Think Progress
As of Monday morning, nine people had been shot to death and another 32 wounded in Chicago since the Friday that began Memorial Day weekend.
One of the youngest victims was Jacele Johnson, a four-year-old girl,
who was shot while sitting in a car parked outside of a prom
celebration in West Englewood as someone drove by firing. Two other
children were also shot in the same incident: a 17-year-old boy who was
hit in the chest and had a graze wound to the neck, and a 15-year-old
girl who suffered a graze wound on her forehead, both of whom were in
stable condition. Jacele was taken to a hospital and underwent surgery,
and she was upgraded to serious condition Sunday morning.
The first fatality was a 34-year-old man
who was shot in the chest and shoulder while sitting on the front porch
of his home in Wicker Park. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. The
youngest death was a 15-year-old boy in Bronzeville who was shot along
with another 14-year-old struck in the foot in an alley. Other
fatalities included
a 20-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds; a 24-year-old man shot
in the head; a man between 20 and 30 shot in the face; a 29-year-old
woman shot in the chest and leg by a group who were denied entry to a
house party; a 35-year-old man shot in the stomach; and a 28-year-old
man shot in the head and shoulder.
Critics of gun law reforms argue that the high levels of gun violence in
Chicago are proof that regulation doesn’t work, given that the city has
relatively strict gun laws. But lax laws surrounding the area, both in
the state of Illinois and nearby states, allow guns to flow into the
city, which make up the vast majority of those seized by law enforcement. Research has found
that localities in states that have weak gun laws tend to suffer higher
rates of gun violence than those in states with stricter ones. Overall,
more gun ownership has been found to lead to more murders.