Thanksgiving Weekend Shootings in Chicago Among Most Violent in Recent Years

Nick Kangadis | November 27, 2017
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It looks like not a lot has changed on the South and West Sides of Chicago.

Granted, shootings are down in the Windy City from 2016’s record highs, but the totals are still well above that of 2012 through 2015. The Chicago Tribune even reported that this past Thanksgiving weekend’s shootings made 2017 among the “most violent Thanksgiving weekends in recent years.”

Eight people were murdered and 36 others were wounded in shootings across the Chicagoland area over the four-day holiday weekend. Cold blooded murder doesn't observe holidays.

According to the Chicago Tribune:

That's down from the 70 people shot during the holiday weekend last year, but it's nearly double the 28 people shot in 2015 and more than twice the 19 in 2014.

The homicide count for the year follows a similar pattern: There have been 621 homicides in Chicago as of Monday, 100 fewer than this time last year but well above previous years.  The count was 450 at this time in 2015, 402 in 2014 and 400 in 2013, according to Tribune data.

At least 3,322 people have been shot this year, about 690 fewer than last year but more than 1,000 above the count for 2014, 2013 and 2012 at this point.

While it’s encouraging that the shooting numbers in Chicago have dropped precipitously from 2016, that’s like saying that you only gained eight pounds this Thanksgiving instead of 10 pounds like you did the previous year.

Something still needs to be done in the Second City as shooting numbers are still way higher than that of the previous few years, not including 2016.

Maybe, just maybe, allow private citizens to more easily protect themselves legally from criminals that have no interest in registering firearms. Even though Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, it’s been reported that murder rates have not dropped “any faster in states that had to toughen their laws to comply with the 1994 Brady Act to regulate handguns.”

These places should maybe look into cracking down on illegal guns rather than persecute people looking to legally own firearms.

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