The number of shooting victims in Chicago for 2016 is considerably higher than last year’s total. Chicago, which is a gun controlled city, is close to 4,000 shooting victims with more than a month left in the year, topping last year’s number of 2,988. The Chicago Tribune reports, 3,871 shootings took place in Chicago from January 1, 2016, to November 14, 2016. That figure includes both fatalities and non-fatalities.
In terms of fatalities, the year to date is 674. The number of fatalities for all of 2015 was 492. August 2016 was a particularly deadly month for Chicago, the deadliest in two decades. ABC News reported “472 total shooting victims” and 90 fatalities for that month alone. The month prior, July, also broke a record for the deadliest July in ten years. ABC News reported that, on average, Chicago was seeing “nearly 12 shooting victims” a day from January 1 through the end of August, more than New York and Los Angeles combined.
Democrats in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois see the answer as enforcing stricter and more gun laws and regulations. State Representative Sonya Harper (D-6th) wants to require serial numbers on every bullet and bullet casing, while others are asking for a“declaration of a state of emergency” for the city. Authorities in Chicago say the violent crime there is largely being committed by repeat offenders with illegal guns, and police have targeted gang members who they say are known to law enforcement. Harper said, “We just want to know how the guns and the bullets are getting into the hands of our youth and causing senseless harm and murder on our streets.”
Other cities that have implemented ballistic fingerprinting have repeatedly seen it fail to solve crimes. Another problem is that adding regulations, especially ones that have been proven to be ineffective, only make it more costly for law abiding citizens to even purchase ammunition. However, Harper never addressed these issues.
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