I know it's pointless, but here it is anyway: The Gun Report [View all]

[pscot]

Some parts of Chicago have become so violent that the city has earned a new nickname: “Chiraq,” a reference to last decade’s bloody military quagmire in the Persian Gulf. The moniker has been floating around for the past couple of years, but in the Daily Beast this week, Michael Daly explores the crescendo of gun violence plaguing the city’s black neighborhoods.

Over Easter weekend, 45 people were shot, at least nine of them fatally. Five kids between the ages of 11 and 15 were seriously wounded in a playground after leaving church. A Facebook spat culminated in the shootings deaths of two teenagers.

The weekend before, 37 people were shot, and the F.B.I. director, James Comey, who happened to be in town, blamed the deeply ingrained gang culture for the violence. While there are more than 600 gang factions, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the problem is the availability of guns.

“Until we do something about guns, don’t expect things to change overnight,” he said, adding that police have confiscated 1,500 illegal guns so far this year, but those arrested for such infractions are soon back on the street. “If you don’t go to jail for gun possession, you continue to carry guns,” McCarthy said. And thorough policing can only do so much in the absence of effective gun laws.

(more, much more)

http://nocera.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/the-gun-report-april-25-2014/