Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Wednesday meant to prevent the city from buying guns from problem dealers.
Johnson’s order calls for stricter standards and disclosure requirements for the firearm and ammunition wholesalers the city buys from to arm the Chicago Police Department. The mayor told reporters the new rules will allow the city to steer money away from stores that regularly sell guns used in crimes.
“If a vendor fails to take seriously its responsibility to prevent the unlawful diversion of firearms, it should not expect to profit from Chicago taxpayer dollars,” he said.
It remains to be seen how effective the standards will be. While the city spends millions annually on ammunition and other gun-related equipment for the Police Department, Chicago police officers purchase their own service weapons.
The measure marked Johnson’s fourth executive order this year, moves that sparked media coverage but raised questions about overall impact given the absence of City Council-backing needed for the most comprehensive changes to city law.
And it’s the mayor’s latest effort to address Chicago gun violence after he signed another order in June to create a new Office of Gun Violence Reduction.
The number of murders and shootings reported by police has sharply dropped in the last two years. Murders have fallen 29% compared with the same period in 2024, according to police.
Taxpayers are the “number one purchasers of guns” in America, said Kris Brown, president of the pro-gun regulation group Brady United Against Gun Violence. Governments spend over $5 billion a year on firearm purchases for law enforcement, she said.
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“Far too many of those purchases are directed to dealers that routinely sell guns recovered in crime,” she said. “They are knowingly supplying to traffickers, to straw purchasers, and they are fueling gun violence.”
Johnson’s executive order did not specify the new regulations, ordering the Police Department and his administration to form new standards within 90 days.
But his administration said gun sellers who work with the city will be required to disclose information including their violations of federally enforced rules, the frequency with which guns they sell are used in crimes and the ways they try to prevent gun trafficking and straw purchasing.
Asked if the city currently buys guns or ammunition from any sellers heavily tied to crime guns, Johnson said his administration is “keeping an eye” on the south suburban Ray O’Herron Co.
“If there are issues with this particular company, then that will play a part in whether or not they could be renewed,” he said.
The store has been cited for 11 violations by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to records compiled by Brady. The city has agreed to buy as much as $7.8 million in ammunition and gear from the company since 2010, contracting records show.
An O’Herron spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Johnson echoed Brown’s claim that around 90% of guns used in crimes come from just 5% of gun dealers.
“When you have such a hyper concentration of crime guns being recovered from a small percentage of the overall industry, it gives us that much more hope, quite frankly, and direction of where we can apply pressure,” he said.
Johnson also acknowledged Wednesday the resignation of acting Chief Financial Officer Steven Mahr, who is leaving the administration just as the mayor and City Council prepare for a sure-to-be grueling budget season.
Mahr has led the department since January, when CFO Jill Jaworski left the administration. Johnson said Chicagoans should not be worried, “because we’ll find another one.”
“The work doesn’t stop because one individual moves on, right? If that was the case, government would never be a continuum,” he said. “People move on all the time, but here’s the thing that’s most steady: I’m still here.”
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