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
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). 

California: Governor Newsom Signs Gun Control Bills Into Law

Monday, October 13, 2025

California: Governor Newsom Signs Gun Control Bills Into Law

For someone who has claimed to be"...deeply mindful and respectful of the Second Amendment and people’s Constitutional rights,” Governor Gavin Newsom has once again proven that actions speak louder than words.

FBI Persists in Underreporting Armed Citizen Defensive Gun Use

News  

Monday, October 13, 2025

FBI Persists in Underreporting Armed Citizen Defensive Gun Use

Three years ago, Dr. John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), writing for RealClearInvestigations, described how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was vastly undercounting, “by an order of more than three the number of instances in ...

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Thursday, October 9, 2025

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Today, the National Rifle Association—along with the American Suppressor Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, and Second Amendment Foundation—announced the filing of another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).

Firearm Prohibition Advocates Mute on Jay Jones “Two Bullets to the Head” Scandal

News  

Monday, October 13, 2025

Firearm Prohibition Advocates Mute on Jay Jones “Two Bullets to the Head” Scandal

Democrat Jay Jones, candidate for Virginia attorney general, still has not suspended his campaign, even as pressure mounts over disclosures that should disqualify, to put it mildly, any individual from serving as the chief law ...

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.

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging California’s Glock Ban

Monday, October 13, 2025

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging California’s Glock Ban

Today, the National Rifle Association—along with Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, Poway Weapons & Gear, and two NRA members—filed a lawsuit challenging California’s Glock ban.

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, ...

Rehearing En Banc Sought in NRA-Supported Challenge to New Jersey’s Carry Restrictions

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Rehearing En Banc Sought in NRA-Supported Challenge to New Jersey’s Carry Restrictions

Today, the National Rifle Association announced the filing of a petition for rehearing en banc in Siegel v. Platkin, a challenge to New Jersey’s carry restrictions.

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Ban on Firearms Possession by Nonviolent Felons

Thursday, October 9, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Ban on Firearms Possession by Nonviolent Felons

Today, the National Rifle Association, along with the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and FPC Action Foundation, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the federal lifetime prohibition on ...

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.