It's becoming an annual occurrence. Whenever there is a long or holiday weekend, Chicago becomes a shooting gallery. Fourth of July, Memorial Day, and Labor Day are some of the weekends and holidays to watch out for regarding spikes in shootings and related homicides. All of this while the Windy City remains one of the most anti-gun places in the country, with some of the toughest gun control laws on the books.
This weekend, Chicago suffered another bloody Memorial Day weekend, with 42 people being shot. Ten people were killed (via Chicago Sun-Times):
Ten people are dead and 32 others are wounded so far in weekend shootings in Chicago — the deadliest Memorial Day weekend since 2015, when 12 people were killed.
Despite the state’s stay-at-home order, the weekend’s death toll has already surpassed last year’s holiday weekend, when seven people were killed and 34 were injured during the period from 5 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Tuesday.
In 2018, seven people died and 30 others were wounded. In 2017, six people were killed and 44 others were wounded. In 2016, six people were killed and 56 wounded.
At the beginning of Memorial Day weekend — the unofficial start of summer — Chicago Police Supt. David Brown announced opening a Summer Operations Center to centralize police resources in an effort to tamp down on summer gun violence.
The most recent fatal shooting was Monday evening in Garfield Park on the West Side.
Oh, it was no better last weekend. As the publication noted, six people were killed and 32 wounded in another string of shootings. It’s become a rather tragic and almost expected tradition regarding Chicago and what occurs on the weekends there. In 2016, the city had over 100 people shot in ten days. In 2018, there were over 3,500 shootings, and at least 600 homicides. We’ve said it many times here, I don’t think gun control is working. Hell, when is gun control the answer? It never is and it never will.