and other American cities would not be suffering a murder epidemic. 

Proof is in the successful enhanced federal firearm law enforcement effort in Richmond, Va., which began in 1997 when that city had the dubious distinction of being the murder capital of the nation. Called Project Exile, the aggressive prosecution of armed criminals saw immediate and dramatic results. Project Exile, the brainchild of Assistant U.S. Attorney S. David Schiller, resulted in a 45 percent decline in homicides and a 30 percent decline in armed robberies in just one year. 

Enforcement—coupled with public awareness campaigns—works! Schiller told me that Project Exile was so effective that criminals were disarming themselves to avoid sure, swift, no-plea federal sentences. 

And this gets us back to the unspeakable horror of Chicago’s child murders and the daily carnage in the Windy City. 

Again, for the “Eleven-year-old Chicago shooting victim dies, toddler gunned down hours later” article, the NBC news coverage of the murders in Chicago begins: “Takiya Holmes, one of two young girls gravely wounded in shootings in Chicago over the weekend, died on Tuesday morning. She was 11.” 

“Takiya was the youngest child killed by gunfire. … But that distinction was lost just hours after Takiya died at Comer Children’s Hospital, when a toddler was among two people shot and killed in the city’s Lawndale neighborhood.”  

In response, Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a statement demanding “meaningful gun control and sentencing legislation to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.” 

Emanuel’s words are obscenely hollow. Read “meaningless gun control.” What he should be demanding is “criminal control.”

Had Emanuel long ago sought federal arrests and prosecutions of violent armed felons, these two innocent Chicago children would be alive. The NRA has repeatedly called for strict enforcement of federal law designed to put away the worst, most violent armed criminals. But by hiding that law and seeking new, useless gun controls on good people, Emanuel, along with the likes of billionaire gun-banner Michael Bloomberg, have blood on their hands. Chicago consistently runs in the four dead-last ratings of federal prosecutions of violent armed criminals, joined by New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. 

But there’s more to the story of senseless murder. 

Oh, yes—and this is the insane part—Chicago police reported that the man charged in Takiya’s murder “has an extensive criminal record, including a pair of domestic battery charges last November. Two months before that he was charged with aggravated assault of a teacher.” These thugs could have been taken off the streets long ago under federal law.

In the toddler’s murder, police arrested a 26-year-old who had bragged about the killing. According to ABC7, the man charged with first-degree murder “has a prior criminal history and has been arrested nine times previously for armed robbery, illegal gun charges and narcotics possession,” and he was paroled in April 2016 from a state prison. 

These thugs could have been taken off the streets long ago under federal law. Gun possession for convicted felons alone calls for five-year mandatory prison sentences with no parole. If the possession involved drugs, multipliers kick in that could render sentences of up to life in a federal pen.  

But because for eight long years the Obama administration intentionally failed in its obligation to enforce the law, two kids are dead, joining a daily list of victims of senseless carnage. Chicago, last year, saw what ABCNews.go.com reported as “the biggest spike in murders in Chicago in 60 years” with “3,550 shooting incidents and 762 murders, a grim total that works out to an average of over two murders and 10 shootings every single day. 

The Chicago Tribune has been collecting data on state gun law violations and acknowledges that the state courts create “a revolving door in the criminal justice system for those who potentially pose the greatest threat to public safety.” 

In a continuing study of the local criminal justice system, the paper reported: “The data analyzed by the Tribune revealed a pattern of defendants who had been released on bond being rearrested on subsequent gun-related charges. Among the new charges filed against individuals who had bonded out, the Tribune analysis found 15 of them had been charged with murder over the five-year period.” “I just don’t believe that we hold repeat gun offenders accountable for their actions.” — Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson

The paper quoted Eddie Johnson, the Chicago police superintendent, saying, “I just don’t believe that we hold repeat gun offenders accountable for their actions.” 

And this gets us back to Sessions and his pledge to apply tough federal prosecutions to remove the most vicious armed criminals from society.

