Is Indiana to blame for Chicago gun violence?

• Obama calls for tougher gun laws during Chicago visit
• President highlights influx of guns from Indiana

President Barack Obama suggested Tuesday that Indiana and other states with few gun restrictions are to blame for Chicago’s homicide problem.

The remarks came during a national gathering of police chiefs in Chicago, which has seen a sharp rise in gun violence this year. Supporters of gun rights have cited the frequent shootings as evidence that strict gun laws, such as those in Chicago, don’t work.

“There are those who criticize any gun safety reforms by pointing to my hometown as an example,” Obama said. “The problem with that argument, as the Chicago Police Department will tell you, is that 60 percent of guns recovered in crimes come from out of state. You’ve just got to hop across the border.”

It was a brief mention in the president’s nearly hour-long speech, which also included calls for criminal justice reforms and additional resources for police. But it was enough to rankle political leaders in Indiana, where Republicans control the governor’s office and enjoy supermajorities in the General Assembly.

“Blaming Chicago’s crime problems on Indiana is unfortunate and inaccurate,” said Matt Lloyd, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Pence.

Chicago police have long complained about a steady stream of illegal firearms from neighboring Indiana, where gun control laws are much weaker.

A report issued by Chicago authorities found that nearly 60 percent of illegal guns recovered in the city from 2009 to 2013 were first sold in states with more lax gun laws. The largest portion came from Indiana, which accounted for 19 percent of the illegal guns in Chicago.

Indiana gun show customer sold to Chicago gangs

The report blames Indiana’s lax gun laws, which allow gun owners to sell their weapons to other people without background checks or paperwork recording the sale.

“This makes it incredibly easy for gun traffickers, violent offenders and other prohibited purchasers to buy guns undetected,” the report says.

Indiana lawmakers, however, have shown no appetite for tougher gun laws.

In fact, while Chicago’s homicide count grew to nearly 400 so far this year, the Republican-controlled legislature in Indiana has rolled back restrictions.

Just this year, lawmakers repealed a prohibition on manufactured sawed-off shotguns and passed a law intended to inoculate gun manufacturers from an ongoing lawsuit filed by the city of Gary. Those changes come on the heels of a measure last year allowing adults to keep guns locked in their vehicles in school parking lots.

Sen. Jim Tomes, a Wadesville Republican who authored the two most recent measures, called Obama’s comments “absolutely ridiculous.”

“It doesn’t matter where the guns come from,” he said. “It’s a societal problem in Chicago. … I don’t know what in the world Indiana could have to do with their inability to deal with their criminal activity.”

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, a Democrat who supports universal background checks and stronger rules for gun shows and sales, acknowledged that pushing for such laws in gun-friendly Indiana likely is impossible.

After all, this is a state where Indianapolis restaurant Papa Roux reacted this week to a robbery of its store by offering discounts to patrons if they showed a gun-carrying permit. The promotion drew huge crowds of gun-toting customers.

After Papa Roux robbery, discount promised for handgun license holders

But Freeman-Wilson, a former Indiana attorney general, said common-sense reforms don’t infringe on Second Amendment rights.

“The fact that you say you have to be 18 to drink is not an infringement on the 21st Amendment,” she said. “It’s just the fact that in a society, in a civilized society, you need some types of rules and regulations. And that’s all it would be.”

But the National Rifle Association said the Obama administration should concentrate on enforcing current laws, rather than creating new ones.

The organization, which wields considerable influence in Indiana, highlighted a Chicago Sun Times article that found felons who illegally possess a gun in Chicago typically receive sentences on the low end of state sentencing guidelines. The group also said federal weapons convictions have declined nearly 35 percent over the past 10 years.

“If the president held a press conference tomorrow morning and directed every federal jurisdiction to round up every felon with a gun, drug dealer with a gun and criminal gangbanger with a gun, law enforcement would have thousands of violent thugs in handcuffs and squad cars by sundown,” said Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, in a video response to Obama’s speech.

Troy Riggs, the former director of public safety for Indianapolis who now runs a public safety outreach program at Indiana University’s Public Policy Institute, said he welcomes national conversations about how to address gun violence, though he added that any successful efforts would have to focus on comprehensive, long-term strategies for abating crime.

“It’s not as simple as just banning weapons,” Riggs said. “I see nothing that tells me that a national ban or a national approach is going to significantly reduce gun crime violence overnight. Remember, we have 300-plus million firearms in the United States of America. They’re not going to vanish overnight.”

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Rick Hite said he thinks there are ways to stem the use of illegal guns by violent criminals without infringing on the Second Amendment rights of responsible gun owners.

When it comes to individuals who aren’t legally allowed to carry guns or are serious violent felons, Hite said, “Shouldn’t we have harsher penalties relative to the acts they commit?”

Hite and other city officials have long advocated for mandatory minimum sentences for those who commit violent, gun-related crimes. Hite said he remains confident such measures would reduce criminal activity in Indianapolis, where homicides reached 116 earlier this month, outpacing last year’s recent high.

An IMPD study that examined homicides committed through the first half of 2014 found that up to 24 percent of those homicides would not have happened if the suspect or victim were serving longer sentences for previous crimes.

“Obviously, they made it very clear that violence is part of their business, and they plan to continue engaging in those activities until we in the community make it clear it’s unacceptable,” Hite said.

Indiana lawmakers recently overhauled the state’s criminal code in an effort to reduce prison time for non-violent offenders while requiring violent felons to serve a larger portion of their sentences.

It’s one area where Obama and Hoosier lawmakers might find some agreement.

“It is possible for us to come up with strategies that effectively reduce the damage of the drug trade without relying solely on incarceration,” Obama said.

But Obama said he doesn’t think those measures alone are enough.

“I refuse to accept the notion that we couldn’t have prevented some of those murders, some of those suicides, kept more families whole, protected more officers if we had passed some common-sense laws,” he said.

Star reporter Jill Disis and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Call Star reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter: @indystartony.