Mayor Johnson's latest Executive Order will produce no results
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has pushed out yet another Executive Order (EO), this one targeting rules governing the city's purchase of guns and ammunition. But is the EO actually meaningful? It seems unlikely.
Johnson made another big show of "doing something," this time by signing an executive order to "strengthen firearm procurement standards." If one is an anti-gunner, it all certainly sounds like an important step toward forcing "accountability" on gun sellers.
Johnson said his Executive Order 2026-04 shows "Chicago’s commitment to community safety is reflected in the standards we set for how taxpayer dollars are spent" on firearms.
"This executive order builds on that commitment by strengthening our procurement standards to ensure the City’s purchasing power advances responsible business practices and community safety. Every family deserves to feel safe in their neighborhood, and through this commitment to the families who have lost loved ones to gun violence, we are encouraging greater accountability across the firearms industry while supporting vendors that share our commitment to preventing illegal gun trafficking and protecting Chicagoans," Johnson said.
The mayor's office has pushed out this EO with the assistance of the extreme, anti-gun organization Brady: United Against Gun Violence.
"Government doesn’t just make the rules — it helps shape the market. Every taxpayer dollar spent on firearms should reinforce public safety, not reward gun dealers with a track record of violating the law," Brady President Kris Brown said in the mayor's press release.
The order would ostensibly force gun dealers the city buys from to supply officials with documents proving that they have business practices to prevent straw purchases and to prevent gun trafficking. It would also require them to supply the city with their plans to prevent store thefts, break-ins, and show measures to install inventory protection, along with evidence that they work with law enforcement on all these issues.
But what does this order really do? Not much. All it actually does is "direct the Department of Procurement Services, in consultation with the Chicago Police Department, the Office of Public Safety Administration, and the Department of Law, to develop procurement standards for firearm-related purchases within 90 days."
Johnson is putting the actual work on others. But he does claim that with his order he is "leveraging its purchasing power to encourage responsible firearm commerce."
Of course, gun dealers mostly already do all these things, especially the outfits big enough to be vendors for a city the size of Chicago. The City of Chicago is not dealing with small, fly-by-night gun dealers. They are dealing with companies big enough to supply a major U.S. city. These are gun dealers who keep large inventories of guns and ammo. Not many of them would be leaving their dangerous merchandise laying around as easy pickings for thieves.
Further, all the safety measures, prevention policies, and government cooperation policies are part of the federal requirements that gun dealers have to satisfy before they are even allowed to be a gun dealer in the first place. So, Johnson's order isn't really affecting any meaningful change in the business practices of gun dealers -- whether they are city contractors or not.
In the end, this is all just pandering to the far-left, anti-gun lobby.
This is the mayor's 23rd EO since he took office in May of 2023. The latest sham EO, though, is of a piece with Johnson's attempt to emulate Barack Obama by leading through autocratic executive orders instead of making meaningful policies through actions with the city council.
In comparison, Johnson's Democrat predecessors relied much less on EOs. The one-term Lori Lightfoot, only signed 15 during her four-year term, and Rahm Emanuel signed about 22 in his eight years in the office, only an average of 11 per term. Long-serving Mayor Richard M. Daley seems to have signed quite a few at about 40, but he was in office for 22 long years, which is an average of a tiny 2 per year.
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