At least 60 people were shot over July 4 weekend in Chicago and 11 of them were fatally injured, according to multiple Chicago news outlets.
The Chicago Tribune, which said at least 82 people were shot and 14 of them were shot fatally between Thursday and Sunday, described the weekend as “the greatest burst of gun violence Chicago has seen this year.”
Of those shot, five of them were shot by police in 36 hours between Friday and Saturday, according to the Tribune.
“It’s ground hog day in Chicago. People ask me what the difference is between New York and Chicago and it’s the proliferation of firearms,” Chicago Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy (pictured, left) said according to Chicago’s WLS on Monday.
McCarthy also said the police department’s method for handling holiday weekends is being reviewed.
“I’m going back, figuring out what happened, and we’re going to prevent it from happening again, McCarthy said. “We’re not throwing out the baby with the bath water.”
A day earlier, at a ribbon-cutting of a new playground, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) refused to comment on the weekend’s gun violence, according to the Sun-Times.
Later on Monday Emanuel released a statement on the shooting violence:
The number of shootings and murders that took place over the holiday weekend is simply unacceptable, and points out that we still have work to do. The solution does not just include policing – although we’ll continue to look for ways to put more police where they’re needed. We also have to give our young people alternatives to the street, and as a community we need to demand more of ourselves and our neighbors. This violence is unacceptable wherever it occurs in our city and all of us need to take a stand. The only way we will meet this challenge to our future is to join with one another and create a partnership for peace.
Gun violence has been an ongoing issue in Chicago that’s gotten national attention. In February of 2013 President Barack Obama visited Chicago (his hometown) after a particularly violent month in the city due to shootings to address gun violence there.
This story was updated.
I heard on the television news this morning that a man in North Carolina was shot in the head at a July 4 celebration; authorities believe the bullet probably came from someone who fired a gun in the air to “celebrate” the holiday. The man is alive, but paralyzed on one side, and what the extent of his permanent injuries will be is not yet known.
Last year (or maybe the year before), a small boy was injured in the same way here in the Richmond area. That child died, unfortunately.
What is it going to take to make these idiots realize that those bullets do not disappear into thin air? They come down, and they come down at high velocity and are capable of doing grave injury to someone.
Where? Chicago? Don’t they have there all those sensible anti gun rules that the Democrats claim will stop gun violence altogether? Or at least reduce it? What’s missing here?
“‘People ask me what the difference is between New York and Chicago and it’s the proliferation of firearms,’ Chicago Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy (said).”
Silly Police Superitendent McCarthy! Obviously he doesn’t listen to the NRA when they say that there weren’t enough guns in Chicago.
Yeah, plus New York is not bordering with lax gun laws States like Chicago does…Oh wait!!!
Well, then, Libs, obviously there should be no gun laws at all. That’ll stop the shootings, for sure. (This is me, thinking like a typically bizarro-world, NRA-lovin’ conservative gun nut.)