The extreme violence in Chicago continues as five people were killed and at least 12 others wounded by shootings between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning according to police. This brings the week's total number of fatal shootings to 18, with another 81 wounded.
Shortly after 9:00pm on Friday, a 16-year old was killed while sitting in the front passenger seat of a car. Less than two hours later, around 10:30pm, a 22-year-old man died after being shot in the neck. At 1:30am, one man was killed when he and another man were shot as they sat in a minivan on Chicago's west side. Around 3:40am on Saturday, police reported that another three men had been shot – one fatally – in the University Village neighborhood on the near west side of Chicago. About 6:30am on Saturday, a 23-year-old man was shot and killed on Chicago's west side.
The youngest victim of the day was a six-year-old girl who was injured after a bullet struck and shattered a restaurant window.
Unfortunately, this weekend was nothing unusual for Chicago, as the city has become known for it's gun violence and was even given the nickname "Chiraq."
While the increasing gun violence in Chicago is no secret, last week an example of it traveled around the world when 28-year old Antonio Perkins was broadcasting live on Facebook when he was fatally shot. About six minutes into the live stream, gunshots and screaming can be heard and the camera falls to the ground. The live stream continued for another 30 minutes.
Shootings have spiked 50 percent this year in the Windy City, making it an area of interest in the nation’s debate over gun control. Chicago however isn't the ideal case to use for gun control as the city has some of the toughest firearm laws in the country yet continues to be plagued by shootings and gun violence. In fact, the city is used as an example for the opposition of gun control, showing that it doesn't work. Gun control advocates however say it’s too easy to traffic guns between states that have tough gun regulation and those that have very little.
Philip Cook, a Duke public policy professor and economist who works with the University of Chicago Crime Lab, told Bloomberg that about 60 percent of guns which were recovered in Illinois in connection with an arrest were from out of state — over a third of which came from neighboring Indiana, which "isn't regulated at all." Gang activity was mostly to blame for the availability of guns in Chicago, Cook said.
According to a site which compiles shooting and homicide data in Chicago from analyzing local news stories, gun violence watchdogs and official data, gunshots have accounted for more than 89 percent of homicides since the start of 2016, claiming 254 victims in total. It also found that 40 people have been shot and killed since the beginning of this month – and 192 people shot and wounded.
The gun violence in Chicago has risen over the years but mass shootings across the country have remained at the heart of gun control debates.
Source: news.vice.com
