The Illinois chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both parts of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots network, today released the following statement on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s recently released violence reduction plan.
“This plan is an important step toward improving safety and saving lives in Chicago,” said Maria Pike, a Senior Fellow with Everytown’s Survivor Network and volunteer with Illinois Moms Demand Action, who advocates for gun violence prevention and for other survivors. “This plan includes important priorities such as police accountability and culture change, collaborating with community-based violence intervention programs, and improving gun safety and providing services for those impacted by violence. We look forward to continuing our work with the mayor, city officials, community groups and the residents of Chicago, to ensure that this plan receives the necessary funding and is centered in proven, community-based gun violence prevention models.”
Lightfoot’s plan comes in response to increased and sustained violence in Chicago. According to the city, since 2016, more than 3,000 people have been killed in Chicago and more than 12,000 have been shot.
Gun violence takes a disproportionate toll on Black and Latino communities, a result of systemic inequities and deliberate policy decisions that created segregated neighborhoods and drove income inequality. Black people represent the majority of homicide shooting victims in the U.S. and are far more likely than white people to be victimized by and exposed to assaultive gun violence. In Illinois, Black people are 34 times as likely as white people to die by gun homicide.
In Chicago, local gun violence intervention programs use evidence-informed approaches tailored to their communities to put a stop to violence and save lives. More information about gun violence in Illinois is available here, and more information about gun violence in cities is available here.
