When it comes to the Second Amendment, Florida and Illinois are almost polar opposites, with the former state considered one of the most respectful of gun rights.
But when it comes down to crime, one state’s got it far worse than the other, and it isn’t even close – and the answers may have people at Everytown, Giffords and Brady United throwing things. According to a study comparing the first six months of 2026 to the first six months of 2025 by the Major Cities Chiefs’ Association, Chicago had 211 murders in the first six months of 2026, compared to 29 for Miami, Orlando and Tampa combined.
That’s got Chicago on the wrong end of a 7-to-1 ratio when it comes to homicide. To make it worse, Chicago’s murders had increased from the same time period in 2025, when there were 199 homicides. In that same timeframe, the three Florida cities had 30 homicides total.
Now, let’s look at Florida, a state that Giffords and Everytown grade very low in terms of gun laws.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed “constitutional carry” into law in April 2023, despite taking heat from the Biden administration for doing so. An appeals court in the state also shot down a ban on young adults under the age of 21 from carrying firearms.
Florida is also a state where self-defense isn’t automatically considered a dirty word, and in more than one case, carjackers and burglars have a lot of thinking to do when they want to try something. Forget the cops, the real risk is the crooks run into an armed would-be victim!
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