Martha MacCallum Asks Rev. Jesse Jackson: Why Is Chicago's Murder Rate Sky-High When City Has Such Strict Gun Control Laws?
Chicago has some of the toughest gun control laws in the United States, but the city's murder rate has jumped to more than 500 a year. The city is now pushing for even tougher action to be taken by the federal government.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, the founder of the Rainbow Push Coalition, joined Martha MacCallum this morning on America's Newsroom. MacCallum asked how he can explain the city's sky-high murder rate coinciding with some of the strictest gun laws in the country.
He said gun manufacturers
have to become more "accountable" for their products the way cigarette makers are held accountable for their products. Jackson argued that the guns that are used in killings in Chicago are coming from outside the city.
"We know where the guns shops are in the suburbs. If you were in Iraq today, and we had soldiers there, and you knew where guns were being manufactured and the trail and where they were being sold, we would stop that trail because they're killing our soldiers. We know where guns are manufactured, we know where they're sold, we know where legal guns become straw purchase guns," he said.
Jackson said ultimately he does not understand what the need is for assault weapons in modern society.
"What function do assault weapons hold other than to kill people? Hunters shoot rabbit and deer, not with these weapons, so what is their function?"
Watch the full interview:
