Hiya folks! Last time around, you read about my position to repeal the Second Amendment. Now, moving away from opinion and into the factual realm, I’m going to be debunking a certain myth around the gun control debate.

I’m sure we’ve all heard Republican politicians, NRA members, or plain conservatives shouting about how Chicago has some of the highest murder, gun violence, and miscellaneous violent crime rates in the nation. Also, you may have heard that such figures are so high either because of gun control, or even with the relatively strict gun control laws that they have in place. I’ll address two main points that have been exaggerated and used against gun control action, the first has to do with the availability of guns.

Have you ever heard of state lines? Those things that pretty much anyone can cross with no limitations? Those things that don’t stop the transport of guns across them? Yeah, those. A common misconception about Chicago’s gun problem is that “criminals are still able to get guns while law-abiding citizens are stuck with no means to defend themselves.” It is true that access to firearms in cities where gun laws are stricter than average is limited to an extent, and it is also true that handguns, semi-automatic rifles, and other classes of weapons have their own black market for sale to criminal affiliates; what is not true, however, is that citizens have no means of defending themselves (even though the lone-hero good guy with a gun vs evil ((black)) villain with a gun trying to rob the heroic ((white)) guy fantasy for gun nuts is in a perpetual state of statistical nonexistence) and that criminals have no hindrance on their ability to obtain firearms illegally. States have the most impact on gun control legislation that occurs in their state, so it logically follows that more left-leaning states will have more gun control and less-easy access to firearms, whereas more right-leaning states will have less control over firearms in their states and far easier access to firearms. In the context of Chicago, there are fewer legal weapons but not illegal weapons. This is the result of the State Line Problem. Chicago is in the northeast corner of Illinois (a state with stricter gun laws) and right in between Wisconsin and Indiana (red states with much looser regulations). This increased availability of loosely-regulated firearms causes criminals to go through the minimal effort of buying weapons across state lines, importing them to Chicago, and selling them on the black market of weapons for the evil doers that the right points out. It’s a free pass for getting high-powered weapons.

The second issue is that gun statistics for Chicago are not shown relative to other cities. Statistics are always cited for the greatest city in the U.S. in the context of saying what unbelievably high and unprecedented the violent crime rates are. While the rates are higher than average, they do not compare to cities like St. Louis or even my hometown of Youngstown, Ohio where the violent crime and murder rates are twice or three times higher than Chicago. These places are not necessarily known for their violent and gun crimes, partially due to the political background of Chicago. President Obama and Rahm Emanuel are both directly related to the city and to Illinois in general, meaning that the right attacks them with vigor due to their association with the Democratic party and not because Chicago represents an objectively good example of gun control failure.