Chicago’s unrelenting shooting spree continues as up to 25 people were shot and four killed over the last three days.
The mayhem occurred even as protesters gathered in Chicago’s Federal Plaza on Saturday to hold a vigil to end gun violence.
“We need a background check,” Garrett Evans, a South Side Chicago native and survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre, told Fox News. “That’s the reason I was shot, there was no background check, the guy who shot us had a history of mental illness and since he wasn’t red-flagged he was able to buy a gun off the Internet.”
But as violence rages in Chicago, there are reports that Congress will likely be unable to pass a bill expanding mandatory background checks for gun purchases — a provision supported by at least 90 percent of the American public, according to polls.
Chicago State student and activist Dennis Johnson appeared on Melissa Harris-Perry’s MSNBC show and introduced an intriguing proposal.
“Violence will never cease until we find a way to make money out of peace,” said Johnson, a member of the Black Youth Project. Harris-Perry asked him about the role guns play in his life. He said they’re readily available and cheap – but come in from outside of the black community.
“I don’t know one black supplier, or engineer, or creator of guns,” he said.
By some estimates, the gun industry raked in almost $32 billion last year alone.
The Chicago shootings spanned the entire weekend. On Sunday, there were shootings on the South Side that were just 30 minutes apart, leaving four people in critical condition.
“I never seen nothing like this in my life. I never grew up around this,” Lora Quarles, who recently moved to the South Side, told DNA info, “We were just talking, not expecting shots to go off.”
Larry Ranole, 28, was fatally shot on the 1200 block of West 97th Street on Saturday afternoon, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, while Jonathan Santiago, 19, was shot and killed in the Humboldt Park neighborhood at about 2:45 a.m. on Saturday, authorities said.
Police said Santiago was standing in a group in the 3300 block of West Beach Avenue when two males came out of a nearby gangway and opened fire, striking him in the chest.
Miguel Cancel, 19, was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire on the car he and two others were traveling in early Saturday, authorities said, while 34-year-old Kevin Sanders was fatally shot in the South Chicago neighborhood on Saturday night, police said.
Sanders was found about 11:10 p.m. in the 8700 block of South Burley Avenue with multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen, authorities said.
One person is in custody in connection with the shooting, police said.
