By: Matt Rosenberg
The late black poet, songwriter, and bandleader Gil Scott-Heron wrote in his 1981 song “Gun,” that “everybody’s got a pistol, everybody’s got a 45. And the philosophy seems to be, at least as near as I can see, when everybody else gives up theirs, I’ll give up mine.” Since mid-2020 gun sales in the United States and applications for gun-owner permits and conceal-carry licenses have surged. Because we’re amidst The Great Unraveling.
This is why angry, twisted young men embark on mass killings. Like the young shooters taking Chicago down a greased skid to hell, they’ve let their worst instincts, resentments, and hatreds loose. They’ve also been abandoned by their parents to their own pathologies, raised without care and without love. Without encouragement, resilience, perseverance, and dignity.
This isn’t new. And no law has yet stemmed or will stem the tide of mass shootings – which federal entities define as 4 or more killed in the same incident and locale, while many media and The Gun Violence Archive draw the line at 4 or more wounded.
Chicago has been awash in mass shootings since at least 2019. The city has already had 10 this year and we’re not even in summer yet. That’s versus 33 in all of 2019, 53 in 2020, and 60 last year. Usually it’s blacks on Chicago’s South or West Sides getting killed, so the national media aren’t interested. Move the venue up to near The Magnificent Mile, and that changes fast. But despite attention to mass shootings locally and nationally they don’t account for many of the firearms homicides which occur.
In Chicago from 2016 through 2021, there were 126 killed in mass shootings, as more broadly defined. That’s 3 percent of the 4,070 murders in Chicago over those same years. Nationally, mass shootings – again, broadly defined – in 2020 accounted for 611 or 3 percent of the 19,384 firearms deaths in the United States (p. 11). The numbers drive it home: mass shootings are good for drawing angry headlines about gun laws, but the vastly larger problem is day-to-day homicides – often urban, black-on-black homicides.
That’s certainly the case in Chicago. Four of every five murders in Chicago in 2017 through 2020 were of blacks. That’s according to breakdowns by race buried deep within annual police reports. The perpetrators are mostly black, too. From 1991 through 2011, blacks were more than 70 percent of known murder perps in each of those years except one, according to the CPD report “Chicago Murder Analysis” (p. 38).”
Judges in Chicagoland are determined to erode the margins of public safety by failing to enforce the gun laws we already have. In our own latest mass shooting this month in Chicago near downtown’s once-glamorous shopping district, two were killed and nine wounded. CWB Chicago reported that the suspect now charged with two counts of murder was out on $200 bond for felony unlawful use of a weapon and for more than five months had evaded an arrest warrant for missing court appearances.
It seems remarkable that this guy couldn’t be hauled in within five months of the arrest warrant being issued and ignored. But that didn’t happen.
At the same time, our rolling crime wave continues. Through Week 21 of 2022 in Chicago and versus the same period during the pre-Unravelling baseline year of 2019, police crime data show that motor vehicle thefts are up 45 percent, thefts 23 percent, and robberies 10 percent. Murders are up 26 percent over 2019 and shootings incidents 36 percent. At least criminal sexual assaults are up only 1 percent. Still, there’d been 780 of them through Week 21.
There’s a broad heedlessness shown by the extent of crimes committed without, and with, guns.
Arrest rates aren’t helping. In Chicago, they’re 1 in 10 for motor vehicle thefts, for thefts, and for robberies. They’re two of ten for rapes; and less than one in ten for burglaries.
Snitches get stitches. That’s the drill. And the drilling won’t stop unless absent Daddies change their tune.
Meanwhile, teens beat a bus driver for sport. They take over the streets, and pick fights in the streets. They repeatedly mug and assault riders on the city’s iconic “El” trains.
Last holiday season, organized bands of criminals in broad daylight and amidst crowds of other shoppers regularly plundered goods from the shelves of Chicago’s high-end boutiques and beauty supply stores, to later sell online.
They’re part of organized criminal enterprises. Just like too many of our politicians. Including, federal prosecutors allege, some of the kingpins.
Do you get the drift? It’s moral rot. It’s societal decay. Misuse of guns is a symptom of that. There is no handy statutory remedy. No bloodless technocratic fix.
