Why Pro-Gun People Always Bring Up Chicago

In reading old blog posts of mine, I have come to realize that posts with lots of stats don't read well. So I have been trying to keep them to a bare minimum which is really difficult when it comes to the subject of gun laws. Gun laws work, we know this. Lets keep it simple, this could be shown with two lists. 

Here are the US states with lowest rates of firearm mortality in 2021 according to the CDC: 

CA, CT,  HI, MA, NY, NJ & RI. 

Here the states with the strictest gun laws: 

CA, CT, HI, IL, MA, NY, NJ & MD.

Notice the cross over? Ya, I am saying it ... strict gun laws bring down the incidents of murder.  Duh! This is pretty obvious. But yet, when I talk to gun rights people, they always say the opposite that gun laws don't work. They always use the example of Chicago.  They usually don't mention New York, LA or Boston all of whom have historically low gun crime. 

On the surface, they are correct. Gun laws aren't working in Chicago. Cook County, Illinois and Chicago have some of the country's highest rate of gun death including suicide and homicide. Chicago's has 25 gun murders per 100,000 citizens But it is a lot more complicated than that. Both Chicago and Illinois have very strict gun laws, but look at Chicago on the map, it on the edge of Illinois very close to Wisconsin and Indiana. If you want to buy a gun, legally, you just need to make a short drive to Milwaukee (murder rate of 32), Gary (64) or South Bend (23).

Detroit (45) has the same problem but it is even worse because their state, Michigan, has lax gun laws so Detroiters just need to go to the suburbs to buy their guns. 

In comparison, someone who wants to buy a gun legally in New York City, can't go to the suburbs or the closest states (CT & NJ). They would have to drive to PA or VT which is a significant effort. They will either make a road trip, buy the gun illegally or not buy it at all.  The last option is what we are hoping for a potential mass shooter.  The goal of gun laws is not to stop all murders, which would be impossible, but to stop some of them. They are succeeding   

By the way, Jackson Mississippi has the highest murder rate in the country of cities over 200,000 people of 69 per 100,000 people. It is very easy to buy a gun in MS. Those liberal cities where the politicians are supposedly so soft on crime are very low. The four largest city in Texas have the higher murder rates than New York (3), LA (7) or Boston (7): Houston (15), Dallas (13), San Antonio (9) and Forth Worth (9).

When I was kid, both new New York and Boston were known for their violent crime, but a lot has changed since then.  They are safe cities and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Congratulation to everyone who has worked so hard to make this true.

I apologize for all the stats. I was originally worse, much worse. Through the magic of editing I kept to a bare minimum.