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LEADING VIOLENCE PREVENTION GROUPS CONDEMN NATIONAL GUARD ACTIVATION; CALL FOR GUN SAFETY REFORM TO ADDRESS GUN VIOLENCE IN CHICAGO

For Immediate Release

September 5, 2025

LEADING VIOLENCE PREVENTION GROUPS CONDEMN NATIONAL GUARD ACTIVATION; CALL FOR GUN SAFETY REFORM TO ADDRESS GUN VIOLENCE IN CHICAGO

G-PAC Illinois, GIFFORDS, Brady, & March for Our Lives Call for Federal Reforms, Restoration of Critical Progress & Other Proven Solutions as Trump Threatens National Guard Deployment

CHICAGO — The Gun Violence Prevention PAC (G-PAC) of Illinois today joined with national gun violence prevention organizations GIFFORDS, Brady, and March For Our Lives to call for federal reform and restoration of vital funding and progress to help address gun violence in Chicago – not deployment of the National Guard. 

G-PAC, GIFFORDS, Brady, and March For Our Lives called for the Trump administration to address gun violence with proven methods to protect communities, including: 

  • Reversing the rollback of the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
  • Restoring the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention 
  • Restoring funding to community violence intervention organizations working on the frontlines in communities hardest hit by gun violence 
  • Reversing the decision to divert ATF agents to immigration issues
  • Restoring funding for gun violence research

“Chicago’s gun violence problem is directly related to the availability of illegal guns on our streets,” said Kathleen Sances, President and CEO of G-PAC, Illinois’ leading gun violence prevention organization. “Illinois has made significant progress in passing common sense gun laws with the help of GIFFORDS, Brady, and March For Our Lives, and these reforms have helped prevent access to illegal weapons. These efforts have contributed to Chicago’s reduced crime rates, with the city recently experiencing the fewest summer murders in 60 years. But without meaningful reform at the federal level, guns will continue to cross into our state and violence will persist. If the White House wants to get serious about violence, it can start by supporting gun safety efforts instead of the gun lobby.”

“States that provide easy access to guns are exporting crime to places like Chicago. When one state makes it easy for dangerous people to buy guns, those guns don’t stay there. Gun traffickers flock to them and innocent people are dying because of it,” said GIFFORDS Political Director Gladis Merino. “To reduce crime in Chicago, Chicagoans need Republicans in Washington to stop appeasing their gun industry CEO campaign donors and start passing commonsense gun laws.”

“Gun violence has devastated our Chicago communities, and it’s what took the lives of two of my children,” said Delphine Cherry, Brady Illinois State Lead. “But deploying the National Guard into Chicago would only worsen this crisis. Instead of telling lies about Chicago and denigrating our city, Trump should empower federal law enforcement to crack down on gun traffickers who purchase weapons in red states and then bring them here to terrorize our communities. Gun violence in Chicago will only be solved when we hold negligent gun dealers and traffickers accountable, invest in community-based violence intervention programs, back common-sense gun safety laws, and change the culture around firearms in America.”

“President Trump’s threat to militarize Chicago’s streets with the National Guard is a dangerous distraction from his administration’s complete failure to address the gun violence epidemic,” said Jackie Corin, Executive Director of March For Our Lives. “While our children dodge bullets in classrooms and churches, Trump is threatening to deploy soldiers instead of funding proven solutions like community violence intervention programs and common-sense gun safety legislation. If he wants to get serious about protecting communities, he can start by reversing his rollbacks of gun safety measures instead of making threats that will only harm the people he claims to help.”

G-PAC, GIFFORDS, Brady, and March For Our Lives were critical in implementing significant gun safety reforms in Illinois and called for passage of similar measures at the federal level:

  • Background checks on all gun sales, including gun shows
  • Funding violence intervention and mental health services
  • Banning weapons of war and machine gun conversion devices

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Rick Ryan

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As the Lake County State’s Attorney, I am honored and humbled every day to lead the fight against crime, and to strive to ensure equal and just treatment under the law. I have been an attorney for twenty-two years – and each of those years has made me a stronger and smarter advocate for people, for ideas, and for the principles that unite us all.

I am so proud to lead an office of 140 dedicated colleagues who serve the public by prosecuting crime, advocating for victims, and planning crime prevention programs. I am also proud to work with hundreds of Lake County police officers on a daily basis to connect with every community and to develop comprehensive, holistic plans to respond to the mental health and economic crisis that arose from the COVID-19 pandemic.

On one particular day, July 4, 2022, I was saddened, inspired, and motivated by the bravery of so many people. We will always stand with the victims and honor the police and other first responders who ran toward the danger. Just as so many heroes that day thought only of themselves, I also witnessed the prosecutors in my office answer the call to serve survivors and their community – even on one of its darkest days.

Every moment that I have been your legal representative, I have worked tirelessly to oversee prosecutions and to implement policies that make my family and my neighbors safer in the short term and in the long term. That is the job of the State’s Attorney: to prosecute, to innovate, and to strategically plan.

I was raised in a small town. My parents are teachers, and from them, I learned that everyone must be treated equally and that America’s sacred mission is to provide a political, economic, and legal system that allows anyone to prosper regardless of the circumstances of their birth. After graduating from Knox College and the University of Chicago Law School, I spent two years at a first-rate civil law firm in Chicago where I learned that hard work and attention to detail on every case mean the difference between success and failure.

With my wonderful wife Stephanie, I am raising my two sons, Sam and Teddy, in Lake County. Nothing is more important to me than my family’s safety and I bring that passion and determination to protect all families with me to work every day.

I joined the Lake County Public Defender’s Office in 2003 and started my own law firm in 2009. From 2003 until 2020, I watched the Lake County legal system fail to prioritize violent crime, prevent wrongful prosecutions, or address racial disparities.

So, in 2019, I decided to run for State’s Attorney so that I could serve our community by improving a local legal system that cared more about covering up its mistakes and biases than uncovering new and innovative ways to help people.

I won the 2020 election, and became the first Democrat to hold this position in 40 years. Bringing in a new party wasn’t as important as ending 40 years of one mindset that had forgotten the people and that had failed to act urgently to develop new strategic plans to prevent crime while also ensuring that each prosecution is smart, moral, and just.

We have followed through on our promises. We have built the first-ever violent crimes unit, increased prosecutors in our domestic violence division, and vastly upgraded our cyber lab. Now, we have top-notch software and personnel to finally keep up with those who would exploit others.

We have been awarded a large federal grant to bring the first ever Human Trafficking Task Force to Lake County. We have deepened our investment in people by bringing in more victim specialists and raising the salaries of many of our prosecutors.

But the work goes on. We must expand our prevention efforts that are starting with the Gun Violence Prevention Initiative launched in 2022. And we know that the opioid crisis touches thousands of lives throughout this country.

I am proud to serve on the Executive Board of the Lake County Opioid Initiative which has been working tirelessly since its founding in 2012 to reverse a devastating trend of increased overdoses. In 2022, our office was part of a national settlement against opioid manufacturers and distributors.

As an attorney of 22 years, I have committed my life to helping people, and I have conducted over 70 jury trials in Lake County, and handled appeals that have culminated in over 20 oral arguments before the appellate court and Supreme Court of Illinois.

I see my time in this office as the next phase of helping a community that I love and where I have chosen to raise my family. In my first term, we have made Lake County safer and fairer through just prosecutions, constitutional policing, and innovative crime prevention policies.