NEW REPORT – Punishing Fear: Facts about the “War on Guns” in Chicago

Criminal Justice , , , , , , ,

Today we published a new report, Punishing Fear: Facts about the “War on Guns” in Chicago, which analyzes the policies, processes, and sociocultural realities that have led to the hypercriminalization of gun possession—the “War on Guns,” which parallels the historic War on Drugs and has similarly devastated Black and Brown communities for decades. Click here to read the report.

Our researchers used public data on investigatory stops, arrests, prosecutions, and crime and violence reporting from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Chicago Police Department, and other sources to provide a set of facts that explain how the mounting public pressure to stop gun violence has regressively and ineffectively targeted survivors of violence and their neighbors who carry guns for protection. Some of our key findings include: 

  • Arrests for gun possession in Chicago – which have increased from less than 2% to more than 10% of all Chicago Police Department arrests in the past two decades – have not succeeded in reducing the number of injuries and deaths caused by guns in the city.
  • Both policing of gun possession and injuries and deaths from gun violence are highly concentrated in a few community areas on the South and West Sides, which are predominantly Black and Latine. In some of these communities, as many as one in every 100 people are arrested for gun possession or are injured or killed by guns each year.
  • In the context of high rates of gun violence, carrying a firearm is often a rational means for keeping oneself safe. Black and Latine communities experience dual victimization as they are disproportionately impacted by both gun violence and the criminalization of gun possession; Black and Latine people account for 96% of the gun deaths since 2017 and 97% of felony cases, convictions, and incarcerations for gun possession since 2011.
  • Charges for gun possession most often end in guilty pleas, which, in a majority of such cases, result in 3+ years of incarceration. There is limited opportunity for diversion or deflection in these cases despite the fact that gun possession is ultimately a nonviolent charge resulting from improper licensure.

Over time, gun licensure laws in Illinois have become progressively stricter and are now some of the most extreme in the nation. The criminalization of gun possession and the conflation of gun possession and gun use in Chicago have made communities less safe by entangling more people in the criminal legal system—especially Black men, teenagers, and children.

The “War on Guns” is wasteful, counterproductive, and racist—and increased penalties do not improve safety or reduce the likelihood that someone will carry a gun without a license. Most people in Chicago who carry guns without licenses do so because of the real and perceived threats of violence in their communities. We recommend that policymakers work to fund harm-reducing, community-based approaches that target the root causes of gun violence and support rather than continue to punish those at the greatest risk.

You can find our report, Punishing Fear: Facts about the “War on Guns” in Chicago, here.