"I didn't go into this because I thought it was a slam dunk. You don't need me for that," Emanuel said at a news conference with Police Supt. Garry McCarthy and others at a youth center in the Roseland neighborhood to announce the proposal. "You don't need my political capital for the easy things. You use your political capital for the tough things that are the right things to do."



But Emanuel said statistics show more than half the firearms recovered by Chicago police come from inside Illinois. "I'm introducing this because our law enforcement community, our parents, our community groups, our block and neighborhood watch groups, need a proper gun legislation to complement all the other activities we're doing," he said.



State Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, R-Park Ridge, will be one of the bill's sponsors in the House, Emanuel said, which he hopes will help give the proposal the bipartisan boost it needs to pass the legislature.