Chicago is nowhere near the murder capital of the US. In fact, violent crime and homicides have consistently been going down since the 90's (there was a blimp in 2012, but it was still much safer than all of the 90's and much of the 2000's). But this year they're on pace to have a much lower homicide count (you are quoting 2012 numbers). It's funny that you're comparing Chicago to NYC and using the 'gun control' as the reason for NYC being much safer. Actually NYC, LA, and Chicago have very similar gun control laws. So why doesn't NYC have huge murder numbers when they too have strict gun laws (since you seem to think this would cause gun violence to increase for some reason). Actually the primary reason why NYC has gotten so much safer (along with the national trend of violence and crime going down) is because it's become crazy expensive to live there. Cost of living has gone way up even in many parts of Brooklyn. Not as many 'undesirable people' can afford to live there anymore and areas have been gentrified at a rapid pace. Meanwhile the COL in Chicago is much lower than NYC and LA. 90% of the shootings in Chicago and NYC (and pretty much every city) are people with "extensive criminal histories" shooting other people with "extensive criminal histories" (read: gang violence). Chicago is the 3rd biggest city in the US with over 2.7 million people, so of course there's going to be a lot of murders. While there homicide rate hasn't come down nearly as much as it should, it's still much safer than many cities. Here's a list of cities that have more homicides per capita than Chicago:
Milwaukee, Wisc.
Hartford, Conn.
Atlanta, Ga
Minneapolis, Minn
Kansas City, Mo.
New Haven, Conn.
Dayton, Ohio
Buffalo, NY
Stockton, Cali.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Baton Rough, La.
Little Rock, Ark.
Memphis, Tenn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Birmingham, Al.
Newark, NJ
Baltimore, Md.
Jackson, Miss.
St. Louis, Mo.
Cleveland, Oh.
New Orleans, La.
Bridgeport, Conn.
Oakland, Cali.
Detroit, Mich
Flint, Mich.
I could keep going, but I only looked at the top 25 most dangerous cities (Chicago wasn't on there). I believe there are 40 cities ahead of Chicago (and I eagerly await the other 40 threads and analysis of each of those cities). I think a better question is, Will Chicago fall off the top 50 most dangerous cities in 2013? Very possible. Obviously it's much better to compare by a per capita rate. You can't just say "California has more murders than any other state". Well... yeah, they also have a ton people. But I don't even think looking at city to city comparisons are fair. In much the same way that it isn't fair to say that Europe has a much lower murder rate and very strict gun laws (much more strict than Chicago or NYC or LA). Correlation doesn't equal causation.
If you wanted to compare gun-violence you could just look at the same city. Chicago passed strict hand-gun laws in 1982. Since then, homicides in Chicago have gone down dramatically, pretty much being cut in half since then. But of course, that wouldn't be a fair comparison either
Chicago gets a ton of heat and media attention for it's violence and murders, especially from conservative news outlets. Let's look at a graph of people searching for 'Chicago most dangerous' on google:
Hmm... what happened in 2008 that would suddenly cause people to think that Chicago is a warzone.... ? Oh that's right, America elected a president from Chicago in 2008. And his Chief of Staff is now the mayor. So people like Matt Drudge want to paint Chicago as badly as possible, even when it's not based in facts.
The easiest ways to not get murdered in Chicago:
1. Do not be a homeless person or panhandle for money on the street
2. Do not engage in selling narcotics on the street
3. Do not join a gang
4. Don't frequent areas with heavy gang-violence (pretty easy to do, in general you can just stay north of 35th St)
This is generally true for all cities.
Sorta interesting that you would make this thread given that there's more crime in the south than in the other region in the US (the safest region in the Northeast). And given that you live in one of the most dangerous states in the USA (but my guess is, you probably don't feel all that unsafe as it's still relatively easy to avoid crime-ridden areas). Increases/decreases in crime are very strongly correlated with an increase or decrease in poverty rates and through gentrification of an area or 'white flight'. The easiest way to reduce crime is to reduce poverty and improve the economy.
Edit:
And if you expand your criteria for 'dangerous' to include more violent crimes such as forcible rape and aggravated assault, Chicago drops down either further. Here's a look at the top 100 most dangerous cities w/25k people or more:
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/nei...p100dangerous/
Chicago barely makes the list at #79. Much safer than my current city of Orlando.