Chicago’s Gun Violence Epidemic Demands Federal Response

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) called on the federal government to address gun violence in Chicago and across the country with increased federal prosecutions of gun traffickers, federal funding to put more police on the streets and passage of the TRACE Act, which gives law enforcement the proper tools to go after corrupt gun dealers.

Below is a video and a transcript of this speech:

Mr. Speaker, entire neighborhoods in my city of Chicago are being torn apart by violence. Last week, from Wednesday evening through Sunday evening, more than 70 people were shot in Chicago, 11 of whom died. Last year, over 500 people were murdered in my city. Of those murders, 80 percent were gang-related, and nearly 90 percent were at the hands of a gun.

The numbers speak for themselves. The City of Chicago is facing an epidemic of violence, and the reasons behind it are clear.

There are many ideas to solve this problem. One, rounding up 18,000 members of the Gangster Disciples, is simply not legally or financially feasible.

What is feasible and a significant way to stop gun violence in my city is to stop the flow of illegal guns into Chicago. One reason the violence is at record levels because gang members have such easy access to illegal guns. It's time for the federal government to step in and do something about it.

Despite the city's tough gun laws, Chicago cops are recovering illegal guns at nine times the rate of their counterparts in New York City. That's nearly three times the number of weapons in a city one third the size. These outrageous numbers call for nothing short of a federal response.

We need a renewed effort at the federal level to prosecute gun traffickers who put illegal weapons in the hands of gang members. We need give our law enforcement the tools they need to put these guys away. Last year, Chicago ranked last among federal jurisdictions in federal gun prosecutions. This is simply unacceptable. Gun traffickers should know: if you traffic illegal weapons in the City of Chicago, you will be spending a long time in a federal penitentiary. We can no longer let these criminals be charged with mere paperwork violations.

I welcome the nomination of Zachary Fardon as Chicago's new federal prosecutor and urge him to prosecute more of these cases in federal court. But to try more gun traffickers in federal court, we need to give law enforcement the tools and the funding they need to do so.

That means finally passing a federal law making gun trafficking illegal with stiffer penalties for those who violate the law. That means increasing funding for federal COPS grants to put more cops on our streets, instead of ignoring municipalities across the country that have been forced to cut their public safety budgets in these difficult economic times.

And that means finally giving law enforcement the proper tools to go after corrupt gun dealers. One percent of gun dealers are responsible for half the guns used in crimes in this country, yet current law foolishly limit things like inventory inspections. If law-abiding dealers reported inventories, the ATF would be much more effective at identifying lost and stole weapons and combating corrupt gun dealers.

That's why I re-introduced the TRACE Act this Congress, which would allow ATF to require dealers to perform inventory checks to report lost and stolen guns.

Mister Speaker, people are being gunned down in my city every day. And while we continue to spend billions in federal dollars on nuclear weapons, tanks, and wars overseas, we're ignoring the gang war that is happening here at home. It's time for the federal government to step up to the challenge by stopping gun violence where it starts.

Thank you, and I yield back.