Personally, I just think it's a weak deflection because they're trying to call out liberal "hypocrisy," i.e. "If you were reaaallllly concerned about gun violence, you'd talk about inner city gang violence 24/7." Okay, let's talk about it. Solutions:
- Repeal of drug prohibition.
Non-starter for the conservatives because "think of the children!"
- Poverty reduction programs (anything from a from a more robust social safety net to increased funding for schools to job training programs).
Non-starter because "raised taxes!"
- Increased funding for drug rehabilitation and mental health programs.
Again, "raised taxes!"
- Prison reform that actually rehabilitates and "corrects" inmates.
Again, "raised taxes!" Conservatives also stupidly think putative punishment is an effective deterrent, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, like that most incarcerated criminals in the developed world factoid.
None of these solutions require any infringement on them as gun owners. In any event, conservatives need to shut the up about "Chicago" because they wouldn't be willing to play ball on any solutions to reduce inner city violence. They would just want to throw more cops and jail time at the problem, which is proven to not work.