David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Obama, said that the wave of violence in Chicago is partly caused by a lack of gun control laws in the surrounding states, adding that federal law enforcement should crack down on the city gangs.

“We live in Chicago and one of the reasons we have such a huge problem is all around us are areas with weak laws and with very lax background checks and a lot of illegal guns flow into this city,” Axelrod said on Morning Joe. He suggested that New York City has a lower rate of violent crime because “in Manhattan, you are surrounded by New Jersey and Connecticut, with very strong gun laws.”

Axelrod acknowledged that Chicago has “a gang problem that is more pervasive than other cities.” He observed that the violence worsened, ironically, as law enforcement targeted the gang leaders because “younger leaders came into play, and that actually exacerbated the problem because they had less control.” He said that police should keep targeting the gang leadership — “the federal government should go after them as well,” Axelrod proposed.