Jazmin J. Robinson

Let me be completely honest with you: The gun lobby has purchased our Congress. Until we completely eliminate PACs, ban lobbyists, and move to publicly funded elections, waiting for politicians to pass universal background checks is a death sentence for our communities.

The H.E.A.L. Act is my long-term structural solution to remove corporate money from politics so we can finally pass the gun reforms that the vast majority of Americans support. But I am not waiting for a broken Congress to fix itself while District 7 bleeds.

As an HR professional, I know that if you want to stop a corrupt corporation, you don't ask for their permission, you audit their compliance, exploit their legal loopholes, and attack their bottom line. Here is how I am bypassing Congress to fight the gun industry right now:

1. Weaponizing the PLCAA "Predicate Exception" (Suing the Gun Industry) The gun lobby loves to brag about the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a federal law that generally shields gun manufacturers and dealers from being sued when their weapons are used in crimes. But they don't want you to know about the "Predicate Exception." Under this federal loophole, if a gun manufacturer or dealer knowingly violates any state or federal statute regulating the sale or marketing of firearms, they instantly lose their immunity. I will use my office to partner with state attorneys and community legal clinics to identify the rogue dealers flooding Chicago with weapons, and we will use the Predicate Exception to sue them into bankruptcy.

2. ATF Administrative Warfare (Shutting Down Corrupt Dealers) Data shows that just 5% of corrupt gun dealers supply the vast majority of crime guns. We don't need a new law to stop them; we just need a Representative who will force the government to enforce the laws on the books. Under federal law (18 U.S.C. § 923), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has the administrative authority to revoke a Federal Firearms License (FFL) for a single willful violation, such as falsifying a background check or looking the other way on a straw purchase.

If the current administration's ATF refuses to revoke the licenses of these bad-apple dealers, I will launch formal Inspector General complaints against the agency itself for administrative failure, legally forcing them to shut these dealers down.

3. Total Funding Warfare (Community Violence Intervention) We are going to treat gun violence like the systemic HR and public health crisis it is. I will aggressively target existing federal funding, such as the billions allocated under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and use administrative maneuvering to divert those dollars directly into District 7. We will bypass traditional policing bloat and fully fund Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs, which are proven, data-driven strategies that de-escalate conflicts before a trigger is ever pulled.

Addressing the Root Causes of Gun Violence

After every tragedy, corporate-backed politicians rush to the cameras to blame mental illness. As an HR professional who relies on data, I have to call this exactly what it is: a coordinated lie to protect gun industry profits. Peer-reviewed research from Columbia University and the NIH proves that 95% of homicidal gun violence is not committed by people with mental illnesses.

To stop the daily community violence actually ravaging districts like ours in Chicago, we must look at the real root causes identified by researchers, and we must use every existing administrative loophole to attack them right now.

1. Structural Disinvestment & Poverty

• The Root Cause: Gun violence is hyper-concentrated in historically redlined, economically abandoned neighborhoods. Where social mobility drops, violence spikes.

• The Action (The "Bank Merger" Loophole): It sounds complicated, but think of it like an HR background check for banks. Under a federal law called the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), banks are legally required to lend money fairly in the exact same neighborhoods where they take deposits. If a Wall Street bank is operating in District 7, taking our paychecks but only giving mortgages and small business loans to wealthy suburbs, that is illegal redlining. Here is the loophole: When these massive banks want to merge with other banks to get richer, they cannot just do it; they have to ask the federal government for permission. When a bank that has historically ignored District 7 tries to merge, we will file a formal, legal grievance (a "CRA Protest") with regulators. By law, our public complaint hits the "pause" button on their multi-billion dollar merger. To get their merger un-paused, the banks must come to the negotiating table with us and sign a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). This is a strict contract where the bank pledges to invest millions of their own private money directly into our local violence prevention programs, affordable housing, and small minority-owned businesses. We aren't asking Congress for tax dollars; we are legally forcing Wall Street to pay what they owe our community.

• Medicare Section 115 Waiver: When most politicians want to fund Violence Interruption programs, where trained professionals de-escalate gang conflicts and stop retaliatory shootings, they beg Congress for a grant. But standard federal grants can be slashed at any time by politicians who don't care about Chicago. I am an HR professional; I don't rely on grants. I rely on mandatory healthcare entitlements. We are going to use Medicaid to pay for violence prevention. Here is the "loophole": Under federal law, states can ask the federal government for special permission, called a Section 1115 Waiver, to redefine what counts as "healthcare." In July 2024, Illinois successfully secured a massive Healthcare Transformation 1115 Waiver from the federal government. This waiver officially recognized that gun violence is a public health crisis. Because of this waiver, Illinois is now legally allowed to classify our street outreach workers and violence interrupters as healthcare professionals (specifically, Violence Prevention Community Support Teams). Why does this matter? Because Medicaid is a matching program. For every dollar Illinois spends on these violence interrupters, the federal government is legally mandated to match it (returning about 51 cents on the dollar back to the state). By treating violence interrupters like nurses and doctors, we legally force the federal government to pay their salaries through healthcare funds, completely bypassing the gridlocked politicians in Washington. I will ensure every local nonprofit in District 7 knows exactly how to bill Medicaid to keep their peacekeepers fully funded.

2. Weak Police Legitimacy

• The Root Cause: When marginalized communities do not trust the police (due to histories of brutality or unsolved murders), they stop using the justice system and resort to "informal justice" (retaliation) to settle disputes.

• The Action (Title VI Civil Rights Audits): In 2019, Chicago was placed under a Federal Consent Decree for police brutality, but the federal government is ignoring the crisis of police neglect. Currently, murders in Chicago's predominantly white neighborhoods are solved at drastically higher rates than in Black and Brown neighborhoods. You cannot have safety without equal protection. I will help District 7 file targeted Title VI Civil Rights complaints specifically regarding these abysmal homicide clearance rates. Any agency receiving federal Byrne JAG funds is legally prohibited from discriminatory practices. If they fail to provide equal protection, meaning they fail to solve murders in our neighborhoods at the same rate, we will use administrative law to freeze their federal funding until they agree to prioritize solving violent crimes in District 7.

3. Access to Firearms

• The Root Cause: The U.S. does not have higher rates of mental illness than Europe or Canada. We just have 393 million guns. An angry, lonely, or desperate person in the UK throws a punch; in America, they pull a trigger.

• The Action (FTC Deceptive Marketing Enforcement): Since the current Department of Justice is protecting corrupt gun dealers, we will bypass them entirely. If elected, I would partner with consumer protection advocates to file formal petitions with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under Section 5 of the FTC Act. The gun industry deliberately markets weapons of war to young, radicalized men using militarized, deceptive advertising. We don't need a new gun control bill to stop this; we will use existing federal consumer protection laws to launch devastating investigations into their marketing practices, fining them millions and forcing them to pull their ads.

Note to Voters: If you try to look up the ATF's official policy on revoking corrupt dealers, you will find the pages have been deleted. In January 2026, the current administration actively scrubbed the federal website to hide the revocation guidelines and protect the gun lobby. They can delete the web pages, but they cannot delete the United States Code (18 U.S.C. § 923). When I am in office, I will use that code to force them to do their jobs.