Vic Ryckaert

IndyStar

President Obama blamed Indiana's lax gun laws for contributing to violence in Chicago during a televised town hall meeting Thursday night.

"The problem is, is that about 30 percent, 40 percent of those guns are coming from Indiana across the border, where there are much laxer laws," Obama told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

"Folks will go to a gun show and purchase a whole bunch of firearms, put them in a van, drive up into (the Rev.) Mike Pfleger's neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago where his parish is, open up the trunk, and those things are for sale."

In October, Obama made an indirect reference linking Indiana's gun laws to Chicago's murder rate. His statements Thursday singled-out Indiana as a source of guns that wind up in the hands of Chicago criminals.

In May, a federal judge sentenced a suburban Chicago man to 17 years in prison for buying hundreds of firearms at Indiana gun shows and selling them in Chicago's most violent neighborhoods.

Call IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @vicryc.

Is Indiana to blame for Chicago gun violence?