Homicide by The Numbers: Chicago & NYC

Last month in Chicago, there were “at least” 63 murders, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. That was actually good news, because July saw a staggering 105 slayings, which was more than double the number of killings in July 2019.

In July last year, Chicago — which we talked about in the Aug. 14 Insider Online — logged “just” 44 homicides. But behind every silver lining is a cloud, and this one hangs over the Windy City like the Sword of Damocles.

With that level of mayhem, isn’t it odd that anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety doesn’t drag its subsidiary, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, to Chicago’s South Side and open an office? They claim to fight for a reduction in so-called “gun violence,” but they don’t seem to get very close to the problem areas.

Insider checked with the website HeyJackass.com, a popular and rather entertaining data clearinghouse that keeps tabs on Chicago’s body count. As the Labor Day weekend came to a close, this website reported the following as of Sept. 22, 2020:

2,556: People shot and wounded in the city
526: People shot and killed in the city
576: Homicides in the city

Insider did a little supplementary snooping and found some data that should embarrass Lightfoot and her predecessor, Rahm Emanuel. Lightfoot took office in May 2019.

561: Murders in Chicago during 2018
490: Murders in Chicago during 2019, according to CNN
50%: Increase in homicides this year over last, as noted by the Sun-Times
4: States racked up more slayings than Chicago did on its own in 2018, the most recent year for which complete data was available at this writing.*

Those states were California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Georgia, the latter just barely with 568 homicides. It should be noted that California, with some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, racked up 1,739 murders that year, including 1,177 involving firearms. (*Note: Possibly by this week, the annual FBI Uniform Crime Report will be released, with data for 2019. Insider Online will be reporting on this new information over the next few weeks.)

Over the Labor Day weekend, Chicago saw eight people murdered, including an 8-year-old child. Forty-eight other people were wounded, including five under the age of 18.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/9/1/21409706/chicago-monthly-crime-stats-august-2020

https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/08/03/chicago-sees-its-most-violent-month-in-28-years-as-murders-shootings-skyrocket/

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/9/6/21423924/chicago-labor-day-weekend-shootings-gun-violence-september-2020

https://heyjackass.com

The ‘Big Rotten Apple’

If you think the tour of Chicago’s bloody landscape was fun, the next few paragraphs are going to make your day.

Far left New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has a little problem of his own, and he can’t blame this one on Donald Trump. Fox News recently reported a 166% surge in “gun violence” during the month of August in New York City. Let’s do some comparisons.

242: Shootings in the Big Apple during August 2020
91: Shootings in New York City during August 2019
166%: Increase in number of August shootings between this year and last
87%: Spike in New York shootings from Jan. 1 through Aug. 31, 2020 over the same time period in 2019, when the city logged 541 reported shootings
96%: Increase in number of shooting victims as of Aug. 30, 2020 over the number of shooting victims during the same period in 2019
1,237: Number of shooting victims as of Aug. 30 this year
631: Number of shooting victims for the same period in 2019

New York City’s gun control laws are, by most standards, Draconian. So bad was the city’s now-defunct handgun transport ordinance that the city scrambled two years ago to change the law when the U.S. Supreme Court took up a challenge of the law by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association.

When you rush to change a law rather than have the highest court in the land consider a civil lawsuit challenging that law, you know up front it’s unconstitutional. You just don’t want the Supreme Court saying so.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york-city-gun-violence-august

Pick A Year, Any Year

Want to have some fun with the neighborhood gun prohibitionist?

Dare that person to look up the FBI Uniform Crime Report for any given year and check the topic “Expanded Homicide Data Table 11.” There you will find more people are murdered in any given year with knives or cutting instruments than are killed with rifles — of any kind — and shotguns.

Now comes the question: Why the rush to ban so-called “semiautomatic assault rifles?”

For example, in 2018, the FBI says 297 people were killed with rifles of any kind, and 235 were known to have been slain with shotguns. That same year, an eye-popping 1,515 people were stabbed or slashed to death.

The well-known “Blunt Instrument” was the weapon of choice in 443 murders that year, and 668 were beaten, choked or stomped to death.

For folks who write letters to the editor, all of this is fair game and wins arguments. Someone might quibble with a “gun person,” but they’re going to have a little trouble saying the FBI is all wet.

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-11.xls

We’re All Ears

Safariland recently announced an addition to its Impulse Hearing Protection family and it got Insider’s attention.

It’s the new Foam Impulse Hearing Protection model, and they even got high marks from veteran competition shooter Rob Leatham, according to a Safariland news release.

“I’m amazed how well they knock down noise levels,” Leatham said. “It’s a real game-changer in the fact that I can leave the Foam Impulse earbuds in my ears at all times to protect my hearing, but still hear what’s happening around me. You can’t do that with regular, passive earplugs or earmuffs!”

According to Safariland, the Foam Impulse Hearing Protection earbuds “reduce dangerous sound levels by up to 38dB and offer 13dB of continuous sound reduction, all while allowing speech and audio to be heard. The patent-pending Impulse sound filters instantly block large sound waves, while permitting smaller speech and audio waves to pass into the ear.”

What’s more, they’re washable and will not interfere with eye protection. You can wear these all day by themselves or under shooting earmuffs. MSRP is an affordable $14.99.

https://safariland.com/products/pro-impulse-hearing-protection-1347597#gbaid1031268

Why the System Fails

Meet Michael H. Brown, a Seattle resident who epitomizes what might be wrong with the court system. (“Justice” really doesn’t play in this.)

Mr. Brown was caught by an armed security guard inside of a locked business outside of normal business hours while he was allegedly attempting to remove a computer monitor. According to court documents, he claimed to have gotten a key to the place by somebody named “Blaze,” who apparently had no last name.

Brown also claimed he was just trying to find a place to sleep, and he was using the computer to check his social media account.

The guard held this guy and took him downstairs to meet responding officers.

According to the court documents, “The defendant’s criminal history includes convictions for Attempted VUCSA (2017), Identity Theft Second Degree (2011), Burglary Second Degree (2011), Malicious Mischief Second Degree (2009), Attempted Residential Burglary (2009), Theft Third Degree (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2014), Introducing Contraband Third Degree (2017), and Malicious Mischief Third Degree (2014).”

Since 2103, the suspect has had 28 warrants issued for his arrest, apparently including the one for Third Degree Theft which was active at the time he was busted for the Second Degree Burglary beef involving the computer and the locked business.

We never worry about making things up — you couldn’t make this up with a crew of Hollywood sitcom writers even if you tried.

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