PolitiFact – Milwaukee’s high gun rate rivals New York’s

Gun violence has wracked the Metropolis of Milwaukee for many years, and Might noticed a weekend with a brand new set of surprising headlines, as 21 individuals had been injured in three late-night shootings close to Milwaukee’s crowded Deer District after a Bucks playoff recreation.

Tackling gun violence was among the many points on the high of the precedence checklist for Cavalier Johnson in his profitable bid to win the Milwaukee mayor’s workplace.

Days after his historic win, Johnson had this to say April 9, 2022 on PBS Wisconsin’s Right here & Now present, telling anchor Frederica Freyberg: 

“Sadly, on the native degree, we don’t management gun regulation. We simply react to it. In one of many more moderen years in Milwaukee, our police division collected extra weapons per capita off the streets than in New York.”

That caught our consideration, given the huge distinction in measurement – and reputations – between the 2 cities. 

Is Johnson proper?

Gun recoveries in 2016

Let’s begin with gun recoveries by the Milwaukee Police Division, a quantity that has been on the rise lately.

As of April 20, 2022, the police division had recovered 927 weapons – in contrast with the 681 reported at roughly the identical time the 12 months earlier than.

To make certain, a per-capita strategy is the easiest way to match Milwaukee and New York Metropolis, which is roughly 10 occasions bigger. On this case, although, Johnson was fairly obscure in declaring the town led in “one of many more moderen years.” Which 12 months?

When requested for backup, Johnson’s workers pointed to 2016 and supplied two articles – one printed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the opposite by Wiscontext, which is a part of PBS Wisconsin.

Each articles reported that Milwaukee had a better gun restoration per capita versus a few of the nation’s largest metropolitan cities.

In 2016, the two,421 weapons recovered by Milwaukee police translated right into a charge of 406.84 weapons per 100,000 individuals, in response to the Journal Sentinel article. 

That very same 12 months, New York Metropolis reported 3,583 gun recoveries, which translated into about 42 per 100,000 individuals, in response to a 2017 report issued by the Metropolis of Chicago. The numbers don’t embody any weapons obtained by turn-in or buy-back packages.

The Metropolis of Chicago report was evaluating its expertise to that of different massive cities, and was largely geared toward figuring out the place weapons utilized in crimes come from. 

In any case, meaning the speed in Milwaukee, in that 12 months, was 10 occasions that of New York.

Milwaukee even surpassed two different main U.S. cities featured within the report: Chicago and Los Angeles. 

In 2016, Chicago counted 6,644 gun recoveries, with a charge of 244 per 100,000 individuals, whereas Los Angeles had 5,908 gun recoveries in the identical 12 months, with 149 per 100,000.

Now, there are numerous elements that go into gun recoveries, together with extra aggressive policing, particular patrols and initiatives and the like. However Johnson made a slim, targeted declare, and on it hit the mark.

Certainly, because the Journal Sentinel article famous, Milwaukee police routinely get better weapons at a better charge than many different main cities – so, really, Johnson most likely would have been secure even when he had  been extra expansive in making his level.

Our ruling

Johnson claimed that in a latest 12 months, the Milwaukee Police Division “collected extra weapons per capita off the streets than in New York.”

Whereas the timeframe Johnson was referring to was obscure, the declare was on level, as Milwaukee’s gun recoveries per capita numbers in 2016 had been greater than 10 occasions greater than what New York Metropolis reported for that 12 months.

We charge the declare True.