The problem with "highest number" is that it can be very misleading, since the numbers of murders must always be compared to the population size of a city. "Per capita" is the number you want to look at to get a sense of a city's actual murder rate and, from that standpoint, Chicago doesn't even make the top 25:
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/07/...an-cities.html
Put another way, my current home city had over 400 murders last year, compared with my childhood city, which had 12. But believe me, I consider NYC a lot safer than Harrisburg, PA. And in fact Harrisburg rates much higher than NYC (16.1 per 1000 people, vs. 3.86 for New York City). Chicago is even lower than H'burg (15.9), and much lower than New Orleans, Detroit, Ft. Myers and Pine Bluff, AK.
GBBob makes an interesting point about whether concealed carry will affect the murder rate in Chicago- the article at the link concludes with a brief look at murders in Chicago after handgun control was passed in the early 1980s.
I'm not claiming Chicago's murder rate is cause for celebration, but it's hardly a "murder capital." It's always important to put numbers into context. No matter how much one may hate Rahm.
