It's not just Chicago, Stupid: Debunking another NRA Myth

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Bryan Dawson
@BryanDawsonUSA
No, Chicago doesn’t have the strictest gun laws & it isn’t the “gun violence capital of America.” Many other cities have higher homicide rates. That’s what should be shocking.

More in my NEW ARTICLE: “It’s not just Chicago, stupid.”

#GunOwnerForGunReform
https://medium.com/bryandawsonusa/its-not-just-chicago-stupid-1dd291b598e…
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4:59 PM · Jun 15, 2022

https://medium.com/bryandawsonusa/its-not-just-chicago-stupid-1dd291b598e

“I think if you look to Chicago, where you had over 4,000 victims of gun-related crimes last year, they have the strictest gun laws in the country. That certainly hasn’t helped there.” — Trump Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, following the Las Vegas mass shooting.

The NRA, in its endless and well-funded fight against common-sense gun control, has pushed many false narratives. Some of these false narratives (which have become talking points for Republicans) promote the idea that Chicago, despite the “strictest gun laws in the country,” is the “gun violence capital” of the United States. They use this narrative to “prove” to millions, whom they know will never fact check, that gun control doesn’t work. Reality presents a very different story.

Ignoring the human toll of gun violence and using racism to promote their agenda, gun extremists divert attention away from solving real problems across the country and find convenient scapegoats. Rather than acknowledge the epidemic of gun violence that infects the entire United States and the need for common-sense gun reform, they blame gang violence, Democrats, “the blacks,” and the “failures” of gun control in Chicago. While true that Chicago suffers from hundreds of murders each year, it is not the worst America has to offer — perhaps that is the most disturbing aspect to this article.

“Every day, more than 110 Americans are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded.” — Everytown

The United States is unique among developed countries in its murder rate. More Americans have been killed by gun right here at home since 1968 than in ALL U.S. wars combined since 1775.

Since 1968, over 1.5 million Americans died by gun, over 40% by homicide. The U.S. sees an average of over 40,000 gun-related deaths each year. This is a staggering number considering the combined death toll from all U.S. wars since 1775 is 1.3 million. In just the last two years (and every two-year period prior), more Americans have died by gun violence than died in the entire 20-year Vietnam War.

*snip*