By: Ashmar Mandou

In the wake of the Back of the Yards shootings last weekend, Alderman Raymond Lopez and Alderman Milly Santiago joined gun safety advocates and community organizations on Tuesday during a press conference to push for action to prevent gun violence from ravaging neighborhoods. “We cannot count on the U.S. Senate or Congress to pass meaningful gun legislation right now,” said Alderman Lopez. “But we as a city we must come together to pursue every constitutionally available avenue to stem the flow of these assault weapons in our community.” Ald. Lopez will soon introduce a resolution calling for City Council hearings on the issue, particularly in light of the “failure of the federal government to pass key gun legislation this week.”

Ald. Lopez joined Ald. Santiago and representatives from the Illinois Coalition Against Handgun Violence, Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, The Resurrection Project, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Gads Hill Center, and Church of the Living God among others. “These assault weapons and gun violence in general, are a scourge in our neighborhoods,” said Jose Muñoz, vice president for Community Ownership at The Resurrection Project. “We commend Alderman Lopez in this resolution to urge the state and federal government to ban assault weapons so that our communities can be safe.” In the last week there have been two shootings using semi-automatic assault weapons in the 15th Ward, including one in which a young man, Salvador Suarez, was killed in the Back of the Yards community by an assault rifle outside the Holy Cross Church. As of June 20th, 2016 there were 1,771 shooting victims in Chicago since January 1st, 2016, more than 250 of whom were shot and killed. In addition, 27 shootings occurred in Back of the Yards between January and March 2016, an increase of 107 percent over that time in 2015.

According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, there were 357 million guns in the United States as of 2015 and multiple national studies have shown that the majority of Americans support a ban on assault weapons. Numerous municipalities in Illinois, including Lincolnwood, Skokie, Evanston, Highland Park, North Chicago, Melrose Park, Riverdale, Dolton, Hazel Crest, Homewood, and County have passed assault weapons bans. With that said, Ald. Lopez called upon Mayor Emanuel and the members of City Council for hearings before the Committee on Public Safety on how the City and the State of Illinois intends to address the crisis of gun violence, including illegal distribution and trafficking weapons. “It is time the community comes together and demands a solution,” said Alderman Milly Santiago. “We want to make sure what happened in Orlando will not happen in Chicago. We are not going to tolerate innocent people being gunned down.” Enough is enough,” said Colleen Daley, executive director of the Illinois Council on Handgun Violence. “Weapons of war do not belong on our streets.”