The Murders That Are Ignored

I know as much about the gang violence in Chicago as anyone who pays any attention to the evening news. I know that Chicago does have a gun control problem and more murders than any other city in the United States. However, as one of my older relatives recently brought to my attention, Chicago is not even in the top ten U.S. cities in terms of highest murder rate when adjusted for population. This statistic got me thinking that maybe the city is relatively not so violent. Maybe the city has been misjudged, and is merely typical for a city in a country that loves to give citizens firearms. Then, on Facebook this past week, I came across a startling thirteen minute documentary about violence in Chicago, specifically the city's South Side. The video quickly ended the debate in my mind over whether people have the right idea about Chicago's violence issue. (I would highly recommend watching at least a few minutes of it).

According to the video, in 2012 alone, more than 440 school age children were shot. The narrator explains that "this can be attributed to the city's one-hundred thousand gang members" who are constantly battling- literally fighting- for control of different "territories". The narrator then proceeds to interview and follow around some gang members. Those interviewed explained how shockingly easy it is to acquire handguns, and then, after some persuading, reveal that they are in fact armed while walking around their neighborhood. They have grown up in an area where one needs to be prepared to fight for their life at a moments notice.

The narrator also explains that the gun issue does not originate in the city itself, which does actually have very strict gun laws. The real problem come from the suburbs, he explains, where guns can easily be legitimately purchased before being sold on the streets illegally. The superintendent of the Chicago police supports this (at 7:00) saying that guns are what puts Chicago ahead of other cities in terms of violence. He then shows a collection of 125 firearms, ranging from pistols to assault rifles, all of which were taken off the street in one given week. Regardless of whether Chicago ranks first or fiftieth in terms of murders, hundreds of children are shot each year because of the accessibility of these lethal weapons.

The narrator opens with the line, "Chicago is in bad shape", generalizing that the whole city is a bad place based off of particular areas, the ones explored in the documentary. The opening line reveals something particularly problematic with how "we", as a society, deal with issues, in this case gun violence. The very fact that the narrator opens with such a line indicates that he feels a need to convince his audience that there is a problem in their city that demands attention. The assumption there is that it would otherwise be ignored for the most part. This made me realize how typical it is in our society to wait for tragic events (e.g. Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin) to work towards change. Does Chicago need it own version of a Michael Brown tragedy (one involving simply a gun issue, not a police issue) to spark a change, to inspire people to react to the 440 school children who were shot in 2012, to help the citizens fearing the war zone they must call their neighborhood? Or will people finally choose to be proactive, correcting the gun problem before it is too late?