Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Crime in “America’s largest outdoor shooting range” – Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Monday, December 4, 2023

Crime in “America’s largest outdoor shooting range” – Lies, damned lies, and statistics

In a press conference late last month, Chicago’s progressive new mayor, Brandon Johnson, shifted the blame for the crime epidemic and migrant crisis plaguing his city on his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot (another Democrat), and on “right-wing extremism.”

To be sure, Lightfoot’s tenure as mayor was marked by spiraling crime rates “stunning even by hardened big-city standards.” Chicago Police Department (CPD) statistics from early this year showed reported crime overall was already up by 55% as compared to the same time in 2022, and every major crime category tracked by the CPD, with the exception of murder and “shooting incidents,” showed double- or even triple-digit increases over the last two years. Vehicle thefts had skyrocketed, accelerating by an incredible 255% between 2021 and 2023.

Dealing with runaway crime and violence remain significant challenges for the new mayor, who assumed office in May. Although the most recently available year-on-year crime statistics (CompStat, Week 48) from the CPD show some good news (murder is down by 12%), overall violent crime has increased by 19% this year compared to last, and by an astounding 68% as compared to 2021.

In an approach even more novel than deflecting responsibility onto bureaucratic predecessors and “the far Right,” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) has apparently opted for a strategy of complete interpretive license. One article quotes Pritzker as saying, “Violent crime has been coming down [in Chicago], actually for three years, but in particular over the last year.”

Perhaps he is reading the graphs upside down. According to the latest CompStat figures, a historical comparison between 2022 and 2023 shows increases in almost every listed crime category except for murder and “shooting incidents” (and burglaries currently are just one percent lower than the 2022 level). The story isn’t better three years back, as overall violent crime has risen by 67% between 2020 and 2023. Although reported murders, shooting incidents and burglaries have decreased from 2020 figures, robberies have increased by 38%, criminal sexual assaults by 29%, and motor vehicle thefts are more than 200% over what they were three years ago. As the article notes, pinpoint statistics for some specific districts in Chicago are even more dismal: overall violent crime in one City district, District 25, has escalated by 83% since 2020, including a 26% increase in murders.

A random scroll through the website of CWBChicago, which reports on Chicago crimes, statistics, and trends (citywide and by neighborhood) offers a more vivid illustration of public safety in the Windy City. In just the last week or so of November, the headlines include, “15-year-old robbed 11 people in 5-hour crime spree, Chicago police say,” “Hours-long crosstown robbery spree ends with victim shot Friday night, Chicago police say,” “Robbery crew committed 12 holdups in an hour on Thanksgiving morning, Chicago police say,” and “Drive-by gunman shoots 5 people leaving concert at United Center.”

Responding to Pritzker’s refusal to acknowledge the problem, the good folks at CWB Chicago ask, understandably, “What is our governor smoking?”

Unfortunately, there is reason to believe that not much will change for Chicago’s residents anytime soon. 

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on November 28 on the “gun violence epidemic.” One of the witnesses testifying before the committee was Steven H. Cook, a former police officer, federal prosecutor and now retired Associate Deputy Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice. Some of the factors he identified as contributing to the rise in violent crime across America were the “national anti-police protests and calls to defund the police” that resulted in “de-policing” (the “reduction in proactive discretionary policing”) and “soft on crime” progressive prosecutors who refuse to enforce the laws and promote lenient bail reforms.

Chicago’s new mayor has been described as “a far-left activist” backed, among others, by the Democratic Socialists of America, who was “an outspoken advocate of the defund-the-police movement.” Soros-backed Kim Foxx, Chicago’s chief prosecutor since 2016, has embraced progressive “de-prosecution” strategies like dropping felony cases and declining to prosecute misdemeanors, while allegedly claiming that violent crime rates have dropped since she took office.

What none of these officials are prepared to admit is that the violent crime problem can be attributed to the detrimental effects of their pro-criminal, anti-victim policies, including gun-control laws that restrict the rights of responsible citizens. According to gun-control group Giffords, A minus-rated Illinois “has some of the strongest gun laws in the country.” 

Not everyone is as enthralled by the benefits of progressivism. At the November 28 hearing, in an exchange with a public health official testifying before the committee, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) brought up the Windy City. “Let me ask you this,” Kennedy began. “Why do you think that Chicago has become America’s largest outdoor shooting range? Do you think it’s because of Chicago citizens, who have no criminal record, but who have, lawfully, a gun in their homes for protection, or perhaps for hunting? Or do you think it’s because of a finite group of criminals who have rap sheets as long as King Kong’s arm?”

IN THIS ARTICLE
Chicago crime
TRENDING NOW
North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Last week the North Carolina General Assembly briefly returned from recess and re-referred Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to the House Rules Committee.

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Yesterday, in Butler v. Bondi, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama held that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its statutory authority by issuing its 2024 Final Rule expanding ...

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

California officials’ egregious foot-dragging over the issuance of carry permits has finally attracted the ire of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). 

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that Americans know the President Donald Trump-led Republican Party has a better plan than their Democratic Party opponents on crime and gun control.

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Friday, October 3, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Yesterday, the National Rifle Association filed an amicus brief in Knife Rights, Inc. v. Bondi, urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s decision upholding the Federal ...

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

Last Monday, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the U.S. Department of Commerce published a final rule that reversed a crackdown on the commercial export of firearms from the U.S. to other countries.

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

There’s an old saying that rings especially true to Second Amendment supporters: If you don’t read the news, you’re uninformed.

Alphabet Eases the Reins on Censorship; Will Gun Content Eventually Benefit?

News  

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Alphabet Eases the Reins on Censorship; Will Gun Content Eventually Benefit?

With the free speech debate recently co-opted by one TV host’s use of false and incendiary remarks about his political opponents, it might have been easy to miss another important First Amendment story last week. 

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

News  

Monday, September 29, 2025

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

There have been multiple developments on the Canadian gun grab and ban in the last few days, but the most astounding has got to be a leaked bombshell recording of the Liberal Public Safety Minister, ...

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Friday, October 3, 2025

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari in Wolford v. Lopez, a challenge to Hawaii’s law forbidding carry on private property open to the public (such as restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores) ...

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.