by Ryan McMaken
Mises.org
It is now well known that the City of Chicago —and Illinois overall—have adopted stringent gun control laws over the years. Thus, the pro-gun-control Giffords Center gives the state of Illinois a lofty “A-” on its “annual gun scorecard.”
Yet, somehow, shootings are surging in the city this year. Although crime in Chicago—like the nation overall—is lower today than it was during the 1980s and 1990s, murders have been a perennial problem in Chicago for years. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported last week:
The 105 murders reported in July are a nearly 139% increase from the 44 reported in July 2019, according to police data released Saturday. The 406 shooting incidents last month were a 75% increase from the 232 reported in the same month-to-month comparison. … Murders are up 51% from the same point last year, along with a 47% increase in shootings, police said.