On February 5 Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said, “Forty percent of…crime guns” in Chicago can be traced back to purchases at gun shows in Indiana, where no background check is required.
Durbin was speaking to individuals gathered for a luncheon at the City Club of Chicago.
According to WGN Radio, Durbin was speaking on the topic of crime when he said, “No serious discussion of crime in Chicago or America can start with any other topic than guns. We cannot allow ourselves to be numbed or resigned when it comes to the deadly impact and easy access of firearms.”
He added:
I went to the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agency office a few months ago here in Chicago, they just completed a survey of the crime guns that were seized in the forty deadliest neighborhoods here in Chicago. Forty percent of those crime guns can be traced directly to gun shows in northwest Indiana. All you need to do is produce an ID there and you can fill up the trunk of your car with guns and ammo.
There is a considerable discrepancy between Durbin’s claims and the Chicago Police Department’s most recent report on guns. According to the CPD, a total of 60 percent of crime guns in Chicago “were first purchased outside of Illinois.” And 19 percent of the crime guns confiscated “between 2009 and 2013” were traced back to Indiana. However, the CPD also reported that “four local dealers supplied nearly 20 percent of the guns recovered at Chicago crime scenes” during this same time period, which means a larger percentage of guns found at Chicago crime scenes originated at Chicago area gun stores–where background checks are required–than originated in Indiana, where they are not.
On top of this, a University of Chicago Crime Lab survey published by the Chicago Tribune in August 2015, found that inmates in the Cook County jail preferred to get their guns on the streets from “personal connections” rather that outlets like guns shows and the internet. Inmates said some of them of have friends that maintain a Firearm Owners Identification Card, and those friends pass background checks to acquire guns, then sell them on the street. Others talked of buying guns from “corrupt cops” who seize guns, then turn around and resell them as a way to make more money.
The bottom line–No amount of gun control will stop determined criminals from getting guns, and the failure of Chicago’s gun laws are just one more proof of this point.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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