- Brian Jackson/Sun Times
- Both Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police Superintendent Garry McCarthy blame weak gun laws for recurring violence in Chicago.
Chicago has made national headlines this week for the latest sad and mind-boggling murder of a child. Police say that 14-year-old Endia Martin was shot and killed Monday on her porch in the Back of the Yards neighborhood by another 14-year-old upset at her over a boy. The shooter acquired the gun from her uncle, who bought it illegally.
None of it is easy to address. But when the public clamors for immediate answers, officials step to the bully pulpit and provide them, hoping to shift the pressure elsewhere at the very least. The cycle continues.
2006: On March 3, 14-year-old Starkesia Reed is slain by a stray bullet in Englewood. On March 11, ten-year-old Siretha White is killed by another stray bullet in the same neighborhood. Daley and Governor Rod Blagojevich call for a ban on assault weapons. “These are the weapons of mass destruction and all you have to do is come to Englewood to understand that,” the governor says.
2014: After at least nine people are killed and more than 40 others shot over Easter weekend, Emanuel calls for better parenting. McCarthy blames the state legislature—and the black caucus in particular—for not imposing stiffer sentences on gun offenders. “The gun violence in this city is the result of lax gun laws, period,” McCarthy says on WGN-TV. Less than a week later, Endia Martin is shot and killed.
