President Barack Obama's proposed executive actions on gun violence were met with mixed reactions from Illinois politicians on Tuesday. Unsurprisingly, opposition and support for the measures fell along party lines.
Following Obama's address to the nation, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., held a press conference with Ald. Willie Cochran (20th) in Englewood, one of Chicago's most crime-ridden neighborhoods, during which they praised the president's steps to strengthen and enforce gun laws.
Durbin pointed out that Chicago led the U.S. in gun deaths with 468 in 2015, and that the number of shooting victims increased 13 percent over the year to a record 2,939.
"Go to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as I did just a few months ago. Ask them the following question: When you go to the most violent sections of the city of Chicago -- where the most gun incidents and crimes are taking place and you gather the crime guns and check out where they came from -- what do you find? Forty percent of the crime guns in the deadliest sections of Chicago come from gun shows in northwestern Indiana," Durbin said. "Why? There's no background check. They sell these guns in volumes and they sell ammunition. These gangsters fill up the trunks of their car, drive across the state line into the city of Chicago and you know what happens next. They are sold to anyone who can put the money up for the purchase and then they turn into deadly weapons."
"It will still take an act of Congress to close the gun show and Internet loopholes once and for all and to require background checks for all commercial gun sales nationwide," he added.
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk on Sunday, before Obama unveiled his plan, seemed to avoid the partisan divide in a tweet.
Here are some statements from other Illinois politicians, including U.S. representatives, in reaction to Obama's executive actions.
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