20 Federal Agents Assigned to Chicago

The city is trying to crack down on illegal guns.

Posted 7 years ago

By Reed Gilchrist

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Gun crime Abstract concept digital illustration

At the end of June, the Chicago Tribune reported that 20 federal gun agents were assigned to the city of Chicago to take part in a task force with the goal of cracking down on illegal guns in the city.

According to a release from the office of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the task force became operational June 1. The Chicago police department sent out a notice about the task force on Thursday June 29. Hours alter, President Trump claimed credit for the agents in a tweet on the morning of June 30: “Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!” That tweet was a follow-up to one he sent out in January saying, “If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on, … I will send in the Feds!”

According to the Tribune, the actual numbers are higher than what Trump tweeted in June. As of Friday morning, the number of people shot in Chicago was at least 1,760. While that is a high number, it is still lower than this time last year, when violence reached unprecedented levels.

The task force believes that Chicago’s violence problem stems from an access to illegal guns. And, apparently, a lack of morals.

“I think that the problem there is pretty clear that it’s a crime problem. I think crime is probably driven more by morality than anything else. So I think that this is a law enforcement issue and our focus is trying to add additional support,” said Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

I’m really curious about how the task force is going to start teaching criminals morality lessons. How do you think they’ll solve that problem?

The 20 agents from the feds will join about 20 others from Chicago police departments, ATF agents and Illinois State Police. They’ll be working on unsolved shootings and gun-related homicides as well as looking into the problem of illegal gun trafficking. One of the things the task force will be doing to fight crime is examining bullet casings recovered from crime scenes. They’ll perform expedited ballistics testing in a mobile lab in a van to determine whether the casings came from the same guns used in other crimes that they already know about.