As a society we’re flailing. With speech codes, with censorship, with the new high art of being mortally offended. Glued to our portable light-speed computers, as we narrow-cast to our tribes, we’re skipping right into the abyss.
Now, in the wake of recent mass shootings and ongoing urban mayhem, even more first-timers will legally buy guns. Yet only an infinitesimal percentage of legally owned firearms will ever be used in criminal acts. And the criminals with guns that are so often illegal? Obviously, they don’t care about gun laws. Never have, never will.
We need to dial it all back to the source. The problem isn’t the hardware. It’s the operating system. The code has been corrupted.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Obama was right: “Too many fathers are missing”
- Ongoing teen violence puts parenting at center stage in Chicago
- A statistic that continues to be ignored: The high rate of births to unmarried mothers across Illinois’ 20 largest cities
- Bleeding people: New IRS migration data shows Illinois lost another 100,000 residents and a record amount of wealth in 2020
- False advertising of Illinois’ new ‘property tax relief’ bill
- About that U.S. Census “undercount”: Illinois’ population is still just 12.8 million
- 2021 Census numbers are horrible for Illinois: Population decline second worst in country, behind only New York
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Democrats will never ever look in the mirror and rethink their assumptions. For them it’s always about control so they destroy anything and everything that develops personal responsibility and self control. Millions of guns go to bed and wake up everyday and do absolutely nothing because their owners are law abiding citizens. It’s not the hardware it’s the software.
With the caterwauling of “Trust the science” still a healing scab, the never to be mentioned corollary of “Follow the evidence” remains bound and gagged by the attendant media sentries. A disarmed public, as witnessed by the virtually every free nation in the world in the twentieth century doesn’t lead to less carnage, it leads to very efficient annihilation of the non-compliant civilian population. Over one hundred million civilian victims in the USSR, China, Nazi Germany, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia, were systematically murdered as enemies of the state. The evidence is there, but the refusal to acknowledge it and its… Read more »
Wirepoints + a Gil Scott-Heron reference? My two disparate worlds of Illinois policy research and music fandom are colliding. I love reading Matt’s work be he’s not only data-focused, uncompromisingly honest, and pragmatic – but also culturally well-versed, and finds ways to import nuggets of gold from that universe into sobering policy and social analysis. Indispensable work as always.
Nothing will ever change until the people who are the victims stop voting for the perpetrators. It seems unlikely to happen anytime in my life. Detroit, Chicago, NY, LA, Baltimore, St Louis and all the other hell holes are run by the perps and they are not in danger of losing power. People get what they vote for.
I agree with your premise completely. I know it’s tiring to name names but we are too far into “the Unraveling” not to. The powers that be in the Cook County Courts have to answer for their actions, bail reform and their lack of charging felony cases that are too numerous to list here. In the words of a former Cook County prosecutor who now works as an assistant states attorney in Will County, “I had to leave for philosophical differences.”
As the left calls for more and more gun control laws, they refuse to enforce the laws that are currently on the books. This “ social justice “ move has failed dramatically in the last couple of years. It’s maddening to read about someone charged with a shooting,and see that they have 3 or 4 cases pending on gun charges. “Someone’s got to do something “ is the cry we hear after every shooting- but no one seems to actually be allowed to do a damn thing.
What’s happening is not a failure.
It is a reflection of the world our leaders want to live in.
I can not stress this enough.
They are doing exactly what they told voters they were going to do.
Mark, Ted, John, Mat—when Mat writes ” The problem isn’t the hardware. It’s the operating system.” is this WP position on guns? or is Mat expressing his position only? Similarly, for all WP articles is each WP writer expressing their position only?
NB, our individual writers express their individual opinions. Personally, I agree entirely with this column. Sometimes, however, we will write something like “we at Wirepoints think….” We do that where there’s pretty much of a consensus.
