is committed while wearing a hoodie to justify George Zimmerman,
God speed to Mr. Wade's nephew.

Chicago has either the most or almost the most restrictive gun laws in the country.

...when the rest of the country is awash with guns. You don't go through Customs upon entering Chicago.

Wonder which nearby state sold the assailant the gun.

Chicago.

they're civic groups and social organizations working to build a stronger community.

Referring to them as "gang bangers" is just another NRA orchestrated smear campaign.

(if you think anyone is having any trouble getting guns in Chicago, which they're not).

Any idiot can see that.

instead of trying to be clever.

that sold him the gun. I wonder how he got past the background check.

talking points about gun control. Not fooled.

Pointing out the irony of rising gun violence in one of the most gun restricted cities flusters a lot of people.

You keep harping about Chicago and it's gun restrictions without even once addressing the reality of Chicago's south side and it's proximity to Indiana, and of the nature of gangs and their propensity to simply steal guns (rather than buy them).

Gun violence is at a 50 year low and declining, yet gun ownership has never been higher and is increasing.

"Pointing out the irony of rising gun violence..." on the back of a tragic death appears to say as much about you as it does about gun laws...

However, I do realize that we all of us make use of an inappropriate vehicle to better validate our own belief systems now and again. Yet when that aberration becomes a consistent pattern, we far more often advertise our own class rather than our pet causes.

or virtually any metro area.... gangs aren't going through legal channels, why should they? The city is flooded with guns!

Here's just one recent story from Chicago's south side to make it relevant (although it's typical anywhere in a big city imho):

snip

Meanwhile, authorities are looking into whether the Des Plaines heist and similar burglaries at nearly a half-dozen other gun shops statewide — Roselle, Salem, Lockport, New Lenox and Tinley Park — are linked to the same crew, said Special Agent Tom Ahern of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The common factor in all the burglaries is that the perpetrators are believed to be in their late teens, Ahern said.

“It's a typical smash and grab,” he said. “They get in and out pretty quickly. I'm certain that they would do their surveillance and scope out the security systems (and) what kind of enforcements are on the doors. By the time the alarm company notifies the police, it gives them plenty of time to get away.”

Ahern said in most cases the gun shops are doing the best they can to secure their merchandise.

“There's not much more you can do other than have somebody on watch for 24 hours,” Ahern said. “They don't want to lose these guns. That's their livelihood. And they don't want these guns ending up in the wrong hands.”

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120326/news/703269927/

it does`t matter if one is in a gang or not.you can be caught in the crossfire ,sitting in your house , walking to the store,or driving in your car.

and last was pretty bad too. Chicago's my home town, it's terrible to see what's happening there. I was in the city last year when they closed some beaches. We were watching the news and the original reports said it was because several people were suffering from "heatstroke". My family and I just looked at each other, because it was still May, and the high was only around 78 degrees. That's nothing in Chicago. Later it was confirmed that the real reason was something to do with gang violence. Didn't appreciate the initial cover-up.

Rates of murder and shootings are well off established peaks, and running not far ahead of national averages. As the song says "Don't believe the hype...."

I should have made that clear. It's true, I do not know if the overall statistics for non gang murders or shootings are up or down. I do know that gang violence was bad in the last two years, and this year is not looking too promising so far. I also know from contact with people still living there, that there is a widespread concern and perception that it's getting out of control. You don't dispute that, do you?

There is a nation-wide propaganda campaign on to paint Chicago as some pit of dystopian violence, in furtherance of pressing a concealed carry law in Illinois, and in some retribution for the former Mayor's legal efforts against the gun industry.

There are some turf struggles going on among the gangs, owing mostly to effective disruption over the the last few years of the higher levels of some of the longer established bodies; things like this always increase violence at the street level, as people scramble to gain status, and old understandings lose their force. Not an argument against arresting the leadership, mind, merely pointing out an inevitable short-run consequence of doing so.

The fact remains that Chicago is, and remains, far safer than it was a couple of decades ago, with violent crime rates off by about half since their peaks, conditions which, as a life-long resident of the city, are well within my adult memory.

So far this year, there have been 94 murders in Chicago. There were 66 in the same period last year. There have been 408 shootings so far this year, compared to 296 in the same period in 2011.

“The violence this past weekend is unacceptable to me and every law abiding Chicago resident,” the mayor said. “Our streets belong to the families and children of our city; not to the gangs and gangbangers. The violence this weekend underscores that Chicago has a unique gang problem and I have discussed with Superintendent McCarthy a citywide anti-gang strategy similar to the successful strategy CPD recently used with the Maniac Latin Disciples.”

And the question is not whether levels of violence at present are 'acceptable', but whether they are in fact things that make Chicago a terribly dangerous place. It is not a terribly dangerous place, and even those portions of the city which are most dangerous are safer than they were for many years prior to the present. It suits certain interests to paint a stark and terrific picture of the situation, but the representation they peddle is hysterical.

The NRA taught me that to boost gun sales.

Can you pick them up at Jewel's?

We all know crime of this nature could not occur if there were only stricter gun laws.