Democrats are pushing back on Trump administration claims Chicago is a “war zone” even as the evidence shows more than 32,000 people have been shot in the Windy City during the past decade alone.
Breitbart News pulled data from the Chicago Sun-Times, CNN, and the Chicago Police Department (CPD), to tally the overall numbers of shooting victims for each year, starting in 2016 and going through October 4, 2025.
The figures below include all shooting victims in our time-frame, fatal and non-fatal combined:
- 2016 – 4,349 (CNN)
- 2017 – 3,457 (CNN)
- 2018 – 2,876 (Sun-Times)
- 2019 – 2,639 (Sun-Times)
- 2020 – 4,090 (Sun-Times)
- 2021 – 4,385 (CPD)
- 2022 – 3,485 (CPD)
- 2023 – 2,876 (CPD)
- 2024 – 2,758 (CPD)
- 2025 YTD – Over 1,500
Adding the above figures together shows the total number of shooting victims to be at least 32,415.
Breitbart News reported at least 30 people were shot during the past weekend alone, five of them fatally.
According to the Chicago Tribune, over 330 people have been murdered in Chicago thus far in 2025.
RELATED: Democrat-Run Chicago Under Siege
Despite the violent decade of shooting victims and current tally of murders, The Hill quoted Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) claiming it is the Trump administration that “[wants] to create the war zone” to justify sending in more troops.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of the NRA and Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
