Gun Violence in Chicago

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, more than 4,100 people have been shot this year in Chicago. And there have been over 700 homicides in the city this year, the vast majority of them due to gun violence. This is unconscionable. The American Medical Association has declared that gun violence is a public health crisis in our nation. And it is.

Every day in America, around 300 men, women, and children are shot.

And every day about 90 of those shooting victims die. Gun violence touches nearly every community in America. But no community has suffered more than Chicago.

The stories of Chicago's shooting victims are heartbreaking. Here is one of them.

On November 18, Javon Wilson, the 15-year-old grandson of my friend Congressman Danny Davis was shot and killed in a dispute over a pair of basketball shoes. It is hard to imagine a more senseless and tragic killing. Congressman Davis said of his grandson, ``He was a typical 15- year-old. He liked basketball. If you listened to him he was a basketball star, but he liked basketball and music.'' Congressman Davis went on to say that Javon's grades had improved in school and that ``his father had just told me about how proud of him that he was because he was catching on and realizing that all his life was in front of him.'' The two suspects charged with Javon's murder are a 16-year- old boy and a 17-year-old girl. It was a dispute between kids that turned into a deadly tragedy because of easy access to guns.

My heart goes out to Congressman Davis and his family. But thoughts and prayers are not enough when it comes to reducing this epidemic of gun violence. We have had too many funerals, too many families who now have to face an empty seat at the dinner table or walk past an empty bedroom, too many children who suffer the physical trauma of gunshot wounds or the mental trauma of witnessing a shooting. We have had too many of our fellow Americans getting shot while they are sitting on their porches or walking on their sidewalks.

So many of these shootings could have been prevented. But there are loopholes in our gun laws that make it too easy for dangerous people to get their hands on guns. It is absurd that we have not closed the loopholes in our background check system--a step that 90 percent of Americans support. And we have had enough of the gun traffickers and straw purchasers who are able to buy guns out of State and sell them out of the trunks of their cars in Chicago.

At Javon's funeral, Congressman Davis said this: ``Not only Javon, but thousands and perhaps millions of other young people cannot exist on a regular, daily basis without the fear of not making it through the day. Somehow, with all the technology that we have, with all the know- how, all the things that we as a nation have been able to do, somehow or another we have not had the will to stop the flow of guns through inner cities.''
Well, we have a new President-Elect who said during his campaign that he was concerned about the shootings in cities like Chicago. If President-Elect Trump really wants to help Chicago, he can work to stop the flood of guns coming in to the city from States with weak background check laws. He could work with the Vice President-Elect, the governor of Indiana, to stop letting people buy guns without background checks at gun shows in Northwest Indiana. Hundreds of crimes in Chicago are being committed with guns that are brought into the city from Indiana.

America has had enough of politicians who are too scared of the gun lobby to stand up and fix our laws so we can keep guns out of the wrong hands.

We also need to address the crisis of poverty that affects many of our Nation's most violent neighborhoods. We need to provide our young men and women in these neighborhoods with economic opportunity and a path to a brighter future. This is going to require a sustained commitment of resources and investment at every level of government.

But it is an investment that will pay off. It will save lives and avoid the devastating costs of violence to our communities.

I will do all I can to make sure that the Federal Government does its part to help create growth and economic opportunity in our most depressed neighborhoods. But as we head into a year when the White House and Congress will be controlled by the Republican Party, it will require cooperation from the other side of the aisle. It is a moral imperative, and it is an investment worth making.

I am angry about the shootings that injure and kill so many people in our Nation. I will not be silent about the need for action and reform.

But I am also hopeful. Even in the neighborhoods of Chicago where the violence has been the worst, everywhere you look you will find determination and resilience. You will find mothers and fathers and teachers and faith leaders and many others who are going the extra mile to bring their children up safely and to provide them with love, faith, and hope for their future. They aren't going to quit. And neither can we.

There is a lot of work we need to do to address the public health crisis of gun violence. But we owe it to the memory of Javon Wilson and so many others to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source