Samantha Malone
A small number of local gun stores in suburban Illinois and neighboring states like Indiana are responsible for selling a disproportional amount of guns used to commit crimes in the streets of Chicago.
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The city’s second Gun Trace Report, based on trace data spanning three years from 2013 to 2016, found that only 10 guns stores accounted for nearly 25 percent of crime guns recovered by the Chicago Police Department, according to The Trace.
The report, a collaboration between Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Office, the Chicago Police Department and the University of Chicago Crime Lab, traced roughly 15,000 crime guns. Crime guns are defined as guns recovered from the CPD that were illegally possessed or used or are suspected in being involved in crimes.
“In an unfortunate but persistent reality, certain retailers and jurisdictions disproportionately account for the guns trafficked into Chicago that sustain its illegal gun market and associated violent crime,” the report said, according to The Trace.
The two largest sources of crime guns covered in the report came from dealers well-known by authorities and to antiviolence activists. Nearly 1,000 of the recovered guns were found to be linked to Chuck’s Gun Shop located on Chicago’s Southeast Side in Riverdale and Midwest Sporting Goods in Lyons was found to have supplied nearly 700 of the weapons.
The two stores “provide a strikingly large portion of the total number of traceable crime guns,” according to the report. Chicago officials continue to struggle to get a handle on the gun violence situation in the city with this reports helping narrow down their efforts in a refined way.
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