By James Bowes ‘24

Recently, Chicago has been known for its shootings, and Labor Day weekend was no different. Forty-two people were shot, seven of them losing their lives.

One teenage boy, just like a Brother Rice student, was walking down the street in Englewood around 7 p.m. when he was shot in the head. Senselessness and mental illness can truly be the only reason for a tragedy like this to happen. Imagine their families, hearing that their loved one was walking down the street harmlessly, before being shot over whatever he had in his pockets.

A little earlier, at 5:30 p.m., a six-year-old boy was at his house during a family gathering, when the family heard a loud noise, and they noticed their six-year-old loved one was shot in his leg. Luckily, his family was able to get him to the hospital, and he survived in good condition.

Another shooting occurred when a man, driving a car, struck a pedestrian. The pedestrian then pulled out a gun and fired multiple shots. The man was transported to the hospital, but later was pronounced dead.

These are just a few of the situations that happened over the holiday weekend, but there is one thing almost all these situations have in common. The police have no one in custody and are still investigating.

The police need to start finding and arresting these murderers, or nothing will change. The mayor of Chicago must fund the police and hire more policemen to patrol the streets, or we will be looking at weekends of mass shootings in Chicago for an extremely long time.

It is truly heartbreaking to see this news almost every weekend. Chicago is desperate for change. It is becoming so common that some people overlook it, but it shouldn’t be that way. These are human beings, in a city nearby, losing their precious lives in senseless situations.

It’s time for elected officials, at all levels of government, to come together and prioritize the safety and well-being of their citizens over politics. Efforts are needed to pass effective legislation that keeps guns out of the wrong hands while respecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.