Between Friday evening and Monday morning, 52 people were shot in gun-controlled Chicago, nine of whom died.
This brings the total number of people shot in Chicago to 2,600 year-to-date. The number of shooting victims for all of last year was 2,988.
According to the Chicago Tribune, one portion of the weekend, “from Saturday afternoon to early Sunday,” was especially violent. During that time alone, “five people were killed and at least 19 others were wounded.”
Among the killed was 19-year-old Arshell Dennis, the son of a Chicago police officer. Dennis and a 20-year-old man were shot on Chicago’s Far South Side during the early morning hours Sunday.
Seven people were shot, three fatally, on Friday night alone.
Tribune reports indicate the weekend’s 52 shooting victims and nine fatalities are seemingly part of the new normal in Chicago gun violence. Forty-nine people were shot, nine fatally, during the previous weekend, and “52 people were shot, seven of them fatally,” the weekend before.
In 2015, Chicago saw 490 homicides. This year, only halfway through August, 443 have already occurred.
Chicago has an “assault weapons” ban, a “violence tax,” a state-imposed waiting period on gun purchases, and strict regulations on the number of gun stores allowed in the city, as well as restrictions on the locations of those stores. Clearly, these and other gun controls do not prevent criminals from acquiring and using firearms, but they do make it difficult for law-abiding citizens to get the guns they need for self-defense.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.