Nine people, including a 5-year-old girl who was fatally wounded while sitting in her father’s car early Sunday, provide more evidence that strict gun control laws in Illinois—and particularly in Chicago and Cook County—have been a dismal failure.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, at least nine people were murdered over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The problem isn’t just confined to the Windy City, either.
Out in Washington State, where gun control laws have been getting more restrictive over the past decade, the Washington State Standard reported more guns are showing up in schools. Of the 2,275 reported “weapons incidents” during the 2022-2023 school year, 316 “involved possession of a firearm,” the report said. In addition, the story cited an October 2023 report in the Washington Post, which said, “1 in 47 school-age children…attended a school where at least one gun was found and reported…by the media.”
Meanwhile, many people still think the way to reduce gun-related violence is to stage a “gun buyback,” which even gun control proponents reject as truly productive.
In Chicago, according to the popular website heyjackass.com, which tracks homicides in the city, 176 people have been fatally shot so far this year. Another 829 people have been wounded by gunfire. Nobody is rushing to declare gun control a success in the city, and the gun prohibition lobby dodges the issue whenever they claim strong gun laws save lives.
The Sacramento Bee reported the city police department “collected at least 17 firearms on Saturday” as part of a gun buyback. Such efforts are symbolism over substance.
Buried in the Sacramento report is an acknowledgement such efforts accomplish little: “Past studies of gun-buyback programs have shown that these events alone do not have any impact on citywide gun crime rates. Typically, the surrendered weapons are not the type used in violent crimes, UC Davis researcher Garen Wintemute said, and often, it is mature adults, not youth, who are turning in weapons.”
All of these reports point to one inescapable conclusion: Gun control laws have failed, and to suggest otherwise might be, at best, described as living in denial.
The Washington State Standard story offers affirmative evidence of this by quoting an academic who reportedly praises Washington’s gun control laws, and asserts the way to deal with the increasing numbers of guns showing up in schools is to make it “even harder to obtain a firearm.” The problem, of course, is that it is already difficult in the Evergreen State to legally purchase a firearm. Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee last year signed legislation mandating a 10-day waiting period for gun purchases. Anti-gun lawmakers—all Democrats—in the State Legislature initially wanted to push a purchase permit requirement but backed off when they were reminded a similar requirement in neighboring Oregon had just been declared unconstitutional under the state constitution.
Go east 2,700 miles to “the other Washington,” where last year saw the body count climb 36 percent over 2022, according to WUSA back in January. In a city with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere in the country, where the center of government is located, 2023 produced 274 homicides, what WUSA called a “20-year high.” In 2022, the city reported 201 slayings.
Remarkably, nearby Baltimore saw a drop in slayings, but it may have been an aberration. Earlier this year, the Associated Press reported Baltimore murders had dropped below 300 for the first time in a decade. Last year saw 263 killings in the city, which still has tough gun control laws. What’s the secret?
The AP report noted Baltimore’s effort to focus law enforcement on violent offenders, drug trafficking and seizing firearms possessed illegally. After all, Maryland laws are already tough on law-abiding citizens, so perhaps it’s the criminals’ turn.
Out in Seattle, there have so far been 19 homicides and as if to demonstrate the futility of trying to stop killings by adopting gun restrictions on honest citizens, there have been fatal stabbings and two axe murders. There are no background checks on knives, hatchets or axes, and no waiting periods.
Homicides seemed to spike during the pandemic, but various published reports suggest the numbers are generally declining.
Now, however, there is a new demon in the debate: Suicide. Salon is reporting that suicide reached a record high in 2022, with some 50,000 deaths. Approximately 55 percent of those involved firearms, which will give momentum to arguments for waiting periods.
Gun control is already becoming a presidential campaign issue. CBS News is reporting the Biden campaign has released an ad attacking Donald Trump on guns, two years after the Uvalde school massacre. The text confirms Joe Biden is “fighting to ban assault weapons.” The ad accuses Trump of doing nothing to keep people safer.
The ad ignores the fact that the Uvalde killer violated the existing gun law prohibiting guns on school campuses, to say nothing of the law against murder.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
Not to be a Biden, but Blacks are 13% of the population, and yet they commit 60% of the murders in this country! This is by design, courtesy of LBJ, and the rest of the racist Democratic Communist Party!
Leftists want to do with guns what they do with all things. And that’s take them away and replace them with nothing!
evidence and voters’ needs do not matter to politicians. what matters, is the under the table money the politicians gets and what that money buys. this is particularly true of the dumb as craps.
you left out hammers, they never fail to make list of most common weapons used in Homicide
Of course I left them out. This is about the failure of gun control, not “hammer control.”
Thanks for reading and sharing this AMMOLAND report.
You did reference knives, axes, and hatchets after all. 😉 But thank you for using the phrase “firearms possessed illegally” instead of the ubiquitous ‘illegal guns’.
Thanks Dave for another informative article. I wonder how Gates, Balmer and Hanauer became billionaires considering how myopic they are and how the statistics show their efforts are ineffective.
I wonder how much Sacramento payed out in overtime to gather 17 “guns?”
5th paragraph: Sacramento Bee reported a ” …a bun buyback… ” occurred to prevent mayhem and murder in the capitol city of California!!! Good for them! It is a puzzle, however. Does it have something to do with the problem of californ…tion occurring in Oregon and Washington (states)? Are the streets of the California capitol city awash with some kind of lethal bun, possibly a ‘bun burner’? Is it correct to refer to ‘bun’ as a singular item, or does the Sacramento Bee refer to a pair of (usually) matched buns, one bun on the left, one bun on the… Read more »
their term for paid abortion
Okay, it’s a typo, I’ll try to fix it.
