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CHICAGO (CBS) — The mass shooting Thursday night on the Near North Side continues a troubling trend that’s been years in the making in Chicago.
CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini digs deeper into the numbers to show you why this year might be even more dangerous.
Two people were killed and seven were wounded when a gunman began firing into a crowd around 10:40 p.m. Thursday, outside of the McDonald’s at Chicago Avenue and State Street.
The troubling reality is mass shootings like this are skyrocketing in Chicago compared to the rest of the country.
New York City has had three mass shootings so far this year, and Los Angeles has had two, but Chicago –despite a smaller population than both of those cities – has already had 10.
With the summer months approaching, gun violence in general in Chicago is only going to get worse. The CBS 2 Investigators analyzed data going back three years, and Chicago sees the majority of its shootings between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Overall during the last three years, Chicago has gone from 33 mass shootings in 2019, to 53 in 2020, to 60 in 2021.
According to the stats, Chicago is on pace to at least match or exceed last year’s number.
Thursday night’s shooting was the worst mass shooting of the year in Chicago.
As mass shootings are becoming more common, the number of people injured or killed in mass shootings is also skyrocketing. In 2019, 166 people were injured or killed in such shootings in Chicago. In 2020, that number rose to 261. Last year, that number was up to 318.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot calls it a gun issue.
“We have got to do everything we can to stop the flow of guns into the city. That is literally what is killing us; too many illegal guns readily accessible now to children,” she said.
If something isn’t done soon to stop this trend, the numbers are only going to get were worse. When the mayor was asked if she thought the National Guard should be called in, she said no.
“I don’t see any reason for that,” Lightfoot said. “The National Guard is not a panacea. The National Guard is a military force. They are trained, not in civilian use of force, but in military use of force, and when they see a challenge, their training tells them to put down that challenge with deadly force. That’s not what we need in this moment. We don’t need more gunfire, and we certainly don’t need our residents being subject to a military force on our streets.”
