OPINION:
Sen. Ted Cruz remarked on Twitter, “Gun control doesn’t work. Look at Chicago.” And that was all it took for the left-leaning mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, to go off the deep end.
Liberals hate truths.
But my, do they love throwing hissy fits.
This is what Cruz tweeted, in response to Chicago’s bloody homicide rate: “Gun control doesn’t work. Look at Chicago. Disarming law-abiding citizens isn’t the answer. Stopping violent criminals — prosecuting and 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.”
Yes. Let’s.
Lightfoot, however, had other ideas in mind — like shutting up Cruz and all his sensible, fact-based statements. Before he started making sense to the Democrat Party’s main funders — or worse, to any on-the-fence and fed-up voters.
She tweeted back: “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.”
That’s right; Cruz can no longer say “Chicago” — else face the wrath of Lightfoot.
But let’s skip over the feigned outrage and hysterics, shall we?
The fact that Lightfoot finds most illegal gun confiscations involve weapons that are purchased out of state isn’t really a pertinent argument to shutter gun sales in other states. Rather, it’s an underscore of the criminal minds’ abilities to sidestep law — of which, on guns, there are many in Chicago.
“Gun-related murders are carried out by a predictable pool of people,” Heritage Foundation reported in 2018. “Higher rates of gun ownership are not associated with higher rates of violent crime. There is no clear relationship between strict gun control legislation and homicide or violent crime rates.”
Those are three fact-based, researched-based, fact-tested tried-and-trues on gun control.
Or, as Heritage put it: “Each of these facts is firmly based on empirical data.”
Leftists like Lightfoot, though, don’t like these facts — don’t like to use facts at all — because they get in the way of their visions of gun control, which gets in the way of their visions for government control.
Facts may be, well, factual. But for the gun-control-at-all-costs types in the Democrat Party, emotional, angry outbursts and pot-shots are always orders of the day.
Lightfoot no doubt learned long ago that in her party, the way to win funding, low information votes and the necessary level of backing to win political elections is to throw a fit, so as to distract from fact. On that, like many in her party, she’s become expert.
Of course, that doesn’t fix Chicago’s crime problem. But there’s that nasty f-word, fact, rearing its head again.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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