It seemed that, for a while, the number of shootings were down in the city of Chicago. While there have still been a fair amount of shootings in the Windy City, the frequency of shootings saw a percentage decrease — even if that decrease was from previous years’ near record highs.
So, while new Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said that she wants to be tougher on gun crime, the number of shootings has seen an uptick since she entered office.
This past weekend saw at least 41 people shot, with three of the victims succumbing to their wounds. A sad, but incredible 22 people were victims of gunshots in the first 12 hours of the weekend. During a similar 12-hour period last weekend, 31 people were gunshot victims, four of which died as a result.
Here’s an example of the violence:
On Saturday afternoon in the 5500 block of South Perry, another man was shot to death inside of an apartment, police said.
The 40-year-old man was in the apartment when he was shot in the chest and leg by an unknown gunman, according to police. The man was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
No one is in custody, and police are continuing to investigate the shooting.
The number of people shot this past weekend is down from the previous two weekends. Two weeks ago, at least 43 people were shot and seven died from their wounds during a bloody Memorial Day weekend. Last weekend, even more people were shot. At least 52 people were shot, with at least eight people being pronounced dead.
In the last three weekend alone, at least 136 people have been shot in Chicago. At least 18 people are dead as a result of those shootings.
But, that’s not all. Weekends aren’t the only time people get shot in the Chicagoland area.
Between Monday and 5 p.m. Friday last week, six people died of gunshot wounds among the 44 people who shot in the five day period.
That means that from last Monday until very early this Monday morning, at least 85 people suffered injuries from gunshots, with at least nine of those shot dying from their wounds.
Eighty-five people in seven days. Think about that. If you average that out, 12 people have been shot in Chicago every day over the past week.
Tough talk on crime and acton plans are all well and good coming from Lightfoot and the Chicago Police Department (CPD). It’s part of their job description to keep people sage. But, when 12 people are shot in your city every single day, talk and plans need to eventually turn into results.
To be fair, CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi tweeted that some progress has been made in getting guns off the streets of Chicago:
From Fri to 6p Sunday, #ChicagoPolice officers have arrested 36 people on gun charges. Removed 89 guns from city streets (almost 2 illegal guns every hour of the weekend). Arrested 4 for several armed robberies & 2 people of interest in custody for a weekend shooting. pic.twitter.com/OgXB2EEE69
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) June 9, 2019
If that many people have been arrested and that many guns have been taken off the streets, imagine how many violent people are on primarily the South and West sides of Chicago. One could also imagine just how many illegal guns exist in Chicago considering that dozens of people still get shot every week despite the removal of said guns.