Discuss Chicago’s gun problem with law enforcement professionals or any other smart person devoted to keeping the flow of lethal weapons off this city’s streets, and you’ll invariably hear one word: Indiana.
That’s because gun stores in the Hoosier State are a prime source for many of the weapons that eventually end up as part of homicides and other violent crimes in Chicago. In 2021, Chicago filed a lawsuit against a northern Indiana gun store, claiming more than 850 illegal firearms recovered in Chicago could be traced back to a single gun shop in Gary, an establishment that the city alleged ignored the clear signs of so-called straw purchases.
As U.S. Rep. Marie Newman wrote on our own op-ed pages last month: “To Illinois residents, it may sound heartening that Indiana’s already lax gun laws stop at state lines. But the harsh reality is that guns do not.”
Any Chicago police officer will tell you much the same.
Newman was writing about the need for a federal law requiring universal background checks, a common sense proposal we’ve long supported. But the issue in hand right now is the stealthy March 8 action by Indiana lawmakers that will eliminate the license requirement to carry a gun in the Hoosier State.
The provision was sneaked into an unrelated bill and then passed over the objections of numerous law enforcement officers, including members of the Indiana Sheriffs’ Association, the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police and the Indiana branch of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Douglas Carter, head of the Indiana State Police, castigated Indiana Republicans for what he saw as a collective and myopic obsession with political expediency over common sense.
“I sure hope you choose to show deference to law enforcement professionals that understand the magnitude and the front-line effects of this legislation, rather than the possibility of getting reelected or elected the next primary,” Carter reportedly said, along with a few other choice words.
He hardly was alone in his fury. Newspapers throughout Indiana have editorialized about the stupidity of this new law, urging the Indiana governor, Eric Holcomb, to veto the legislation, House Bill 1296, the product of a Republican supermajority.
As of this writing, he had not done so. And Tuesday represents his last opportunity for action.
On behalf of this city, we are happy to lend our eleventh-hour voice to the editorial pages of the South Bend Tribune, Kokomo Tribune, the Journal-Gazette of Fort Wayne, and many other editorial boards and commentators throughout Indiana.
Chicago and Illinois have a vested interest in not making it easier to obtain a firearm in Indiana. Background checks do not impinge on anyone’s constitutionally protected right to bear arms. They are common sense.
Holcomb should listen to the leading law enforcement officers of Indiana, who have been speaking in one voice on this issue, and read some of the headlines in this newspaper about blood flowing on the streets of Chicago, caused by a firearm obtained in Indiana.
Surely, no reasonable person could support making getting a gun in Indiana even easier yet. The lack of a required permit means police officers can get a potential shooter off the streets of a city such as Gary or South Bend.
A simple permitting requirement can stop (and has stopped) a felon from acquiring a weapon with the intent to kill again. And most killers find it easy to cross a state line with their weapon. Let’s not be fools on this issue.
