Illegal guns flood Chicago neighborood

Associated Press

CHICAGO

Ke’Shon Newman’s daily routine is guided by guns – the hundreds of illegal pistols, revolvers and other firearms that torment his South Side neighborhood.

He walks on brightly lit streets lined with Jamaican jerk joints, mini- markets and gas stations. He listens to music with one earbud – to hear approaching footsteps – and avoids clothing with hoods that might block his peripheral vision.

These are the rituals of a street-smart 16-year-old who knows the cruelty of wrong place, wrong time. His stepbrother, Randall Young, then 16, was killed in crossfire two years ago. “I’m making sure my mom doesn’t have to lose another child,” he says.

The Auburn Gresham neighborhood is flooded with illegal guns: .40-caliber pistols, .380 semi- automatics, .38-caliber revolvers. A buy-back in June brought in hundreds of weapons. And in September, police in the 6th District hit a milestone: the recovery of the 1,000th gun for 2018.

It was a triumphant moment, but it also offered a glimpse into the overwhelming task faced by law enforcement – and the wounds inflicted on just one Chicago community – when guns are readily available and violence so common that, one study found, half of young men had at one time carried firearms, usually to stay safe.

“I tell people all the time we don’t have post-traumatic stress. We have PRESENT-traumatic stress,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the activist priest at St. Sabina Church. “We’re still in the war.”

Chicago’s gun violence has captured the national spotlight, and President Donald Trump has threatened to send in federal troops and called the problem “very easily fixable.”

Those who battle this daily in the 6th District see it differently. Guns not only shatter lives, they determine when people go outside, whether a church should have a metal detector, even whether a Ferris wheel operator will rent a ride for a community festival.

Residents often know who is behind shootings – there have been nearly 600 since 2016 – but the threat of gang retaliation has created an almost impenetrable code of silence. Pfleger, whose church has offered $5,000 rewards for tips in dozens of murders, said getting rid of guns isn’t enough.

“Until we deal with easy access, they can pick up another 1,000 and another 1,000,” he said. “It’s like water pouring on the floor and you keep mopping it up, but nobody’s shut off the faucet.”

Chicago police regularly recover more illegal firearms than officials in larger New York and Los Angeles. Last year, the citywide haul was 7,932. Police said the 2018 tally could exceed 10,000.