# Can community organizing prevent record number of shootings in Chicago? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 8, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886 "2015-10-08T00:33:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alkash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Alkash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alkash)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/1 "2015-10-08T00:33:46Z")
According to Chicago Tribune, [there has been 2360](http://crime.chicagotribune.com/chicago/shootings) shooting victims in Chicago so far this year. That’s roughly 8.5 shooting victims per day, or 1 shooting victim per 2.8 hours, or an absolute record in the city’s history. We all know how lax the gun laws in Chicago are. The weapons can be legally obtained pretty easily and almost without any control. Can community organizing prevent this wave of shootings? All the previous community organizers in Chicago failed miserably, before going on to bigger and better things, but is there any young community organizer in Chicago we can all pin our hopes for to stem this tide of gun violence? ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/2 "2015-10-08T00:41:53Z")
> [@Alkash](#): > > We all know how lax the gun laws in Chicago are. The weapons can be legally obtained pretty easily and almost without any control. Illinois state law requires a person to have a Firearms Owners Identification Card (FOID) to purchase or possess firearms or ammunition. Are you claiming that all these shootings are committed by persons who hold these cards issued by the Illinois State Police? ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/3 "2015-10-08T00:58:13Z")
> [@Alkash](#): > > We all know how lax the gun laws in Chicago are. The weapons can be legally obtained pretty easily and almost without any control. They may be lax by the standards of some other countries, but Chicago’s laws are among the very strictest in the US, if not the most strict. > [@](#): > > Can community organizing prevent this wave of shootings? All the previous community organizers in Chicago failed miserably, before going on to bigger and better things, but is there any young community organizer in Chicago we can all pin our hopes for to stem this tide of gun violence? Chicago was having success with a community-based approach called CeaseFire, which you may know from the film _The Interrupters_, but the police didn’t care for it, so the city [didn’t renew CeaseFire’s contract.](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/interrupters/chicago-drops-ceasefire-from-anti-violence-strategy/) > [@](#): > > Last year, the city of Chicago signed a one-year contract with CeaseFire Illinois to cover two new neighborhoods, Lawndale and Woodlawn, in addition to the 19 other communities its interrupters were patrolling in the city using state and foundation funding. By its own assessment, CeaseFire cut shootings in these two neighborhoods by nearly 38 percent and killings by almost 29 percent. > > … > > But CeaseFire had at times a tense relationship with Chicago police officers, who were wary of collaborating closely with people they’d arrested in the past. Last year, Chicago police said they’d received tips that some interrupters had slipped back into criminal activity. Tio Hardiman, CeaseFire’s Illinois director, told FRONTLINE at the time that six of CeaseFire’s 300 outreach workers and interrupters had returned to crime. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/4 "2015-10-08T01:03:51Z")
Chicago’s ban on retail gun stores was overturned. Chicago’s ban on private gun sales and gifts was overturned. Chicago’s ban on gun ranges was overturned. Chicago’s ban on handgun possession was overturned. If you’re looking for a community organizer to suddenly reverse all those court decisions, I wouldn’t hold my breath. If you want community organizers to convince people to quit shooting each other, remember that Mahatma Gandhi was killed with a handgun. ---
**Author:** ![Alkash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Alkash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alkash)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/5 "2015-10-08T01:14:54Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Chicago’s ban on retail gun stores was overturned. > Chicago’s ban on private gun sales and gifts was overturned. > Chicago’s ban on gun ranges was overturned. > Chicago’s ban on handgun possession was overturned. > > If you’re looking for a community organizer to suddenly reverse all those court decisions, I wouldn’t hold my breath. If you want community organizers to convince people to quit shooting each other, remember that Mahatma Gandhi was killed with a handgun. But doesn’t Illinois state law require a person to have a Firearms Owners Identification Card (FOID) to purchase or possess firearms or ammunition? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/6 "2015-10-08T01:34:24Z")
> [@Alkash](#): > > According to Chicago Tribune, [there has been 2360](http://crime.chicagotribune.com/chicago/shootings) shooting victims in Chicago so far this year. That’s roughly 8.5 shooting victims per day, or 1 shooting victim per 2.8 hours, or an absolute record in the city’s history. > We all know how lax the gun laws in Chicago are. The weapons can be legally obtained pretty easily and almost without any control. > Can community organizing prevent this wave of shootings? All the previous community organizers in Chicago failed miserably, before going on to bigger and better things, but is there any young community organizer in Chicago we can all pin our hopes for to stem this tide of gun violence? According to [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Chicago) the number of actual murders, as well as [crime](http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Chicago-Illinois.html) (this one only goes to 2013 and it’s not a complete table, but it does show the general trend), is down pretty far since the 70’s, at least as far as 2014 (no data from 2015 in this cite), so I’m not sure that this is a ‘tide of gun violence’ today…it looks like Chicago has been and continues to be a violent place (in some areas), but it’s less violent today than it looks like it used to be. :eek: I guess if 2015 is an unusual year you could see if it’s a new trend, but it might just be an unusual year. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/7 "2015-10-08T02:18:15Z")
The OP is so full of snark, sarcasm, and Just Asking Questions that it’s hard to tease out what the actual topic of debate is supposed to be. Are you on about the uselessness of gun control? Are you mad at Black Lives Matter? Do you think Obama sucks? What exactly do you really think we’re supposed to be talking about? Play straight, please. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/8 "2015-10-08T03:15:44Z")
> [@XT](#): > > According to [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Chicago) the number of actual murders, as well as [crime](http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Chicago-Illinois.html) (this one only goes to 2013 and it’s not a complete table, but it does show the general trend), is down pretty far since the 70’s, at least as far as 2014 (no data from 2015 in this cite), so I’m not sure that this is a ‘tide of gun violence’ today…it looks like Chicago has been and continues to be a violent place (in some areas), but it’s less violent today than it looks like it used to be. :eek: I guess if 2015 is an unusual year you could see if it’s a new trend, but it might just be an unusual year. The total number of victims is given as an absolute value, 2360. Maybe the _rate_ of victims is lower than the 1970s if the current population is significantly higher now. Checking stats: Huh. Wiki says the Chicago population as of 2010 is around 2.7 million but in 1970 is was nearly 3.4 million. Hm, this bears further analysis, no pun intended. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/9 "2015-10-08T15:28:33Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > Are you claiming that all these shootings are committed by persons who hold these cards issued by the Illinois State Police? He is not claiming anything. He doesn’t care. It is a thinly veiled pitting of Obama for… having lived in a high crime city, or something. Reported. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/10 "2015-10-08T18:27:08Z")
Well he seemed to be claiming that all the shooters had legally obtained firearms, but other than that I’m lost. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-community-organizing-prevent-record-number-of-shootings-in-chicago/733886/11 "2015-10-08T18:34:15Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > He is not claiming anything. He doesn’t care. It is a thinly veiled pitting of Obama for… having lived in a high crime city, or something. Reported. Obama was, famously, a community organizer in the Chicago area earlier in his life. Replace “community organizer” in the OP with “Obama” for an interpretation.