Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says the city has logged its 500th homicide of the year.The pro-gun crowd actually blames this on the gun control laws. They say if only good citizens were able to protect themselves, as is their constitutional right, there'd be fewer killings.
McCarthy issued a statement Friday calling the milestone a "tragic number that is reflective of the gang violence and proliferation of illegal guns that have plagued some of our neighborhoods."
By late Friday, police confirmed 40-year-old Nathaniel Jackson had become the 500th homicide victim when he was fatally shot in the head outside a convenience store on the city's West Side.
The last time Chicago reached the 500-homicide mark was in 2008, when the year ended with 512 killings. City records show Chicago had 435 homicides last year.
The only problem with that argument is it's based on a lie. It's not good citizens who are being killed. Almost all of the deaths are gang and drug related.
The undeniable fact is gun availability is a major factor in this sad statistic. That's what the gun-rights folks refuse to admit.
The same dynamic is at work in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Oakland and many other cities, murders up, mainly drug and gang related.
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