The Real Chicago Pennant Race: Most Gun Violence in the Nation

Thus far this year, Chicago has outpaced both New York and Los Angeles in the break out category of jacked up shooting victims.

To understand just how out of whack the gun violence in Chicago is, first we have to take stock of the populations of these three major metropolitan areas:

• Population of New York City: 8.8 million
• Population of Los Angeles: 4.02 million
• Population of Chicago: 2.72 million

So, Chicago has about 1/4th the population of New York City and 2/3rds the population of Los Angeles. Given the disparity, the truly startling comparison in numbers of gun violence victims leaps out:

• Chicago has racked up 1900 shooting victims
• New York City less than 1000
• Los Angeles less than 1000

If Chicago keeps up the "good" work, by year's end it will have seen nearly 4000 shooting victims, including over 500 killed by gun violence. Think of it: 4000 shot in a population of 2.72 million. This statistic means that, if you live in Chicago, you're chances of being shot this year are BETTER than your chances of winning the Powerball! Obvious progressive solutions to gun violence are already in place in Chicago. Illinois has closely regulated the ability to buy and sell, possess, carry, and use firearms. Chicago adds to the onerous restrictions and has, widely agreed, the most restrictive regime of gun laws in the Nation. And the most severe gun crime problem. We could blame the naughty bullets. Environmentalists are good on that approach. Naughty lead, polluting ground waters. We could blame the powder. Again, environmentalists dislike the cordite smell and smoke of a discharge of a firearm. We could blame the naughty guns themselves. Worst offenders? "Assault weapons," of course, so named NOT because they are more powerful, more deadly, more accurate firearms. Instead, as with any sensible Democrat Party policy, "assault weapons" are that category of guns that "look dangerous." Naughty naughty assault weapons. Perhaps it's the fault of the silhouette target industry. After all, it must be the desensitizing effect of repeated practice firing, on targets that, all too often, bear a striking resemblance to a BLACK man. Naughty silhouette target manufacturers. One thing we must never, ever, do, is to fall victim to the pernicious doctrine of personal responsibility, so often touted by troglodyte fans of a policy throwback to the 18th century: the Second Amendment. No. Gun violence cannot be the fault of those who use guns as part of their trade in crime. Too many questions might arise about who the criminals are, where the criminals are, and why the criminals are. Those uncomfortable questions and their equally uncomfortable answers are mere distractions to the important task of blaming anything and everything except the right thing: bad people.

UPDATED: The British Foreign Office Warns About Dangers From American Bathroom Privacy Laws

but not about the dangers of being shot or killed in lead- and red-riddled streets of America's bloody, Democrat-controlled cities, including Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.

In England, a soldier returning to his base is murdered in a cold-blooded attack by a radical Islamic terrorist.

In England, for the first time, sex crimes reported in a single year have surpassed 100,000. The murder rate is skyrocketing.

In England, cybercrime is up.

In England, the problem of how to kill someone, complicated by the difficulty in obtaining a handgun, has been resolved by resort to the cutlery drawer, and you can actually research the areas of London bearing the highest risk of knifing attacks.

Yet, in England, dear old friend and long-time ally England, the Foreign Office has another danger on its mind. Not radical Islamic terrorist attacks at home, not rape or other sexual violence, not cybercrime, and not cutlery attacks. Rather, the Foreign Office wants English subjects traveling to the United States, particularly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered travelers to be aware of the dangers of traveling in North Carolina and Mississippi.

Here’s the travel advisory update on the Foreign Office’s USA travel advisory page:

 

“LGBT travellers may be affected by legislation passed recently in the states of North Carolina and Mississippi.”

“May be affected by legislation.” There’s a helpful bit of guidance. I wonder just how LGBT travelers may be affected?

Here in North Carolina, for example, we have not had a spate of attacks on visitors from the UK, or at least, if we have had such, it has been ignored in the news media. We certainly haven’t had a spate of attacks targeting gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered Brits, and I’m fairly confident that if we did, that too would be headline news.

So, I am, again, left wondering what dangerous condition might threaten British LGBT travelers in North Carolina?

Inexplicably absent from the travel warnings for the USA-bound Briton are some rather dangerous places, including Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. Just whom must the powers that be in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, DC know in Britain's Foreign Office to keep a justifiable and sensible travel advisory from being issued for UK residents headed to those dark and bloody grounds? Crimes, particularly murders, in those three cities alone, drove a spike in violent crime in the USA in 2015, and the murderous jungle of Chicago is on pace for another banner year of bloodletting. Here's a link on the role those three cities played in America's violent crime spike last year. As that article mentions:

About half of the increase in murders is attributed to Baltimore (up 63 percent), Chicago (13 percent), and Washington, DC (51 percent). Violent crime reports in general ticked up 3.1 percent in 2015, largely due to substantial increases in Los Angeles (up 25 percent), Baltimore (19 percent), and Charlotte (16 percent).

Far be it from me to suggest that Britain's Foreign Office does a disservice to Britons traveling to the USA by their warning ... a warning that is oblique and unhelpful in any event for its lack of specificity about the dangers presented to LGBT travelers ... yet, it does seem strange that the kind of "steering" of travel destinations that may result from such a warning just might land unsuspecting Britons in such shooting galleries as Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.

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As of at least June 23, 2016, the British Foreign Office Travel Abroad Warnings no long advise Britons traveling to America of the dangers inherent in traveling to a nation that maintains sex segregated toileting and showering facilities in public places.

Apparently a cooler head prevailed.

In place of that warning, others that seem to make more sense, are now being fronted. Included are hurricane season warnings, the Pulse shooting advisory, and Zika virus exposure risks.

Oddly absent yet is any specific warnings about the dangers attendant to visiting cities with Democratic Party mayors and city councils. Nothing about the fact that Chicago is on track to hit 300 gun murders this year and perhaps 4000 nonfatal casualties. Oh, there is this caution:  "You should be alert to the dangers of car and street crime." That guidance would be greatly enhanced in its helpfulness if it distinguished between the risks of street crime in Mayberry versus street crime in Chicago, Baltimore, and, for example, Washington, DC.