Gun possession arrests are going up but shootings go unsolved. What’s behind that statistic?
Flowers are taped to a utility pole by police tape near the place a 17-year-old Champaign student was fatally shot in September 2021. Reginald Hardwick/Illinois Newsroom
And for more than a decade, Chicago police have been seizing more guns — and arresting more people. According to the Chicago Police Department, in the first half of 2022, police had confiscated thousands of guns and made thousands of gun arrests. But despite what the department framed as progress, shootings increased during this time frame, and the gun arrests that were made were predominantly for possession of the weapon — not for actually using it to shoot someone.
All of this is documented in a series of reports from The Marshall Project, and The 21st was joined by the two journalists behind those stories.
GUESTS:
Lakeidra Chavis
Reporter for The Marshall Project
Geoff Hing
Data reporter, The Marshall Project
Prepared for web by Owen Henderson
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