According to official reports, Chicago police have seized more than 3,500 illegal guns during the first 6 months of this year.
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced on Monday that the homicide rate for the first 6 months of 2013 is “at its lowest total in nearly half a century.” At a news conference held at a West Side police station McCarthy said, “To date, we’ve had fewer shootings than we had in recent years, and fewer murders than in any year since 1965.”
According to the official Police Department statistics, there have been a total of 184 homicides for the first half of the year, down from 260 during the same time period in 2012. That number is the lowest Chicago police have been able to report to the FBI since 1965. Homicides have decreases by almost 30% since last year, which is not an insignificant number.
According to official police reports, overall shootings have also dropped by nearly 25% in the first 6 months of this year. There have been 843 shootings compared to the 1,117 reported at this time last year.
Photo: AP/Charles Rex Arbogast