The states attorney and chief judge are 95% of the problem. If violent criminals were prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law,”no plea deals, and judges held those violent criminals on high bonds and if/when found guilty sent them away for extended periods of time, years and years and years, there would be an impact. Nope, cant do that. Too many blacks in the system, courts, prison etc, would impede the social/restore justice scheme that has led to the disaster unfolding in Chicago and many big cities. That has to change because Chicago is on the e expressway to… Read more »
Doesn’t it seem that crimes committed nowadays have lax or no consequences perpetrated by a certain race to make up for the over prosecuting (even for the smallest offense) done in the past. Look at Ferguson a while back when tapes came out about cops seeing how many citations could be given in one traffic stop if you are black. I think one cop gave 9 or 11. It should not be an excuse not to prosecute crimes today but it seems to be. Too harsh a sentence in the past equates to too lax a sentence in the present.… Read more »
AMEN!
Brilliant. Thanks Matt.
Wonderful article! Moral rot and societal decay, I think that nails it. I no longer visit the once beautiful Chicago. I hate to see what it’s become. Actually, the list of places I no longer want to visit in this country is growing daily. What did we expect when we took God out of everything?
Matt,
Great article, unless something is done where lady justice is once again blind. Justice is administered the same no matter who you are, with out this our society will devolve further.
One can hardly dispute the facts and the thesis, but it is so depressing to see that this once vibrant city is in moral decay. And yet… the signs were there, all along,hiding like cockroaches in the dark, for the last 50 years. What is even scarier in one sense is the lack of political will to even try to put a stop to it. Stubborn ideologists refuse to see the truth as they pursue their vision of a Utopia that can never be.
Matt Rosenberg clearly describes the moral sewer that is Chicago. Fatherless babies grow up to be fatherless teens. If they themselves are not murdered, they grow up to perpetuate the cycle of absentee fatherhood. Unguided teens are drawn to the only “family” available: gangs and would-be fellow gangbangers. And it continues for another generation. Matt Rosenberg’s sentence, “There’s a broad heedlessness shown by the extent of crimes committed without, and with, guns,” could easily be rewritten as: There’s a broad “headlessness…” There is no competent leadership anywhere. All of the top elected officials pander to the criminals and their… Read more »
When the Gov of IL and the Mayor of Chicago promote looting and rioting to create mayhem to score political points with their political party national leaders, you have a unfixable situation. IL has stage 4 cancer because of Leftist Democrats that completely control this state.
Jeez, Mr. Rosenberg. I see what you did here. Facts, facts and then some more facts, followed by your pointed opinion about the root issue. This is a responsible and necessary discussion. You need to be on TV.
“If a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other?”
How do we fix the moral rot infesting this country?
“If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”
Mother Teresa
You’ve obviously touched a nerve here Matt. Thought provoking article and a lot to unpack. Moral rot explains it very well and I’m going to borrow it going forward. I’ll only comment how interesting it is that liberals now screaming the loudest always fail to recognize that we have an example of what happens when liberal policies are implemented unfettered for 60 years. That example is Chicago, and it’s a disaster.
At our Maine cottage, we recently had to replace the roof. And where the visible damage had displayed itself was completely at the other side of the cottage from the initial breach & entry. Point is, water found its way in, and traveled wherever it could. Such as it is for Chicago’s anarchy. Rob & pillage Englewood? Nope, easier & more fruitful pickings on the Gold Coast. Step up the patrol there? OK, boomboomboom, move it to Lakeview or Lincoln Park. And the grease to the wheels in this chaos is the lack of enforcement. A law & order administration—wherever it comes from—is the only way to… Read more »
This has all been going on in the west and south sides(and NW side re Lawdale) for many years. Only reason its raising alarm is its spreading out to the wealthier and white areas, esp Downtown. Propinquity is key. If this was only happening in the same old places, it still would not have batted an eye. Daley the second built a “Potemkin Village” on the lake front and downtown, and near north side, and the “rest of Chicago” finally penetrated the same. Call it “Barbarians at the Gates”, or what you will….or just the reality that you cannot have… Read more »
Indeed. We have a people problem, not an issue with objects. It tackling that takes work and time. Spouting platitudes about metal things is so much easier.
Well, put and to the point. The liberal masses should have been outraged long ago at the great loss of the Chicago youth 2 shoot-outs and gag baggers. But it does not fit the national narrative of the destruction of freedoms. It would be so much better if we restored family values and 2 parent households. Chicago failed long ago when they deterred parents from living together. They favored single mothers and cut off help if the father was in the home. Cabrini Green was the worst thing that happened to Chicago. Dismembering the family unit is our downfall.
