The fact that Chicago saw 122 homicides over the summer months — the lowest summer total since 1965 — has some declaring a major success. But in 1965, Chicago had 700,000 more people. Per capita, the homicide rate is actually 25% higher when comparing the two summers. That rate of violence as it affects families, friends and neighbors — not as a citywide total — is what we experience as individuals and communities.
More importantly, the comparison that matters now is not to Chicago 60 years ago but to other American cities that are our competitors for business, population and the other elements that make cities great. Those other cities are also the right measure for the level of public safety we can and should achieve in every neighborhood.
Unfortunately, for the first eight months of this year, Chicago’s homicide total, compared with that of other cities, is worse than ever.
In the first eight months, Chicago had 288 homicides, far more than any other city. Next on the list is Los Angeles, with over 1 million more people, which saw 192 homicides. Then comes New York City, with over three times our population, with 173 homicides.
Nothing about Chicago’s economy, or any social or other characteristics of our population, accounts for those differences. Historically speaking, that hasn’t been the trend; in the early 1990s, when Chicago had over 900 homicides, New York City had over 2,200 and Los Angeles over 1,000. Chicago did bring its homicide total down to 450 in 2007. But then in Chicago, unlike those other cities, the decline we saw in gun violence stopped. That is an institutional failure, not a function of any external forces, for which we ourselves bear responsibility.
There are some smaller cities — such as St. Louis; Birmingham, Alabama; and New Orleans — that have a homicide rate higher than Chicago’s. But we should not gain any comfort from shared failure — and those cities are not our competitors for growth in the critical categories that produce and sustain a great city such as Chicago.
One reason Chicago’s comparative statistics are now worse than ever is because cities across the country, including Chicago, experienced a significant decline in homicides in recent years. Chicago has gone from 617 homicides in 2023 down to 416 last year. In almost all other cities around the country, that decline has continued into 2026. But in Chicago, the decline has stopped, and total homicides for the first eight months are about even with last year.
Given our history two decades ago, seeing the decline in homicides stop here is an ominous development.
The University of Chicago Crime Lab has attributed Chicago’s outlier status in this regard in part to the increased prevalence in violence involving guns with large-capacity magazines and switches that convert them to automatic firing. Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen Burke has an announced policy of moving to deny pretrial release and seeking extended jail time for anyone found with such an enhanced firearm. That policy should be supported and reinforced repeatedly by Chicago public officials at all levels.
Editorial: Chicago had the fewest summertime homicides in 60 years. Good but far from good enough.
The Illinois legislature also has before it a bill supported by G-PAC and other gun control groups that would ban the sale in Illinois of pistols easily convertible with switches to automatic firing, a lethal enhancement that is not needed for self-defense. The bill leaves for sale a wide range of other firearms usable for self-defense or other lawful purposes. Similar bills have been passed in California, Connecticut, New York and Maryland. The Illinois bill was ready for passage at the end of the spring legislative session but was deferred. The General Assembly should pass the bill during its November veto session.
Cutting back on the availability and use of enhanced guns alone will not alone do the job. Chicago police, our state and federal prosecutors, and the groups working in our communities to reduce violence face together the critical job of getting us back on the downward track that will allow us someday to celebrate success in reducing Chicago homicides and gun violence to the levels we see today in other great American cities.
John Schmidt, senior counsel at Mayer Brown LLP, served from 1994 to 1997 as the associate attorney general of the United States. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Illinois Gun Violence Prevention Action Committee (G-PAC).
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