By FRANK MAIN
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Police marker to a gun casing (top right) work the crime scene Tuesday afternoon in the 7000 block of south Rockwell reports of three people shot. | Scott Stewart~Sun-TimesChicago Police work the crime scene Tuesday afternoon in the 7000 block of south Rockwell reports of three people shot. | Scott Stewart~Sun-Times
Tougher gun laws would have kept 160 people behind bars so they could not have become suspected shooters or victims of gun violence this year, according to the Chicago Police Department.
Seventy-four shooting victims and 86 shooting suspects were previously convicted of gun possession and were free after serving time behind bars or receiving probation.
They would have been behind bars and not on the street to become victims or suspects under stricter laws—which include a minimum sentence of three years in prison for gun possession and “truth in sentencing,” said Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the department.
“I think the data underscore why we need to create a culture of accountability for those who engage in gun violence,” Guglielmi said of the ongoing police analysis of shooting victims’ and suspects’ cases.
There were 2,249 shooting victims and 370 murders in Chicago this year through Oct. 5. Murders have risen 21 percent over the same period of 2014.
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