New research finds small, mid-size Illinois cities have higher per-capita gun homicide rates than Chicago

A study by University of Illinois Springfield political science professor Magic Wade found that small and mid-size Illinois cities are seeing gun homicides at levels that exceed the rates of the 1990s, when firearm death rates in big cities saw a spike. (Rich Hein/Sun-Times (file))

Small and mid-sized Illinois cities have surpassed Chicago’s gun homicide rate in recent years, mirroring a national trend, a new analysis of city-level firearm violence data found.

Magic Wade, a political science professor at the University of Illinois Springfield, studied firearm homicide and injury data from the Gun Violence Archive for small, mid-size and large cities nationwide from 2015 to 2021.