WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and nine other Republican senators on the Judiciary Committeerecently called on Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) to convene a full committee hearing on the rise in violent crime across the country.

The senators wrote the letter after Chairman Durbin held a hearing titled “Combating Gun Trafficking and Reducing Violence in Chicago” in Chicago, Ill. on Dec. 13. The senators previously requested that Durbin allow virtual or phone participation in that hearing, but the chairman denied this request. 

“Beginning in the summer of 2020, the country has experienced a sustained and unprecedented 30% increase in murders. This spike has correlated with a move toward depolicing, after the eruption of over 500 riots nationally,” the senators wrote.

“In June of 2021, the Biden Administration unveiled its own strategy to reduce violent crime. We were troubled to see how much of the President’s strategy focuses on lawful gun acquisition and lawful gun owners. For example, one of the tenets of the President’s plan is finding ways to sue legal gun manufacturers, an initiative that would do much to interfere with Americans’ access to guns but nothing to target murders or reduce crime. . . . Legally owned firearms play an important role in allowing Americans to protect themselves during a violent crime surge. A 2013 CDC-commissioned study found that as many as millions of people a year defend themselves with a firearm,” they continued.

“We therefore request that you hold a full committee hearing in Washington, D.C. on the spike in murders and the challenges that law enforcement is facing. Ineffective bail policies, cumbersome restraints on police officers, and the impact of the ‘progressive prosecutor’ movement are exacerbating this surge. While it would have been helpful to explore the effects of these factors on crime in Chicago, given the many other cities that are impacted by the crime surge, we believe it would be even more useful if we could explore these problems on a national scale with the full committee,”concluded the senators.

Read the letter here. 

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