As Democrats call for more restrictions on guns, some cities struggling with gun violence aren’t enforcing gun laws already on their books.
Many police departments are reporting high numbers of illegal firearms taken off the streets amid rising violence nationally.
However, in some of those cities, gun-related arrests, prosecutions, and convictions are down as liberal law enforcement policies contribute to the rise in crime.
Homicides rose 44% nationally between 2019 and last year, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
Much of the problem stems from an increase in gun violence, though relatively few guns used in crimes have historically been purchased in the kinds of ways Congress wants to regulate with its latest gun control push.
A Justice Department study published in 2019 showed that only 7% of federal prisoners who were in possession of a firearm at the time of their crimes had purchased the gun from a licensed firearm dealer. Half of federal prisoners who’d carried guns during their offenses had either stolen their firearms or bought them on the black market.