It amazes me that when teenage girls get pregnant, the schools throw them parties and congratulate them. No shame or embarrassment. All this transgender, binary, gay, and so on, when did we stop educating male and female teens about the consequences of early teen pregnancies? Where are all the churches that are supposed to be preaching moral values? Granted, I’m old, but no girl in my grade school or high school wanted a reputation of being “easy.” And guys didn’t really want a steady girlfriend that was known to be easy. Now, guys are proud to get a girl pregnant,… Read more »
Yes, I’m old, too, I guess. But the ‘old days’ weren’t so bad after all. We had a certain respect for each other that doesn’t seem to exist today.
Great points, Matt. I had to tell my daughter what when she hears gunshots. My parents didn’t have to have that conversation with me.
What saddens me is that Chicago black on black crimes far exceed the death tolls of these mass shootings that garner so much media attention but we seem to turn a blind eye to the ongoing inner city violence. Great article and this intellectual perspective needs more attention.
Well said Matt. The problem isn’t the hardware, it is the system. A system that doesn’t uphold the laws already on the books. It is not the guns, I can cite all the statistics that indicate with the rise in gun ownership the amount of murders has reduced. A firearm needs 3 components to fire, the gun, ammuniton, and human interaction. Take one of these away and it will not fire. There are millions of firearms in this country and none of them commit harm to anyone, because of responsible human interaction. We need to fix the bad human interaction… Read more »
Sadly from my experiences many of the black residents lack the anger control gene. Look at somebody, just looking is a sign of a challenge. A misspoken word, bumping ever so slightly into someone, wearing the wrong clothing, or any number of things can erupt into a violent confrontation in a tenth of a second. Mental illness is rampant among a large portion of that particular segment of the population, lack of parenting, lack of education, lack of compassion and amoral mindsets have devastating results.
More than 30 years ago, during my first Illinois House legislative session, I voted to ban assault weapons (i.e. AR 15s). I was one of only two downstate House Democrats doing so. The legislation failed and the NRA came after me in the following election cycle. Long story short, even though I represented the 2nd most rural legislative district in Illinois, I won with more than 60% of the vote. I still believe banning assault-style weapons is good public policy. However, blaming “the guns” for America’s violent society won’t solve the gang problem, and won’t solve the mental health issues… Read more »
Very few shootings are done with rifles. It is clowns like you who cannot even define the term “assault rifle”. Remember the rooftop Koreans who defended their neighborhoods and businesses in LA awhile ago? Where do genocides occur? Do you remember London police banning assault knives after feral black immigrants carved up the locals? Are you aware that the Gun Control Act of 1968 was modeled after Nazi law? Have you examined the crime data analyses done of U of C Prof John Lott? I survived the Chicago race riots of 1968 and saw my street (6800 S Stony Island)… Read more »
When we lived in Chicago, there were strict gun laws, no one we knew owned a gun, yet there were shootings everywhere. Yes, here in SC, almost everyone owns a gun, especially the ex-military, and they are very cognizant of gun safety. More guns than in the state of IL. Even more amazing, women are the most enthusiastic. There are semiweekly shooting contests and the women love the competition. The only homicide here was a 68 year old strangling his 65 year old girlfriend and dying of a heart attack while burying the body. But gun crimes? Car jackings? Drive… Read more »
Just a wild thought, I suppose, but I once mused to my husband that high schools should have a mandatory gun safety course in high school. After all, students must, I believe, complete classroom instruction in safe driving in order to graduate. No actual behind the wheel, but classroom instruction. Why not give a course in gun safety, no mandatory range experience, but safety. How to care for a gun and use it safely and how to de-escalate situations. Just a thought.
