Governor defends focus on Highland Park mass shooting over Chicago violence

[July 12, 2022]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Gov. J.B. Pritzker was in Washington D.C. Monday alongside President Joe Biden, gun control advocates and victims of gun violence to herald a newly enacted federal law.

The law does a variety of things, including increasing background checks for people under 21 looking to buy guns.

Last week, state Sen. Darren Bailey, who’s the Republican nominee to take Pritzker on in November, criticized the governor for giving more attention to the July 4 Highland Park shooting than the regular occurrence of gun violence in Chicago.

“The loss of life of these African American and minority communities matters just as much as the tragedy in Highland Park, but Gov. Pritzker, you never talk about them and it’s time to own it,” Bailey said.

Appearing on CNN over the weekend, Pritzker was asked about such criticism. He said he’s increased funding to combat gun violence, but defended focusing on Highland Park.

“It’s an unusual one that I think the nation is paying attention to in part because of the weapon that was used and the number of people killed all at once by one particular shooter,” Pritzker said.

Seven people were killed and dozens shot in Highland Park. Scores of people are shot in Chicago every week.

The governor is advocating banning certain types of semi-automatic weapons. He’s also promoting increased funding.

“For this current fiscal year is to put money into programs that serve Black and brown communities throughout Chicago and in fact through the rest of the state, particularly communities where there’s been a high degree of violence,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker said the focus goes beyond funding and banning certain types of weapons and should also look at decreasing poverty.
 

Independent public health data researcher Jessica Hockett reviewed the numbers of gun-related fatalities, including suicides, and said for Illinois, there was a noticeable increase after the economic restrictions imposed by the governor in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Even if you look at the data by week, which I’ve done, you can see exactly when these numbers started going up,” Hockett told WMAY.

In 2020, Hockett says there was a 48% increase in homicides and an additional 10% increase in 2021.

Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning Newsfeed out of Springfield.