Headlines last week read that nine people were killed, 52 others wounded over Labor Day weekend, marking most violent holiday weekend of the summer in Chicago. Simultaneously, President Donald Trump threatened to deploy National Guard troops here. While Trump abuses his power under false pretenses about public safety, he is withholding over $150 million in funding from Community Violence Intervention organizations that have been reducing gun violence in inner cities all over the country, including Chicago. Additionally, Trump has repealed rules and executive orders regulating the flow and possession of firearms. Trump isn’t interested in our safety. We do not need occupation and political tricks. We need accountability.
This Labor Day weekend, as surgeons told parents they would never see their children again and spent hours operating on the critically injured, the president kept touting his ongoing plans, politicizing the National Guard by deploying them in our city as he’s done in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles..
Most Illinoisans who saw the gun violence headlines over the holiday weekend didn’t realize they will foot the bill for the care of the victims. Meanwhile, members of the gun industry likely grinned — or at the very least, was unfazed — as their products devastated our communities and lined their wallets.
Domestic and foreign gun manufacturers, whose products were used to shoot over 50 people last weekend, will answer to no one. They won’t share in any of the direct costs, which are conservatively estimated at 8.5 million for the nine dead and 52 wounded. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, passed in 2005, protects firearm manufacturers from the consequences of the misuse of their products, leaving taxpayers to bear the physical losses and the costs.
Firearm manufacturers’ profits are estimated to be $20 billion a year. There are more guns than people in America. And many of the weapons end up on the streets in our most vulnerable communities. These are the very communities that have been mostly deprived of the resources Trump is gutting: nutritional assistance programs, access to medical care and education. Lack of these essentials are social determinants of gun violence. As long as firearm manufacturers continue to operate without accountability, our communities will never be safe. They will continue to prioritize profit over safety until we force them to share the consequences of their economic activity with us.
A proposed law in Illinois, House Bill 3320/Senate Bill 2279, The Responsibility in Firearm Legislation Act, mandates firearm manufacturers whose products are sold, imported or distributed in our state share the financial consequences of their for-profit activity. It shifts the direct costs away from taxpayers and places them where they belong: on the gun industry. And it does so in a way that is equitable. Manufacturers, both domestic and international, pay according to how frequently their products are recovered in injuries and deaths in Illinois. If their products are never recovered, they pay nothing.
If the legislation passes, manufacturers will be financially motivated to innovate safer products, reduce the frequency of their products use to inflict harm, and join doctors, lawmakers, clergy, and community leaders in prevention of gun violence. In the process, Illinois citizens will recover their taxes and remove gun injury from our state’s Medicaid and Medicare bills. This is more necessary than ever as thousands of Illinoisans will soon lose their health insurance.
“There are no bad cars, just bad drivers,” was the prevailing logic for many years in the automotive industry. This was when motor vehicles lacked seat belts, airbags and emergency brakes. The fatalities and injuries caused by the absence of such safeguards forced the automotive industry to recognize its products were “unsafe at any speed.” In the construction and mining industries, employers knew their work was inherently dangerous, but it was a risk employees were forced to assume. That is, until we held corporations accountable for workplace safety and accidents. That time to shoulder responsibility has now come for the firearm industry. The logic that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is passe. It is the guns that create $18.6 billion in public costs for Illinois, and it is the guns that are the No. 1 cause of death for children, teens and pregnant women..
We don’t need soldiers. We need investment in under resourced communities, and we need accountability. Call your state representative and state senator and tell them to co-sponsor HB 3320/SB 2279. Tell them we are done bleeding, physically and financially, so that the firearm industry can realize ever greater profits.
Dr. Anthony D. Douglas II is a surgical resident and advocacy fellow at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Rev. Michael Pfleger is senior pastor of the Faith Community of St. Sabina Church.
Rev. Otis Moss III is the senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ .
State Sen. Robert Peters represents the 13th District and is a congressional candidate for Illinois’ 2nd District