A new analysis from the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts shows that criminalization of firearm possession increases incarceration and fails to reduce gun violence.
The report, Punishing Fear: The Devastating Impacts of the War on Gun Possession in Chicago, confirms what many in marginalized groups have long argued—targeted and racialized policing of gun possession, strict gun laws, and increased investment in surveillance technologies, especially within the city’s Black and Brown communities, fail to address safety concerns and, instead, add to them.
“The criminalization of gun possession and the conflation of gun possession and gun use have made communities less safe by entangling more people in the criminal legal system,” the report states. “Time and time again, Black men, teenagers, and children are targeted, arrested, and criminalized for carrying guns that they feel are necessary for their own protection in areas with high rates of gun violence and low clearance rates by police.”
Naomi Johnson and Austin Segal—who produced the report along with Maya Simkin, Stephanie Agnew, Kareem Butler, and Briana Payton—from the nonprofit legal and advocacy organization showcased their findings at a virtual press conference on October 29. Also in attendance were Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell Jr.; Martine Caverl, executive director of Black health collective and violence prevention organization Ujimaa Medics; and community stakeholders.
Researchers worked on the report for more than a year, using public investigatory, arrest, and prosecution data and crime reporting from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Chicago Police Department (CPD), and other sources.
They pointed to figures that illuminate the current state of gun ownership in Black communities, such as an Urban Institute survey of a nearly all-Black group of participants that found that more than 90 percent of male gun carriers in Chicago do so to protect themselves or others.
“People who possess guns without the proper licensure are often demonized in the media,” Johnson says. “However, many of these people are themselves survivors of gun violence who are taking measures to protect themselves and their families from violence. We believe it is critical to center their voices in this conversation.”
Chicago Appleseed researchers highlighted several topics featured in their report during the October 29 press conference—including the hypercriminalization of guns and the subsequent “war on guns,” akin to the historic “war on drugs” that similarly impacted a disproportionate number of Black communities throughout the country.
They also discussed the reality of those living in marginalized communities, who often acquire guns due to safety concerns.
Harsh gun laws have proved ineffective at addressing the underlying causes such as segregation and poverty, accessibility to guns, and feelings of insecurity in Black and Latine communities in the city’s south and west sides. This further destabilizes communities, Johnson says.
Mass incarceration grows when there are limited opportunities for dismissal, deflection, or diversion in gun possession cases. Many guilty sentences result in three years of incarceration, Segal says. “This strategy creates a class of people—who can never legally possess a firearm in Illinois—without actually addressing the risks and realities that informed their decision to possess a gun in the first place,” they say.
Gun licensure laws in Illinois are among the strictest in the country and have only grown more extreme over time. Black communities in particular face the biggest barriers to navigating legal avenues to gun ownership. Additionally, law enforcement calling for stricter gun laws and expanded policing have also racialized and targeted Chicago’s majority-Black areas, the report concludes.
“This report, while difficult, tells truths and, while complex and well-researched, mirrors the stories and opinions I’ve heard, and we’ve heard, in our communities,” Mitchell Jr. says. “We have a serious problem when it comes to the effectiveness of law enforcement responses to gun violence.”
Chicago Appleseed believes community-based harm-reduction practices that center communities of color and those impacted by gun violence can help address the criminalization of both gun possession and Black and Latino communities in Chicago. But it will be up to the city and state lawmakers to implement these.
Recognizing that many marginalized youth of color risk incarceration for illegal gun possession to keep themselves and their families safe and responding to their needs with the proper tools is also important.
For Malik Cole of local firearm harm reduction organization Stick Talk, youth of color carrying firearms in neighborhoods—where the practice is common and many feel like relying on law enforcement isn’t an option—should be seen as a “rational, adaptive strategy.”
Cole cautions against insisting that youth relinquish their guns to access resources and support. He says this creates a barrier to engagement and deepens already existing marginalization.
To address gun violence in Chicago and create a system of equitable gun possession, we should divest from carceral strategies and instead use harm-reduction practices, a compassionate and evidence-based public health framework that seeks to meet people where they’re at, and strategies that minimize health and safety risks, “even if [people] aren’t interested in stopping those behaviors,” Cole believes.
Additionally, community-based nonviolence organizations like Stick Talk, Ujimaa Medics, GoodKidsMadCity, and others that interact directly with the people most impacted by gun violence need to see increased investment, the report concludes.
“We believe that if properly supported, carefully scaled, and given the time to flourish, firearm harm reduction will reduce gun violence and improve community safety more effectively than the criminalization of firearm possession and abstinence-based approaches,” Cole says.
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