John Lott book “more guns less crime” Facts
I own multiple firearms. Several of my neighbors own multiple firearms. I belong to a gun club with over 1200 members many own multiple firearms and all are NRA members. AR15 style rifles are part of my collection, my neighbors and many of those gun club members. Am I scared? NO! No mass shootings at the club, no shootings in my neighborhood. Rifles including shotguns contribute to fewer murders in Illinois and the country than knives, than fists. I don’t want to be blamed or punished for the sins of others. Why weren’t the vehicles used to slam into parade… Read more »
My thoughts, if this had happened and had an address located in the city of Chicago, there would have been a different outcome. My reasons for saying this is that I know my CPD brothers. We would not have waited for the approval of a supervisor giving us permission to do what the parents and children hoped and prayed we would do. With the possibility of being fired, terminated for refusing a direct order, we would have gained entry from multiple sides of the building gaining simultaneous access. Quite possible we could have taken some rounds but for me I’d… Read more »
Thank you for your service. Glad you lived to retire. Enjoy it. God bless !
Mr. Fudala, what Silverfox said. Bravo to you.
The old breed of coppers most definitely would have acted. The new breed…the jury is still out.
Yes, but how many civil libertarians and bleeding hearts would come after you, especially since the shooter was a minority. Automatic protests, crying relatives, “he was a good boy.” “Wanted to be a doctor.” You can imagine all the consequences, suspensions, civil suits, etc. Best if you were near retirement.
The motto is when people are running from gunfire the cops are running towards it.
Its good to know individual officers once were able to take initiative. I fear that is no longer the case, police are micro-managed from Washington now, or from their local HQ. I saw officers actually tazing parents willing to enter the building. It took an off duty border agent to do the job on the sneak. Society is full of soft targets, schools being one of them, they all need hardening similar to how the Oscars are hardened to protect elite movie stars. What better soft targets to begin hardening than the place where we send our kids every day.… Read more »
Valid points that cannot be ignored. Another thought provoking article.
Well said Matt. Our young people are lost, depressed and drugged. They haven’t been taught values that were once the foundation of all families.
I believe we need to buckle up for a very ugly summer, completely incompetent people are running the asylum 🙏❤️
The Mayor, who has 70 cops protecting her around the clock, is safe from gun violence. Her solution for the rest of Chicago is a 10 o’clock curfew. Let’s see how well that works as the temperature rises each day this weekend.
Thanks Matt for writing what needs to be written. In 1991, the US reached its peak number of murders – 24,700. That dropped to 14,200 by 2014. Here is the thing. More than 220,000,000 guns were sold in the US during that 23 year period. More guns and less murders — a 42% reduction in murders. That is about the same result that Australia had from banning most guns in 1996. The point is that there is no (zero) correlation between the number of guns and the number of murders — in fact it was very sharply negative during that… Read more »
Crystal clarity, sobering.
Well said, as always, Matt.
And as long as our politicians, our pop culture, and our judges continue to care more about the freedom of the perpetrators than about the lives of their victims, it will just keep getting worse.
First it’s not the gun, it’s the heart that is the issue. Guns are inanimate objects. It takes an individual to use the gun.
As you pointed out the “justice system” is broke. Individuals that have committed violent offenses are allowed to roam the streets freely.
Finally, we need real father’s raising their children. Instead society has fostered families with out fathers, removing a vital influence on young lives.
Well stated. The system is corrupt. Politicians sacrifice the safety of innocent citizens for the almighty vote. The media is biased, agenda based and only reports what it sees fit. The States Attorney’s Office is a joke. “What felony”? Judges and lawyers are all complicit in allowing habitual offenders to roam the streets and prey on the innocent. Police Officers are treated like criminals while the blind march and protest in favor of the criminals rights with no regard for the victims. Unless things change we are on a path to doom. Shootouts, carjackings, assaults, robberies and other criminal activities… Read more »
I couldn’t agree more. It’s a toxic culture, bereft of all traditional family values, that is responsible, not just for half-literate gangbangers shooting each other and innocent bystanders. The same rot infects school shooters who are infinitely more evil than garden-variety gangbangers. While the percentage of their crimes is lower, the pure evil of it is much higher, and no amount or wringing our hands, banning guns, or keeping our flag at permanent half-mast will solve the problem.