In the early 1990s, Sessions—then the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama—was a pioneer in the use of federal firearm statutes against violent criminals. His use of felon-in-possession prosecutions was described as “draconian” by federal public defenders. 

The website of gun-ban billionaire Michael Bloomberg, Thetrace.org, in a strange piece on Sessions’ stint as a federal prosecutor, proclaimed, “According to current and former federal law enforcement officials, these cases are generally seen by U.S. Attorneys’ offices as too minor to spend much time on, but an easy way to boost their total number of gun prosecutions." 

But there is nothing “too minor” about putting away individual criminals like those charged with heinous murders of innocent children in Chicago—long before they kill. And the only way to actually prevent killings, is to remove criminals from society.

As NRA members—5 million strong—we must support Sessions’ steadfast effort to do just that.

Wayne LaPierre

BY Wayne LaPierre

Executive Vice President, NRA

Since 1991, Wayne LaPierre has led the NRA through a period of unprecedented membership growth and political clout in defense of our Second Amendment rights. And that strength has been put to the good benefit of NRA members and gun owners. In large part because of Wayne's leadership, Right-to-Carry is now the law in 41 states. All 50 states have enacted laws to protect shooting ranges, and all 50 passed legislation to protect hunters from harassment.

TRENDING NOW
Third Circuit Strikes Some New Jersey Carry Restrictions in NRA Case

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Third Circuit Strikes Some New Jersey Carry Restrictions in NRA Case

Yesterday, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Siegel v. Platkin, striking some of the carry restrictions New Jersey enacted in response to the NRA’s landmark Supreme Court victory, New York State Rifle & ...

Gun Control “Journalist” Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

News  

Monday, September 8, 2025

Gun Control “Journalist” Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

Pure gun control. As in disarmament and banning of firearms. It’s rare that anti-gunners get straight to the exact point that we have been warning of for decades. 

The Desperate Deflection to the “Red State Murder Problem”

News  

Monday, September 8, 2025

The Desperate Deflection to the “Red State Murder Problem”

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) may have thought he had scored against President Donald Trump in a recent war of words over rampant crime and the deployment of federal law enforcement agents to Democratic-led cities

Due Process: The Backbone of Legal Legitimacy

News  

Monday, September 8, 2025

Due Process: The Backbone of Legal Legitimacy

Close observers of the gun debate often see references to due process.

Illinois: Governor Signs Mandatory Firearm Storage Law

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Illinois: Governor Signs Mandatory Firearm Storage Law

Earlier this month, Governor JB Pritzker signed Senate Bill 8 into law. This legislation imposes new mandatory firearm storage requirements on law-abiding gun owners.  

Update: North Carolina House Reschedules Veto Override Vote

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Update: North Carolina House Reschedules Veto Override Vote

Today, the House rescheduled the veto override vote on Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to Monday, September 22. 

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Washington’s Magazine Ban

Monday, September 8, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Washington’s Magazine Ban

Today, the National Rifle Association filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari in a case challenging Washington State’s ban on firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.

Just One More Step: Australia’s New Weapon Laws

News  

Monday, March 24, 2025

Just One More Step: Australia’s New Weapon Laws

Australia implemented a firearm ban and mandatory confiscation in 1996 pursuant to the National Firearms Agreement, in which nearly 700,000 privately-owned firearms were turned in to the government and destroyed. 

Florida: Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday Signed by Governor

Monday, July 7, 2025

Florida: Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday Signed by Governor

Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed the Florida Budget for Fiscal Year 2025–2026, which includes a Second Amendment sales tax holiday from September 8 through December 31, 2025. The NRA is thankful for Governor DeSantis’ strong ...

Supreme Court Review Sought in NRA-Backed Challenge to California’s Magazine Ban

Friday, August 15, 2025

Supreme Court Review Sought in NRA-Backed Challenge to California’s Magazine Ban

Today, a Petition for Certiorari was filed asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Duncan v. Bonta, a case—backed by the National Rifle Association and California Rifle & Pistol Association—challenging California’s prohibition on magazines capable of holding ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.