Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had time for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) earlier this week, telling Cruz to “keep our name out of your mouth” after the Republican decided it was a good idea to drag Chicago into his argument about gun control.
“Gun control doesn’t work. Look at Chicago. Disarming law-abiding citizens isn’t the answer,” Cruz tweeted on Monday. “Stopping violent criminals—prosecuting & getting them off the street—BEFORE they commit more violent crimes is the most effective way to reduce murder rates. Let’s protect our citizens.”
Lightfoot fired back in a tweet of her own, saying that “60% of illegal firearms recovered in Chicago come from outside [Illinois]—mostly from states dominated by coward Republicans like you who refuse to enact commonsense gun legislation.”
But, Cruz didn’t back off, claiming that Lightfoot’s “anger” was misplaced, in a series of tweets.
“Virtually every year, Chicago has the most murders of any city in America,” he said in one tweet. “In 2017, the top five were: Chicago (650 murders), Baltimore (343), Philadelphia (317), New York (290), and Los Angeles (286).”
“All five of those cities have had Democratic mayors for decades and aggressive gun control policies—none seems to be working. Your explanation (“blame Indiana!”) doesn’t hold water. There are 27 states with GOP governors. Chicago is not alone in having neighboring red states,” he added.
Lightfoot wasn’t going to back down either, tweeting back, “When [Ted Cruz] and the [GOP] dismiss common-sense gun policies, they disrespect victims and their families, who deserve to live without pain and fear.”
“If you really care about Chicagoans, Texans and everyone facing gun violence, take action, Tell [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) it’s time for universal background checks [and] an assault weapons ban,” Lightfoot added.
This past Labor Day weekend, when Cruz fired off his first tweets, Chicago saw a sharp rise in gun violence, where at least 44 people were shot, nine of whom were killed, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The youngest to die in the stream of violence was 15-year-old Davantae Jackson, who was killed early Sunday in front of his own home.