Another great write-up Matt! I hereby appoint you honorary Mayor of Chicago. Starting with the premise that Judeo-Christian values have been allowed to die for many for the most part, values that used to give direction for living a good and moral life whether one was a follower of either of those religions or not, coupled with a certain political party that likes to have a class of people that looks to it for most everything, where marriage and family life are frowned upon as they are against their policies, and where welfare and hand-outs have sucked the hope out… Read more »
It’s gotten to the point where when you put on the 10 o’clock news, the first thing they focus on is the weather, if there happens to be a storm coming. 5 to 10 minutes later, they start talking about all the crime because every single night there’s another breaking news story. It’s gotten to the point where no one wants to ride the L or go downtown for anything. Never in my life have I thought of having a gun. But I think more people are contemplating it just for self protection.
It’s that old saying you can forgive and forget-What a great society if we are able to do that! But Hey forgive and forget killers and shooters and the Violent Criminal behavior that Chicago is facing makes FOR a society that will soon crumble from the weight of those who keep releasing these people and sending them back to the neighborhoods they were terrorizing-.All these shootings and killings and Carjackings that Chicago is enduring suddenly seem to be a huge problem for the news media to deal with. It all started when the Thugs brought their violence to the AREA… Read more »
Now a thug walks past a live news crew and points a gun at them! What say you LL?
I see this as it will get worse. This summer will be a bad one. The atmosphere is charged and primed. I heard something the other day in the midst of this that stuck to my gut. Hurt people Hurt people. Read it again. People who are hurt will hurt others. How do we change this? As I watched and cried at the events this week my heart broke. Before midnight on the 24th a grandfather was being questioned by media. He said I don’t know where my granddaughter is. They haven’t told me anything. My breathe caught, and I… Read more »
In Davos George Soros bemoans the decline of Western Civ while he supports district attorneys bent on accelerating the decline through lax law enforcement. How much is he profiting from this deceit, because he always profits in some way from turmoil.
Soros is one of the instigators of the decline of the West. Whether from mental illness or just pure evil, leftists don’t know or ignore the connection between A and B.
His son is mainly running it now.
It’s a obsolete farm hardware problem.
Matt – hats off to you and Wirepoints for tackling a difficult subject. The culture you speak of places value on the wrong things and there are unintended consequences unfortunately for all of us. This is a human problem and will ultimately lead to our self destruction if not addressed. That’s why these decisions are very personal. Those with the means and ability to do so will leave and attempt to escape. The 2nd Amendment may be the only thing standing in the way of a total dictatorship if viewed from the perspective of far right conservatives. If we look… Read more »
The destruction, and anarcho-tyranny, is intentional and ushers in a new progressive utopia. And this progressive utopia is wildly popular. Voters LOVE these new Democrat policies. What percentage of Chicago residents will vote Democrat in November asking for a continuation of current policies? I saw a poll today saying that even in crime ravaged and quality of life destroyed California, Democrats have a 20 point statewide advantage in the 2022 generic congressional ballot. In the SF Bay area and LA, which are arguably the epicenters of the CA meltdown and self-immolation, Democrats have a 41 and 32 point advantage respectively!… Read more »
I agree with your point about their wanting to usher in a new utopia. And unfortunately for the rest of us, the useful idiots will assist and push us all to a place that we do not like to be, totalitarianism.
And re: Cali, they did choose Gruesome Newsom during the recall, even after the way he behaved towards them during the wuhan virus!
I wonder what would happen to murder and shooting totals in Chicago/Cook County if everyone charged with felony unlawful use, or felony unlawful possession of a gun could be held without bail before trial – and upon conviction got a mandatory minimum of five years. Might make a real dent in the totals. It could be argued, though it would not be presently in this county, that a man charged with carrying a gun illegally represents a “clear and present danger” to public safety and this thus outweighs the presumption of innocence at least with respect to being held without… Read more »
I would be encouraged if just anyone charged with a gun related felony whom was previously convicted of similar would face a high bail or otherwise remain in jail until trial. AG Foxx and other so called Progressives unfortunately feel otherwise to the peril of all citizens unable to afford or command a security detail.
Clearly that would be racist. That’s the whole issue behind the restorative justice movement. Too many blacks being charged with crimes and held in custody. Upsets the the whole agenda.