During Monday’s episode of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Blitzer brought up Chicago’s near-800 homicides during 2016 and blamed the deaths on Indiana gun laws, despite the city being located in Illinois.
Blitzer spoke to his guest, California Congressman Darrell Issa, and stated that there “were more people murdered this past year in Chicago than in New York, a larger city, and Los Angeles, a larger city, combined. Something is obviously very, very wrong in Chicago.”
Congressman Issa responded, “It really is. And, not to get into the gun question, they have strong gun laws. The problem is, the gangs have guns and you’re not going to take them away with laws.”
Blitzer then decided to blame the issue on the adjacent state.
“The mayor and others say the problem they have is most of those guns don’t originate in Chicago or even Illinois, they originate in neighboring Indiana, where the gun laws are much more lax,” he said.
Rep. Issa disagreed saying, “Of course, they are illegally bought in most cases–you can’t buy a gun to take to Chicago from Indiana. So, yes, guns are a problem in the hands of criminals but criminals are a problem whether they have a gun, a knife, or a machine tool, the reality is that [Mayor Emanuel] needs to work with President-Elect Trump when he is President, and ask for the kind of federal help that will allow him to break up these pockets of very bad people.”
Blitzer blasted back, “You could go to Indiana and buy a gun legally a lot easier than in Illinois. You could go to a gun show and you don’t necessarily need a background check to legally purchase a weapon that you drive back to Illinois, go back to Chicago, and kill someone.”
The California Congressman disputed Blitzer’s take on the situation and responded, “If the ease of acquiring guns was the problem Gary, Indiana, would be the crime capital, not Chicago.”
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