A report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s senior VP and general counsel Lawrence Keane indicates pro-gun control Mayor Brandon Johnson’s “armed security” detail costs taxpayers about $30 million a year.
According to Keane, the detail “includes as many as 150 Chicago Police Department officers.”
Keane noted that Johnson avails himself of the security provided with firearms while simultaneously praising restrictions on citizens’ ability to own the rifle of their choice:
In Chicago, Mayor Johnson has backed some of Illinois’ most restrictive firearm policies. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2023 reversed a lower court’s preliminary injunction against Illinois’ ban on so-called “assault-style weapons,”… [which included the] state’s magazine restrictions, Mayor Johnson praised the ruling and called the law an “important step” that would keep “weapons of war” out of neighborhoods.
Keane observed, “The practical message to Chicago residents was clear. Government officials and their armed details can enjoy armed personal protection but the public should accept tighter limits on the tools of lawful self-defense.”
Numerous other pro-gun control Democrats have taken a similar “guns for me but not for thee” approach in leadership policy.
For example, on June 2, 2022, Breitbart News noted that Hillary Clinton claimed, “No one actually needs an AR-15,” after years of taxpayer-funded protection from agencies and departments, many of which avail themselves of AR-15 rifles.
That was not the first time Clinton took a position against guns that ran counter to the fact she has spent many years of her life living with the peace of mind that comes from being protected by good guys with guns. Following the December 2, 2015, San Bernardino terror attack that killed 14, Clinton said, “Guns, in and of themselves… will not make Americans safer.”
Breitbart News pointed out that President Joe Biden (D) enjoyed round-the-clock, wall-to-wall protection by good guys armed with the very guns he wanted to bar Americans from owning.
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 the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD 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. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.