At first, the 2016 murder figures for gun-controlled Chicago drew attention by hitting 500, which was 32 higher than the total number of murders in 2015. Then the number of murders rose to 700, followed by a Chicago Tribune report that the number of murders between January 1, 2016, and December 6, 2016, hit 731.

Think about it–731 murders had been committed in Chicago with 25 days remaining in 2016.

Now the figure sits at 768 and gun-controlled Chicago is fast-approaching 800 murders for the year.

For those paying attention, the carnage–and the possibility for more carnage–in Chicago has been evident for quite some time. After all, Chicago is a gun control experiment gone wrong; a city which enacted a total handgun ban in 1982, thereby guaranteeing that the only people who had handguns were the criminals. Law-abiding citizens were reduced to using baseball bats, sticks, pitchforks, etc., for self-defense. And the results were easy to predict–the Tribune reported the decade following the implementation of Chicago’s ban saw “murders [jump] by 41 percent, compared with an 18 percent rise in the entire United States.”

The Supreme Court forced Chicago to end that ban via McDonald v. Chicago (2010), but the vestiges of gun control remain and burdensome regulations–like limits on the number of gun stores allowed and strict rules on the locations of those stores–mean law-abiding citizens still have trouble getting the guns they need for defense of home and self.

Moreover, gun control remains the go-to solution for Chicago city leaders and many state politicians who refuse to admit it is actually gun control’s failure that caused this death epidemic to begin with. So state representatives like Sonya Harper (D-6th) react to 2016’s relentless murder spree by sponsoring a bill that would require serial numbers to be placed on every bullet and bullet casing. Would Harper’s plan reduce crime or murder? No. But it would drive up the price of ammunition, thereby putting one more burden in the way of law-abiding citizens trying to acquire the tools they need to defend their lives.

Sadly, this is the Chicago way. More laws on top of other laws that never delivered on the promises of making the city safer.

Consider these figures from the Tribune: there were 437 murders in Chicago in 2011, there were 506 in 2012, 420 in 2013, 416 in 2014, and 468 in 2015. And now the city is on the brink of 800 murders in one calendar year.

Seventy individuals were shot over Thanksgiving weekend and, more recently, over 40 were shot during the Christmas weekend. In fact, the murder rate in Chicago is so high that it is skewing national murder figures for 2016. Yet the media is largely mum on the soaring death rate, as covering it honestly would mean admitting that gun control has actually endangered lives, rather than saved them.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.