60 people were shot and 10 were killed in Chicago’s Southside this past week.
After a 40 person shooting spree in just one weekend, Chicago mayor Richard Daley is looking to reinforce his stance to ban the sale of handguns in the city.
Over a 48 hour span- 60 people were shot and 10 were killed in Chicago’s Southside. Daley claimed that the ban must be put into place even though the U.S. Supreme Court strikes that ban down as unconstitutional.
“Look at all the guns that shot people this weekend. Where did they come from? That is the issue,” Daley said at a South Side high school Tuesday.
It was reported that 75 percent of the shootings involved individuals who knew each other. The city has had a 4 percent increase in homicides (164 total between January and May).
Chicago officials have said that if the Supreme Court rules against the city, they would look for ways to change gun restrictions so they aren’t unconstitutional.
Chicago is also planning to spend approximately $25 million in federal economic stimulus money toward violence preventive programs for high school students.
It is also reported that Daley proposed legislation that would require semiautomatic pistols manufactured or delivered for sale in Illinois to be capable of “micro-stamping.”
This would allow law enforcement link spent ammunition with the gun used to fire it. This isn’t the first time that a ban has been attempted by a city. In 2008 the Supreme Court restricted a similar ban in DC.
Chicago’s ban on the sale and possession of handguns has been weathering legal challenges for years. But it gained newfound attention after the Supreme Court in 2008 struck down a similar ban in the District of Columbia.
The court now plans to decide whether the ruling on D.C., a city with unique federal status, should apply to local and state laws, too.
