U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) met an unexpected answer on Tuesday after pushing a GOP talking point that suggests Democratic-run cities are the most dangerous and Chicago is the most violent.
“Why do you think that Chicago has become America’s largest outdoor shooting range?” Senator Kennedy asked Dr. Megan Ranney, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the intersection of U.S. gun violence and public health, according to C-SPAN. “Do you think it’s because of Chicago citizens who have no criminal record? But who have lawfully a gun in their home for protection, or perhaps for hunting? Or do you think it’s because of a finite group of criminals who have rap sheets as long as King Kong’s arm?”
Dr. Ranney, who is an expert in gun violence and co-founded the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine (AFFIRM) at the Aspen Institute, gave Senator Kennedy an answer he did not appear to appreciate.
“So Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri actually have higher firearm death rates. Obviously, there’s –” Dr. Ranney replied before Kennedy interrupted her.
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“What about Chicago?” the Senator from Louisiana asked, trying to move back to his focus on the Windy City.
“So I don’t live in Chicago. It’s not my primary area of research,” Ranney replied.
“You don’t have an opinion on that?” Kennedy continued.
“I think there’s easy access to firearms combined with environmental conditions, lack of great education. There have actually been studies showing that when you green vacant lots and repair abandoned buildings in urban neighborhoods, you see decreases in gunshots and violence as well as in stress and depression in the neighborhoods around them,” said Ranney, who has also served as a professor of emergency medicine and as an ER physician.
“No disrespect, doc,” Kennedy replied, not looking at Dr. Ranney, “but that sounds a lot like word salad to me.”
Despite Senator Kennedy’s focus on Chicago, that city doesn’t even make list of the top 15 most dangerous cities in America. According to a report in Forbes, they are (in ranked order):
St. Louis, Missouri
Birmingham, Alabama
Baltimore, Maryland
Memphis, Tennessee
Detroit, Michigan
Cleveland, Ohio
New Orleans, Louisiana
Shreveport, Louisiana
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Little Rock, Arkansas
Oakland, California
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Kansas City, Missouri
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Richmond, Virginia
Forbes also listed the 5 Worst Cities for Mass Shootings in the US. Chicago is not on that list either:
Boulder, Colorado
San Jose, California
Indianapolis, Indiana
Atlanta, Georgia
Colorado Springs, Colorado
“Cities and states run by Republicans do not actually have less crime,” The New York Times reported in August. “Consider DeSantis’s state, Florida. Its homicide rate was roughly 50 percent higher than New York’s in 2021. Florida’s two most populous cities, Jacksonville and Miami, each had a homicide rate more than double New York City’s last year, even though both had Republican mayors.”
Watch Senator Kennedy below or at this link.
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