NRATV Grossly Exaggerates Chicago Violence To Push For Jeff Sessions As Attorney General

Special Programs Guns & Public Safety

Written by Cydney Hargis

Published

The host of the National Rifle Association’s NRATV made the false claim that someone is murdered every 11 minutes in Chicago in order to push for a “swift” confirmation of Trump attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL).

If that statistic were true, Chicago would have almost 50,000 murders per year, a figure 62 times higher than the actual total number of murders in Chicago in 2016. The claim, which was made during a January 9 broadcast by host Grant Stinchfield, is an example of the NRA’s repeated attempts to claim that violence in Chicago is a result of the city’s strict gun laws.

In fact, NRA claims about Chicago ignore cities with weaker gun laws and a far greater homicide rates per capita, such as St. Louis and New Orleans.

Stinchfield used his false statistic to push for the “swift confirmation of attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions,” and claimed “lives depend” on his appointment because Chicago politicians supposedly refuse “to enforce the laws already on the books.” In actuality, it is the NRA that has engaged in a decades-long campaign to hinder the efforts of the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearm, the Department of Justice subsidiary responsible for enforcing federal gun laws.

From the January 9 edition of NRATV’s Live Updates with Grant Stinchfield:

GRANT STINCHFIELD (HOST): It’s a new year in Chicago, and the violence continues. A person is shot every two minutes and murdered every 11. Yet the mayor thinks more jobs for the heartless killers is the way to solve the city’s crime woes. It is not. Pro-active policing and tough on crime judges could make an immediate impact. It’s why the NRA’s executive director for the Institute for Legislative Action is calling for the swift confirmation of attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions.

[...]

STINCHFIELD: His confirmation hearing starts tomorrow and they should get this done in swift order. I am telling you, lives depend on the appointment of Jeff Sessions. If Senator Chuck Schumer tries to hold this up, he will have blood on his hands because people are dying on the streets of Chicago, simply because leaders there do not want to enforce the laws already on the books.