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.”
