I question everything I see which I suppose qualifies me as a cynic. I don't mean to be, but I will admit that I was in disbelief when I saw a new ranking that claims Illinois is the new gun capital of the Midwest. Could it be true? Let's find out.

I'll say from the start that there are a lot of ways you can look at this and they don't all agree. The ranking that led me to this search comes from 24/7 Wall St which says the great state of Illinois is the number one firearms manufacturer in the Midwest and the 8th biggest in America. Something about this just didn't feel right.

The article says "a reported 607,716 firearms were made in Illinois in 2022, the eighth most among the 50 states". I decided to try to verify these numbers elsewhere and had a hard time coming up with the same conclusion they did. There's an article from Visual Capitalist that paints a completely different picture.

For reference, the 24/7 Wall St article says there are 39 federally registered gun manufacturers in Illinois. The Visual Capitalist numbers show that's a drop in the bucket compared to other states. The number one state for gun manufacturing is Texas with a stunning 2,321 gun makers. Their list shows Illinois has 267 gun manufacturers which is obviously a big increase.

I checked a third source from Statistica and found the number of registered weapons current as of a couple years ago showed Illinois with 144,749 which would place the Land of Lincoln nearly in the top 10.

No matter how you look at this, there's a bit of irony that Illinois is being mentioned as the champion of gun makers since Statistica ranks the state as having the 3rd most restrictive gun laws.

11 Terrifying Horror Movies That Were Set in Illinois

Gallery Credit: Movie Studios

More From KHMO-AM 1070, News-Talk-Sports