60% of illegal firearms recovered in Chicago come from outside IL—mostly from states dominated by coward Republicans like you who refuse to enact commonsense gun legislation. Keep our name out of your mouth. https://t.co/yVM4JHL3xy pic.twitter.com/pr613A3dpf
— Lori Lightfoot (@LightfootForChi) September 3, 2019
Reacting to criticism by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed Republicans for gun violence in her city.
She told Cruz on Twitter Monday night to “keep our name out of your mouth,” posting a chart that claimed 60 percent of guns recovered in Chicago come from out of state, the Daily Caller reported.
Over the Labor Day weekend, according to Chicago police, five people were fatally shot in less than 24 hours. Among the fatalities was a 15-year-old boy. In 2019, the city has recorded 329 homicides.
Lightfoot’s tweets came after a shooting Saturday in Cruz’s home state in which seven people were killed and another 22 were wounded.
“60% of illegal firearms recovered in Chicago come from outside IL—mostly from states dominated by coward Republicans like you who refuse to enact commonsense gun legislation,” Lightfoot wrote on Twitter. “Keep our name out of your mouth.”
She was responding to a tweet by Cruz that questioned Chicago’s primary strategy for preventing violent crimes.
“Gun control doesn’t work. Look at Chicago. Disarming law-abiding citizens isn’t the answer. Stopping violent criminals—prosecuting & getting them off the street—BEFORE they commit more violent crimes is the most effective way to reduce murder rates. Let’s protect our citizens,” the senator wrote with a link to a Breitbart article.
Chicago, one of the nation’s most violent cities, has not had a Republican mayor since the early 1930s.
Candidates vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination also are calling for stricter gun control.
Former Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, for example, is proposing a mandatory gun buyback program. He’s selling T-shirts that say America’s gun laws are “f-cked up.”
