(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- After a shootout in East Garfield Park left 14 people wounded, Mayor Lori Lightfoot urged state lawmakers Tuesday to ban assault rifles and devices that turn semiautomatic weapons into machine guns.
“Last night’s shooting reminds us that there are too many weapons of war available to criminals,” Lightfoot said in a written statement about Monday night’s shooting in the 800 block of South California Avenue. “We must have a statewide ban, and I urge the legislature to act.”
Mayoral spokesman Ryan Johnson said Lightfoot was “referring to assault weapons and weapons modifications that create automatic firing.”
Her appeal came days after a Sun-Times, WBEZ and NPR investigation found that Chicago police in recent years have recovered an increasing number of extended magazines and “auto sears,” small devices known on the street as “switches” that allow semiautomatic handguns to fire automatically.
At the same time, the number of machine gun prosecutions and mass shootings have risen. It’s unclear, though, whether a switch-equipped handgun was used in Monday’s mass shooting.
Sources said rifle rounds were recovered at the scene and that an automatic weapon appeared to be among multiple guns used in the shootout. But Johnson and police spokesman Don Terry cited the ongoing investigation in declining to comment on the specific firepower.
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Switches are banned federally, along with bump stocks that similarly turn semiautomatic rifles into automatic weapons. Switches and bump stocks are considered machine guns under federal law — even when they aren’t attached to a firearm.
Monday night’s shooting “is just mind-boggling,” said Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), who represents the neighborhood.
He said the crowd was gathered for a balloon release to honor a woman who died recently from an illness. As far as Ervin knows, no one in the crowd was affiliated with a street gang.
“These people, a lot of them are related,” he said. “They were just family members memorializing their loved one. … It was a lady that had passed.
Ervin said he is asking religious leaders to gather at the site at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus, Ervin said he also plans to convene a meeting of “Black leadership” on Saturday at Manley Career Academy High School, 2935 W. Polk. He said he hopes the meeting will produce a “unified cohesive plan of action for our community.”
The area where the shooting occurred already receives added resources — like stepped-up police presence and help with jobs, housing and programming — under initiatives aimed at tamping down crime in some of the most violent neighborhoods.
While the city logged 580 murders and more than 3,000 shooting victims through October, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Brown frequently have touted declining numbers in these targeted communities.
East Garfield Park had 14 homicides and 80 nonfatal shootings through Oct. 28, according to a Sun-Times analysis of the most recent available city data.
That’s down from 29 homicides and 124 nonfatal shootings at the same time last year.
Monday night’s shooting is the worst mass attack in Chicago since 15 people were shot, two fatally, in Greater Grand Crossing in March of 2021. Fifteen people were also shot in July 2020 outside a funeral home in Gresham.
Asked about the number of people shot, Brown urged reporters Monday night to “hold off on hyperbole right now.”
“Right now, people are in there getting treated, some may be fighting for their lives,” he said. “Let’s right now treat this in the most urgent way. We’re trying to find an offender.”
A reward of up to $15,000 is being offered for information leading to charges or conviction. Anyone with information was asked to submit a tip to cpdtip.com.
In earlier versions of this story, the address of the shooting was given as the 2700 block of West Flournoy Street, which was later corrected by Chicago police.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2022. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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