Inaccurate references to gun violence Chicago during hearing. While parents of Uvalde children, and Buffalo victims harmed by guns spoke out to Congress on Tuesday, gun violence in Chicago also weighed in as an important note.
In Chicago, there have been more than 2,000 shootings this year alone. In the eyes of many, this is a clear indication that gun violence is spiraling out of control in the city.
Currently gun deaths among children are up about 29 percent. Parents of children spoke out to Congress on the effective tactics to gain control.
The parents of Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, a Uvalde victim spoke out. Her mother, Kimberly Rubio explained in tears how she felt guilty for sending her child to back into the school after their class ceremony. Alexandria’s father, Felix Rubio sat quietly in tears next to his wife. The parents had 2 children attending the school. One survived. Mrs. Rubio stated how raising the age of guns to 21 would have prevented the school massacre.
Additionally, a Uvalde pediatrician, Dr. Guerrero shared the nightmare of seeing parents outside the hospital in tears looking for their children. Some of the children he treated since infantry. One of his patients, Miah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old student who had smeared blood on herself to hide from the gunman had survived major liver surgeries as a baby, and at that moment a massacre. Miah also testified, making her one of the youngest ever to testify in front of congress.
Dr. Guerrero also supported the idea of changing the age limits on purchase.
“Innocent children all over the country today are dead because laws and policy allows people to buy weapons before they’re legally old enough to even buy a pack of beer,” Dr. Guerrero said. “They’re dead because restrictions have been allowed to lapse.”
The mother of a Buffalo shooting survivor also spoke out. Zeneta Everhart, whose son Zaire Goodman was shot and injured in the racist attack at the Tops Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.
She said, “My son Zaire has a hole in the right side of his neck, on his back, and another on his left leg caused by an exploding bullet from an AR-15. As I clean his wounds I can feel pieces of that bullet in his back. Shrapnel will be left inside of his body for the rest of his life. Now I want you to picture that exact scenario for one of your children. This should not be your story or mine.”
“No citizen needs an AR-15. These weapons are designed to do the most harm in the least amount of time.”
The mother of 19-year-old Emmanuel, a child shot during a dominoes game by a convicted felon also spoke out. She stated the gun laws taking away weapons would not be beneficial.
She continued, “the laws being discussed are already implemented in cities across this country. We have decades of evidence proving they do not work. St. Louis, New York, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta are gun-controlled utopia’s.”
“Something has to change. We must prepare to be our own first responders,” she stated.
Nevertheless, Lucretia Hughes, Emmanuel’s mother never mentioned an age of those qualified as first responders, as age appropriation made the concern for the majority of the testimonials.
Currently, Illinois had the eighth strictest gun laws in the nation, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. But that was the past.
Gun Violence Chicago Law and Statistics
However, Chicago’s reputation for strict gun laws are rooted in its 1982 ban on handguns. By 2010, it was the only major city left with a blanket handgun ban. But that changed hen an appeals court declared that unconstitutional as well. Illinois then joined every other state in the nation in allowing licensed citizens to carry concealed firearms.
Firearm-related deaths increased by 28% from 2019 to 2020 — the most recent data available — from 7,947 gun-related deaths in 2019 among children and people age 24 and younger to 10,197 in 2020, according to a report released this week by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
According to data, Chicago’s numbers in gun violence increased since Illinois joined other states in allowing carry concealed firearms.
The department, which says it takes more illegal weapons off the street than any other local police force in the United States, said that it took a record 12,088 guns off the street in 2021.
The CDC report cited homicide by firearm as the leading cause of violent injury death for those between the ages of 1 and 24, and suicide by firearm as the third leading cause of such deaths.
“Living past the age of 21 should be a given, and not a goal, for our Black and Brown students,” said CTU President Jesse Sharkey.