Thanks for reading and sharing this AMMOLAND report.
Thanks Dave. The bun fun pun was just too enticing for word play. BTW, I left a similar correctly spelled, but not quite right word for you to find. It’s actually another pun to punish the author (self). 🙂
swift and severe punishment would definitely help. the legal system doesn’t help at all because they plea bargain down the charges against the criminals, thereby putting dangerous people back on the streets when they shouldn’t be.
control or prohibitions haven’t helped with anything; alcohol use, drug use, illegal immigration, pregnancy. it just takes away something from who isn’t doing anything wrong/illegal.
if politicians were required to live in these areas things would change immediately. we have politicians who are out of touch with reality and the people they represent in congress.
The Sacramento Bee reported the city police department “collected at least 17 firearms on Saturday” as part of a gun buyback. Don’t let them fool you. I am sure more guns were turned in but they kept some of them for themselves and for sale to felons like they have done in the past as well as for plants and throw aways. Sacto cops are dirty shitty cops and they deserve the title of PIG’s and it doesn’t stand for Pride Integrity and Guts like they have on their cars. They lie for each other and are lazy. I had a guy… Read more »
Is a felon someone who committed a felony, or does a felon have to first be be convicted of a felony to be a felon?
We can all agree that felons should not possess firearms. Are we still wondering if once a felon, always a felon?
A simple law that prohibits a felon from possessing a firearm fails to prevent felons from possessing firearms. Besides, since when do felons give a damn about the law? Should we give a felon the benefit of the doubt?
https://www.local10.com/video/news/2024/05/28/felon-arrested-in-connection-with-supermarket-shooting-that-wounded-9-year-old/
i suggest you read our Second Amendment… again.
show us where it bans felons from owning or possession of firearms once they free from government bondage or servitude.
the Bill of Rights apply to every Free American citizen.
The 1968 gun control act is what made the law that felon’s cannot have a firearm regardless of what the constitution says. I am in agreement with this law unless the felony was not committed with a gun and if it were not a violent felony. In these cases, ownership of a firearm should not be subject to this law IMO. You can get a felony for grand theft auto of a car when no one is around, you can get a felony for stealing money from your job or a bank, even when a gun or violence was not… Read more »
After a felon has served their sentence, their Right to walk around free, protest, gather in groups, buy and sell goods, and all of his other Rights are restored. They are a former felon. The founders wanted America to be a place of second chances, with one exception.
The only time that Rights are not restored is in the case of capital punishment where the sentence is carried out.
One. Then lock the bastard up forever if they break the law a second time.
kommiefornia has 3 strikes your out. I voted for it. If you mess up a third time, you are in for life. A lot of criminals moved out of kommieefornia when that law went into effect that had two strikes and things got better.
Yes, sometimes the jury and sentencing judge do that. And society is better for it.
Yes, and the GCA is a federal law., and the GCA denies the person convicted of a felony the right to ever own a gun again. The GCA is a democrat monstrosity, so you know it can’t be correct. The GCA turns a state sentence into a life sentence, and you know that that can not be what the founders intended.The GCA violates the sovereinity of the states, that is not constitutional. And the GCA changes the judge’s sentence into a life sentence, and that can not be correct. Just trying to give everyone some context.
That is up to the jury and the sentencing judge. Sometimes they hang the perpetrator the first time.
You have to stop thinking honestly. You have to ask your self how will the marxists use our system against us, and also we have to consider what the founders really intended.
and that is why no one should be able to tell you that you cannot defend yourself with whatever you want.
I’ve got to agree with Orion. Read the 2nd Amend. – again. The 2nd is not a control of, or permission for the People. Like all of the Bill of Rights, it is a restraint on the government, not felons. To quote David Codrea: “The inescapable truth is anyone who can’t be trusted with a gun can’t be trusted without a custodian. If a person is really a threat, take him in, prove it, and then segregate him from those he could harm. The legal system provides a way to do that. It’s just that it’s harder because it requires REAL… Read more »
like i said, swift and severe punishment, you could say capital punishment.
First, one must be convicted of a felony to be a felon. Remember the presumption of innocence? Second, after paying his debt to society, the person is no longer a felon no matter what law enforcement and politicians would have you believe, that person is a former felon. Third, a law that prevents a person that has been convicted of a felony from owning a gun, ever again, turns the person’s sentence into a life sentence, and that is not what the judge sentenced that person to. Finally, in this era of lawfare, if you own a gun, the people… Read more »
a felon is a person who committed a major crime, is adjudicated and sentenced to prison. once felons serve their sentence they should have their rights restored but they will always be a felon.
and this is why neither the feds or states should be able to say who can carry what, where and when. it is for defense from violent animals, four and two-legged ones.
how long will it take till even the “gun banners” wake up to the fact gun control is not about guns but about control of them? but then as long as the government feeds and house’s the stupid,,, well you get it i’m sure.
I won’t disagree with anyone that advocates restoration of rights post completion of all sentencing, including probation. What I will point out is that there are mechanisms already in place (afaik in all states) where the ‘felon’ can petition the courts for that restoration, IMHO that shows good faith on that persons part that they are willing to become a responsible Citizen. Perhaps that can become part of the conditions of their final release?