In the twelve years since Illinois became the last state in the country to recognize the right to carry there’ve been plenty of defensive gun uses in the city of Chicago, including cases where lawful gun owners have prevented carjackings, assaults, and armed robberies.
Advertisement
An incident on Tuesday night, however, is the only one that I can recall that involved an armed citizen acting in self-defense against a road raging driver; or at least the only incident where the defensive shots were fired while both parties were still behind the wheel.
Police said a 23-year-old man was driving eastbound just before 10 p.m. near the 7700 block of Belmont Ave in the city’s Dunning neighborhood when he was involved in a “road incident” with another driver traveling in the same direction.
That driver pulled out a gun and fired shots at the 23-year-old. The 23-year-old, a concealed carry holder, then opened fire back, police said.
The other driver ultimately crashed into a building and the driver fled the scene.
Police said no injuries have been reported so far in connection with the incident.
So far the suspect hasn’t been identified or arrested, and sadly, the odds that he’ll be found and prosecuted are pretty slim. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this year, the vast majority of shootings in the Windy City go unpunished and unprosecuted. Out of more than 2,300 shootings in 2024, police made just 141 arrests; a clearance rate of just 6%.
Advertisement
Mayor Brandon Johnson pledged during his campaign to hire 200 more detectives. But records show the number of detectives assigned to at least one shooting actually has fallen by nearly 20%, with 40 fewer investigators in 2024 than the police department had the year before.
Experts say the chronic lack of arrests is a big part of the reason for as many shootings as there are in many Chicago neighborhoods plagued by gunfire.
Those who did the shootings remain on the street, free to hurt more people. Seeing no arrest, victims’ friends in some cases try to take justice into their own hands and retaliate. Witnesses who already might be in fear but also don’t think arrests are likely might be less willing to cooperate with detectives — part of a widespread “no-snitch code” — making it harder to make arrests.
Johnson has blamed gunmakers like Glock for Chicago’s violent crime, but as the Sun-Times points out, when the vast majority of criminals suffer no legal consequences for their violent acts, it only encourages them to continue their lawless ways. The city’s unwillingness or inability to find, prosecute, and punish violent offenders only exacerbates Chicago’s crime problems, and it’s no surprise that tens of thousands of Cook County residents have decided to obtain their carry license so they can defend themselves, if necessary, against the prolific offenders who are preying on the public at large.
Advertisement
Carrying a firearm for self-defense doesn’t guarantee you’ll be protected from harm, or even that you’ll be able to use that gun in self-defense. But it does increase the odds of surviving a violent encounter, and in this case the 23-year-old armed citizen who fired back at his attacker not only saved his own life, but perhaps saved others as well by stopping his attacker from sending any more errant rounds in the direction of homes, businesses, and pedestrians. Chicago could use more detectives to investigate violent crimes, but it also needs more armed citizens like this man who are willing and able to protect themselves and others from harm.
