Yale Public Health Dean Megan Ranney Suggests Greening Vacant Lots Could Curb Chicago Shootings

Yale School of Public Health dean Dr. Megan Ranney (pictured) gave congressional testimony Tuesday in which she responded to questions about Chicago gun violence by pointing to studies suggesting that repairing urban buildings could reduce shootings.

Ranney made the remark during an exchange with Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who had asked her about the raging gun violence in Chicago.

Kennedy said, “Why do you think Chicago has become America’s largest outdoor shooting range?”

Ranney responded by saying, “Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri actually have higher firearm death rates.”

Kennedy tried to get Ranney to refocus, as he had asked about a city rather than states. He said, “What about Chicago?”

Ranney then said, “I don’t live in Chicago, it’s not my primary area of research.” She did not say whether she lives in Mississippi, Louisiana, and/or Missouri.

But Ranney did point to studies which she said suggested reclaiming vacant lots could reduce shootings: “There’ve actually been studies showing when you green vacant lots and repair abandoned buildings in urban neighborhoods you see decreases in gunshots and violence, as well as in stress and depression in the neighborhoods around them.”

Kennedy then said, “No disrespect, Doc, but that sounds a lot like word salad to me.”

Ranney’s shift away from dealing with the gun violence in Chicago to point to “firearm death rates” in red states is a common maneuver among members of the gun control lobby. Doing so allows them to avoid mentioning the actual numbers of firearm homicides occurring, whether in blue cities or blue states.

For example, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures for 2021 show that Illinois, the state in which Chicago is located, had more firearm homicides than Mississippi, Louisiana, or Missouri. Mississippi had 962, Louisiana had 1,314, and Missouri had 1,414, while Illinois had 1,995. And the majority of Illinois’ firearm homicides occurred in Chicago, according to Heritage Foundation Legal Fellow Zack Smith.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.