Reported in The Week 17 July 2021
Chicago, Illinois
Gun violence: The mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, has pleaded with President Biden for more help and resources in tackling the city’s epidemic of gun violence, following an Independence Day weekend that saw 18 people shot dead in the city and at least another 90 injured.
Five children aged under 13 were among those who suffered gunshot wounds, on the US’s deadliest and most violent weekend of the year so far.
According to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a monitoring group, 189 people died across the US and 516 were injured 1n shootings over the three-day holiday weekend from 3-5 July.
The number of people shot dead in the US rose to 43,555 last year, and is on course to hit a new record high in 2021.
In April, President Biden passed a number of executive actions relating to gun control measures, and instructed the Department of Justice to published “model” legislation for individual states to enact.