By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is the target of a proposed gun control bus caravan from Chicago to Washington, D.C.
The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that veteran anti-gun Catholic Fr. Michael Pfleger, parish priest at St. Sabina Church in Chicago, is “forming a bus caravan to travel to the nation’s capital to rally for gun control regulation, and urged Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to return with him to Chicago for a free schooling on the city’s gun problem.”
The Rev. Pfleger is a fixture in the Chicago gun control scene, having demonstrated over the years outside of Chuck’s Gun Shop in suburban Riverdale. In May 2007, Pfleger infamously called for the “snuffing” out of gun retailer John Riggio during an Operation PUSH demonstration outside the store. There were calls for Pfleger to be defrocked. At the time, Pfleger claimed he did not understand the meaning of the word “snuff.”
Fr. Pfleger has inserted himself into a spat between Cruz and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot over gun-related violence in the city. Cruz recently tweeted that gun control “doesn’t work,” and he used Chicago as an example.
That infuriated Lightfoot, who blamed gun laws in Texas and neighboring Indiana for Chicago’s crime problem. She responded with a tweet of her own, listing the Top Ten sources of guns recovered in Chicago for the years 2-13-2016.
However, there is something missing from Lightfoot’s chart. It’s a comparison of homicide numbers between Chicago and all of those states from whence recovered guns apparently came. Quick research by Liberty Park Press and TheGunMag.com revealed the following:
Chicago logged 650 murders in 2017, according to CNN
Indiana was the source of 21 percent of recovered guns in 2016, and in 2017 that entire state reported 360 murders, of which 291 involved firearms.
Mississippi was the source of 5.1 percent of recovered guns in Chicago in the same time period, and in 2017 that state reported 149 slayings, of which 111 involved guns.
Wisconsin was the source of 4.0 percent of recovered guns and in 2017, that state had 186 homicides, of which 149 involved firearms.
And it continues that way with the Windy City’s body count exceeding that of entire states from whence the recovered guns reportedly came. That suggests there is a problem in Chicago, but not in the states from where all these firearms apparently originated.
Texas is an interesting exception. In 2017, there were 1,364 slayings in Texas of which 1,012 involved firearms. However, according to Mayor Lightfoot’s chart, the Lone Star State was the source of only 1.8 percent of all the guns recovered by Chicago police in 2013-2016. It was at the bottom of the “Top Ten” list.
Sen. Cruz, a solid Second Amendment defender—as opposed to being a “supporter”—should have the high ground over Chicago’s “high priest” of gun control.
