Clarence Page: Texas, keep Chicago’s gun violence woes out of your mouths

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on May 27, 2022

Indeed, as much as Republicans and other Fox News conservatives love to make Chicago their “woke” whipping boy since the glory days of Barack Obama’s presidency, most of the guns confiscated by police in the Windy City came from other states, as Lightfoot and Pritzker were quick to point out — including Texas.

For example, the 2017 Gun Trace Report, a joint project of the Chicago Police Department, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office and the University of Chicago Crime Lab, found 60% of firearms recovered by police originated from a dealer outside Illinois, with one out of every five guns coming from next door in Indiana.

Others were traced back to Mississippi, Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and, oh, yes, Texas.

Similarly across the country, states with tough firearms regulations tend to find themselves flooded by guns trafficked from neighbors that happen to have softer regulations — like Texas.

And, true to its legendary cowboy reputation, Texas also has the highest number of guns per capita of any state, according to the independent World Population Review.

Illinois didn’t even make the top 10.

But what about “solutions”? Abbott said Wednesday that the Uvalde school shooter had a “mental health challenge” and the state needed to “do a better job with mental health.”

Right. Yet, as The Texas Tribune reported, in April Abbott slashed $211 million from his state’s department that oversees mental health programs.

And the state also ranked last out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for overall access to mental health care, The Texas Tribune noted, citing a 2021 State of Mental Health in America report.

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, wasn’t buying the mental health dodge. Before his election to the Senate, he represented the Connecticut congressional district where another young gunman killed 26 children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

After the Texas attack, he once again implored his colleagues to act against gun violence, adding, “Spare me the bulls--t about mental illness.”

“We’re not an outlier on mental illness, he said. “We’re an outlier when it comes to access to firearms and the ability of criminals and very sick people to get their arms on firearms. That’s what makes America different.”

Unfortunately, he’s right. “Mental health” has evolved from an important policy issue to just another handy way to avoid talking about gun safety. Meanwhile, the casualties mount up, even in grade schools.

(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)