Lori Lightfoot Either Doesn’t Understand Federal Law, or Hopes Nobody Else Does

It has become commonly accepted among anti-gun extremists to ignore the mountains of evidence that exposes the abject failure of gun control to prevent violent criminals from acting like violent criminals.  They reject the fact that criminals already violate myriad laws at the local, state, and federal level in furtherance of their illicit activities, and insist that the only way to prevent criminals from committing crimes with firearms is to add more laws.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has learned that lesson well.

As the Windy City experiences dramatic increases in violent crimes involving firearms, the Washington Examiner reports that Lightfoot was “told that the police union blames her for a lack of moral (sic) among the city’s law enforcement officials.”  In an attempt to deflect criticism of her administration, the mayor decided to blame, you guessed it, gun laws.

Rather than look at what she and her city could do better, in an interview on MSNBC’s Live With Stephanie Ruhle, Lightfoot claimed, “We have to have a federal policy on background checks and making sure people are not able to go across the border to states like Indiana and get military-grade weapons in quantities and then bring them back to the streets and shoot people up.  That’s what’s happening.”

The only problem with her response is…well…everything.

First, we have a federal policy; several, in fact.  The “N” in NICS stands for “National,” as in, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.  It is the law of the land, and requires all sales at gun dealers, no matter what state they take place in, be subject to a NICS check to ensure the purchaser is not prohibited from making such a purchase.

Second, federal law generally prohibits private citizens—who are not licensed gun dealers—from lawfully transferring a firearm to anyone who is not a resident of the state in which they reside.

Third, if her reference to “military-grade weapons” is her way of referring to semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15, such firearms represent a small fraction of the guns used in firearm-related crimes nationally.  It is unlikely that Chicago is any different than the rest of the country in this regard.

And finally, while Lightfoot appears to be looking at adding new restrictions to the current lawful transfer of firearms, she ignores the fact that violent criminals primarily acquire firearms through already illegal channels.

That’s not even taking into account the gun laws in Chicago and Illinois, which are, arguably, some of the most restrictive in the country.

So, rather than looking at what she can do better to stem the rising tide of violence in her city, Mayor Lightfoot has decided to misrepresent federal law, malign her neighboring states, and suggest we need more laws that will further infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens; more laws that violent criminals will regard with as much disdain as the current mountain of laws they violate. 

President Trump has even offered federal assistance to help improve police efforts.  It seems Lightfoot, however, is more interested in scoring political points by promoting anti-gun policies embraced by the far left, rather than considering strategies that will actually help the citizens of her city.