The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that veteran anti-gun Catholic Fr. Michael Pfleger is “forming a bus caravan to travel to the nation’s capital to rally for gun control regulation, and urged Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to return with him to Chicago for a free schooling on the city’s gun problem.”
The Rev. Pfleger, pastor at Chicago’s St. Sabina church, has become a fixture in the Chicago gun control scene, having become something of a lightning rod over the years for demonstrating outside of Chuck’s Gun Shop in suburban Riverdale.
He has injected himself into the beef between Cruz and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot over gun-related violence in the city. Cruz recently tweeted that gun control “doesn’t work,” and he used Chicago as an example.
Gun control doesn’t work. Look at Chicago. Disarming law-abiding citizens isn’t the answer. Stopping violent criminals—prosecuting & getting them off the street—BEFORE they commit more violent crimes is the most effective way to reduce murder rates. Let’s protect our citizens. https://t.co/znHO31gDH2
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019
That infuriated Lightfoot, who blamed gun laws in Texas and neighboring Indiana for Chicago’s crime problem. She responded with a tweet of her own, listing the Top Ten sources of guns recovered in Chicago for the years 2-13-2016.
60% of illegal firearms recovered in Chicago come from outside IL—mostly from states dominated by coward Republicans like you who refuse to enact commonsense gun legislation. Keep our name out of your mouth. https://t.co/yVM4JHL3xy pic.twitter.com/pr613A3dpf
— Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) September 3, 2019
However, there is something missing from Lightfoot’s chart. It’s a comparison of homicide numbers between Chicago and all of those states from whence recovered guns apparently came. Quick research by Liberty Park Press and TheGunMag.com revealed the following:
- Chicago logged 650 murders in 2017, according to CNN. In 2016, the Windy City reported 771 slayings, CNN noted.
- Indiana was the source of 21 percent of recovered guns in 2016, and in 2017 that entire state reported 360 murders, of which 291 involved firearms.
- Mississippi was the source of 5.1 percent of recovered guns in Chicago in the same time period, and in 2017 that state reported 149 slayings, of which 111 involved guns.
- Wisconsin was the source of 4.0 percent of recovered guns and in 2017, that state had 186 homicides, of which 149 involved firearms.
And it continues that way with the Windy City’s body count exceeding that of entire states from whence the recovered guns reportedly came. That suggests there is a problem in Chicago, but not in the states from where all these firearms apparently originated.
Texas is an interesting exception. In 2017, there were 1,364 slayings in Texas of which 1,012 involved firearms. However, according to Mayor Lightfoot’s chart, the Lone Star State was the source of only 1.8 percent of all the guns recovered by Chicago police in 2013-2016. It was at the bottom of the “Top Ten” list.
In May 2007, Pfleger infamously called for the “snuffing” out of Chuck’s Gun Shop owner John Riggio during an Operation PUSH demonstration outside the store. There were calls for Pfleger to be defrocked. At the time, Pfleger claimed he did not understand the meaning of the word “snuff.”
Sen. Cruz, a solid Second Amendment defender—as opposed to being a “supporter”—should have the high ground over Chicago’s “high priest” of gun control.
