CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — One day after a shooting inside of a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Blue Line train left four people dead, Mayor Brandon Johnson called the violence a tragedy and an example of why more gun laws are needed.
“Out of control” was how Johnson described access to guns in the U.S.
“This is really about the fact that we have unhealthy people in society, and you have guns that are readily accessible … to people who should not have them,” he said.
Johnson spoke after a ribbon-cutting outside of a high school in Uptown, where he said he’s grieving for those who were killed. The Democrat also pointed the finger at Republican lawmakers in Washington.
“It’s very sickening, of course, that we have a Republican Congress that refused to cooperate and work with the sensible people of this country to ensure that there is real gun control,” he said.
Not much is known about the four people who were killed as they slept on the train, which was rolling toward the Forest Park Station at the end of the line.
The mayor, though, said he will continue to fight for funding to help the homeless.
“We obviously were pushing for revenue to respond to this crisis, but we had powerful interests that wanted to block those efforts,” Johnson said.
Johnson was asked about the new gun detection system, which was announced by the CTA last week. He told WBBM Newsradio that it’s not system-wide and is incomplete without more of a commitment to policy changes on guns.
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