Chicago student shot, killed: 26th CPS student slain this year.

[Occam Bandage]

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

A teenager who was fatally shot Tuesday night in Albany Park is the 26th Chicago public school student killed this year, tying the number of students killed all of last school year.

The 17-year-old, identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office as Franco Avila, was shot in the torso around 7:50 p.m. Tuesday and pronounced dead at 8:38 p.m. at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medial Center...With Avila’s death, the number of Chicago students killed over the first six months of this school year matches the 26 killed last year during the entire school year of more than nine months.

The escalation of violence has worried and frustrated school leaders. Last Sept. 8, after two students were slain over the first weekend of the school year, police and school officials announced plans to crack down on violence. They vowed to aggressively enforce curfew; to beef up police patrols near school hotspots and heavily trafficked student train and bus routes; and to accept anonymous student tips by text messaging. Even so, by a month into the school year, the school system was averaging two student deaths a week.

By early October, months before he was named U.S. Education Secretary, then-Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan noted that the district was on pace to double last year’s death toll as he refused to accept an anti-violence award from the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.

"Whole classrooms" of kids are dying each year, Duncan said, drawing gasps from the audience. "Our children are dying, and no one can stop it."

More at link: http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1470990,chicago-school-violence-record-cps-031109.article

[marmar]

1. Good f**king grief......

Insanity.

[UndertheOcean]

2. There should be a total ban on both selling and manufactoring guns

[derby378]

3. Chicago already has something really close

How's that working out in the Windy City? :shrug:

[UndertheOcean]

4. I included "manufactoring" too,

[marmar]

5. Not to take a position on the issue one way or the other, but the ban only works.....

..... if it's universal. If Chicago bans them but you can get them in Skokie, then what's the point, n'est-ce pas?

[wartrace]

6. Why is it that other areas are not seeing this type of violence?

Banning all guns sounds reasonable until you consider that guns are already banned in Chicago. Perhaps there are deeper problems in the community?

[Winterblues]

8. I wonder why Alabama doesn't see gun violence as well?

D'Oh......Almost half as many killed in ONE day down there..

[wartrace]

13. Did I say they don't have gun violence?

I said why other areas are not suffering gun violence like Chicago is. Yes, it is easy to point to the latest shooting spree & say SEE! I guess we can ignore the problems in Chicago, after all "only" 26 kids have been killed so far this year. As long as they aren't being killed all on the same day it is OK?

My point is there is something wrong in Chicago & rather than dream of some day ridding the world of guns perhaps something should be done immediately to curb this violence that is killing the kids? I don't have the solution, maybe more aggressive policing like New York had under Giuliani? Maybe more focus on the children at risk? It is not normal in any other communities for so many of their young people being murdered, why should we accept it in Chicago?

[Raskolnik]

7. I'm willing to bet you $1 that the gun used in this crime was already illegal in Chicago.

But don't let that stop you from using a dead kid as a platform for your policy agenda.

[Occam Bandage]

14. I'll bet you a further $1 it entered Chicago by someone buying it in Indiana.

[tuckessee]

12. Start by disarming the State. n/t

[tammywammy]

15. No, I like the rights provided to me by the Constitution. n/t

[-..__...]

16. I don't think so.

The law abiding and concerned residents need to stop bitching and start snitching and make a genuine effort to eradicate the gangs and deglamorize the thug life mentality.

Obviously the cops are doing little to no good. It's time for the community to get more involved, accept more responsibility, cease blaming the firearms industry and the NRA, and address the real problem plaguing their neighborhood.

[dcindian]

9. Need more guns in the classroom and merit pay for teachers.

All fixed.

[moundsview]

10. I'd be willing to bet that Arne Duncan

is glad to be in the relative calm of Washington DC about now.

[derby378]

11. Here's another observation...

Last Sept. 8, after two students were slain over the first weekend of the school year, police and school officials announced plans to crack down on violence. They vowed to aggressively enforce curfew; to beef up police patrols near school hotspots and heavily trafficked student train and bus routes; and to accept anonymous student tips by text messaging. Even so, by a month into the school year, the school system was averaging two student deaths a week.

Increased police patrols, restrictions on travel, tips from unverified sources - does anyone else find this rather "Bushwellian?"