Guns bought in Indiana don’t always stay in Indiana.
President Obama brought up the recurring point earlier this month during a town hall discussion on guns, citing Indiana as the source of some of the guns that end up in the hands of Chicago gang members. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence rebuffed the remark during his State of the State address on Jan. 12.
“Mr. President, please stop blaming our gun laws for violence in Chicago. Hoosiers are not the cause of crime in your hometown — criminals are,” Pence said.
Whichever side you’re on, the rift underscores one of the key points of discussion in the gun-control debate — the so-called gun show loophole. As Obama sees it, buyers get guns in Indiana at gun shows, where they don’t always have to undergo background checks, then bring them to Chicago, where laws are stricter, for re-sale on the street.
Some guns in Chicago “are coming from Indiana across the border, where there are much laxer laws,” Obama said Jan. 7 in the town hall discussion on CNN. Buyers “will go to a gun show and purchase a whole bunch of firearms, put them in a van, drive up into Mike Pfleger’s neighborhood on the south side of Chicago where his parish is, open up the trunk, and those things are for sale.”
Pfleger is a Catholic priest in Chicago who also took part in the CNN discussion.
Some of the guns, Obama went on, will end up in the hands of kids and gang members. He referenced the trend in an Oct. 27 speech as well.
Pence, leading up to his call to Obama to stop blaming Indiana, emphasized the impact of responsible gun owners. “Hoosiers know firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens — including our National Guard — makes our communities more safe, not less safe. Indiana will always defend the right to keep and bear arms,” Pence said.
INDIANA: LARGEST OUT-STATE GUN SOURCE
A 2014 study by the city of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department found that Indiana is the key source, outside of Illinois, for illegal guns in Chicago.