[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11038-11039]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        GUN VIOLENCE IN CHICAGO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, entire neighborhoods in my city of Chicago 
are being torn apart by violence.
  Last week, from Wednesday evening through Sunday evening, more than 
70 people were shot in Chicago, 11 of whom died. Last year, over 500 
people were murdered in my city. Of these murders, 80 percent were gang 
related, and nearly 90 percent were at the hands of a gun. The numbers 
speak for themselves. The city of Chicago is facing an epidemic of 
violence and the reasons behind it are clear.
  There are many ideas to solve this problem. One--rounding up 18,000 
members of the Gangster Disciples--is simply not legally or financially 
feasible. What is feasible and a significant way to stop gun violence 
in my city is to stop the flow of illegal guns into Chicago.
  One reason the violence is at record levels is because gang members 
have such easy access to illegal guns. It's time for the Federal 
Government to step in and do something about it.
  Despite the city's tough gun laws, Chicago cops are recovering 
illegal guns at nine times the rate of their counterparts in New York 
City. That's nearly three times the number of weapons in a city one-
third the size. These outrageous numbers call for nothing short of a 
Federal response. We need a renewed effort at the Federal level to 
prosecute gun traffickers who put illegal weapons in the hands of gang 
members. We need to give our law enforcement the tools they need to put 
these guys away.
  Last year, Chicago ranked last among Federal jurisdictions and 
Federal gun prosecutions. This is simply unacceptable. Gun traffickers 
should know that if you traffic illegal weapons in the city of Chicago, 
you will be spending a long time in a Federal penitentiary. We can no 
longer let these criminals be charged with mere paperwork violations.
  I welcome the nomination of Zachary Fardon as Chicago's new Federal 
prosecutor and urge him to prosecute more

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of these cases in Federal court. But to try more gun traffickers in 
Federal court, we need to give law enforcement the tools and funding 
they need to do so. That means finally passing a Federal law making gun 
trafficking illegal, with stiffer penalties for those who violate the 
law; that means increasing funding for Federal COPS grants to put more 
police on our streets instead of ignoring municipalities across the 
country that have been forced to cut their public safety budgets in 
these difficult economic times; and that means finally giving law 
enforcement the proper tools to go after corrupt gun dealers.
  One percent of gun dealers are responsible for half the guns used in 
crimes in this country; yet current law foolishly limits things like 
inventory inspections. If law-abiding dealers reported inventories, the 
ATF would be much more effective in identifying lost and stolen weapons 
and combating corrupt gun dealers. That's why I introduced the TRACE 
Act this Congress, which would allow the ATF to require dealers to 
perform inventory checks and to report lost and stolen guns.
  Mr. Speaker, people are being gunned down in my city every day. And 
while we continue to spend billions of dollars on nuclear weapons, 
tanks, and wars overseas, we're ignoring the gang war that is happening 
here at home. It's time for the Federal Government to step up to the 
challenge by stopping gun violence where it starts.

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