Back of the Yards shooting, Chicago (courtesy chicagotribune.com)

“Chicago police were making no information about what happened public,” chicagotribune.com reports, “Except to say that the shooting appeared to be gang-related.” Nuff said? Oh I could say something about the parallel between disarmed Chicago and disarmed Mexico; in both populations criminals and the government somehow end up politically and economically closerthanthis. But all that really needs saying is that The Windy City as a “gun-free zone” is an abject failure. Generic vic list after the jump . . .

The victims’ ages, sexes and injuries were, according to Police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines:

The 3-year-old boy, shot in the ear, in critical condition at Mount Sinai;

A 17-year-old girl, shot in the foot, condition stabilized at Holy Cross Hospital;

A 15-year-old boy shot in the arm, stabilized at Holy Cross;

A man, 27, shot in the leg and wrist, serious condition at Mount Sinai;

A man, 24, shot twice in the stomach, serious condition at Mount Sinia;

A man, 21, shot in the leg, serious condition at Mount Sinai;

A man, 41, shot in the buttocks, serious condition at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital;

A woman, 33, shot in the shoulder, condition stabilized at Northwestern Memorial Hospital;

A man, 31, shot in the buttocks, condition stabilized at Northwestern;

A woman, 23, shot in the foot, condition stabilized at St. Anthony Hospital;

A man, 37, shot in the leg, in good condition at Stroger;

A man, 25, shot in the knee, in good condition at Northwestern;

And a man, 33, who drove himself to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park with a gunshot wound to the leg and who was treated and released.

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65 COMMENTS

  1. This incident is a record for number of shot in a single incident this year. Previous record holder was July 6th’s 8 shot. Is it not however the most shootings in a single day. That honor belongs to June 16th with 23 – 7 dead and 16 wounded.

    Illustrating Chicago Crime, Murder and Mayhem at heyjackass.com

    • I keep meaning to mention, I really dig checking out your site, but I have to do it in small doses- I shake my head in disgust so much it results in chronic neck pain.

    • Noone dead, oddly enough.

      No doubt those apprentice Crips will be doing detention, writing “I will aim for the center of mass.” a couple hundred times.

      • Just goes to show that, despite protestations to the contrary, the police are not outgunned by the criminals. Looks like the gangbangers have virtually identical marksmanship skills to most large-city police forces.

      • Since these were apparently gang-initiation style shootings and not targeting anyone in particular I suspect that they get their points for just for being willing to pull the trigger, not the number of dead left behind. If you look at the history of drive by shootings it’s all about the shooting, not about the killing. Probably why they so often choose target-rich environments where they are bound to hit someone/anyone.

  2. I read this, its said the gangs came around looking for people to shoot. Too bad there was no one there with a FOID to shoot back.

  5. Of course, Mayor Rahmbo will tell the media that the only reason for Chicago’s high murder/shooting rate is that “firearms are too easy to acquire in the neighboring states with lax gun laws”. Which begs the question of why those neighboring states with “lax gun laws” don’t have murder rates anywhere NEAR Chicago’s.

    Hey, it’s a cultural thing. Murder is just part of Chicago’s culture – remember Al Capone?

    • Don’t disrespect Big Al. If any of his boys decided to go shoot up a park full of people for grins and giggles he would make sure they slept with the fishes.

    • Bingo… any evidence that does not fit their view of the world is disregarded or twisted around. It’s like how conspiracy theorists think…

  6. I’m gonna come over all logical, but on what planet is having a 3 year old child out at the park at 10pm, in a crime infested area, acceptable parenting behavior?

    • The parenting rules on Chicago’s South Side are somewhat…lax. There’s a decent chance that three-year-old was unaccompanied…

      Makes me think of the 3-month-old that was injured in the Aurora theater shooting. Who takes an infant to a midnight movie?

    • I used to live in a kind of iffy neighborhood only a few blocks away from the state women’s prison. There were a couple of times when I had to stand guard over the front door with a baseball bat lest the raging addict in the street decide to take his act onto my porch (I hadn’t come around to the Way of the Gun back then).

      But often the only thing that would settle my infant daughter down from her evening crying sessions was a long walk in the cool night air, so walk we did, regardless of the lateness of the hour and the roughness of the neighborhood. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken the risk…I dunno. It didn’t seem like such a risk at the time, and baby and I emerged from our nightly perambulations unscathed.

      Parenting skills are relative to time and place. Context is everything.

  7. if everyone had simply hidden behind a sign that said “gun free zone” they would have been fine. Those words are a magical shield.

    • There’s a marketing idea for some entrepreneur – go into business manufacturing “Gun Free Zone” signs out of the same stuff they use for those bullet-resistant white boards. make them just large enough for a three year old to hide behind and mount them on street lamp poles about chest high for a toddler. You could also sell a lot of them to the Chicago Parks Department so they could hang them chest-high in a continuous ring on the chain link fence surrounding the parks.

  8. I read the actual article about this somewhere, and one of the witnesses said that the gang-bangers ride by there every day looking for somebody to shoot at random because “that’s what they do”.

    I’m not at a loss for words to describe how I feel about this, but I would probably end up in jail if I expressed it in any way.

    I still firmly believe the good citizens of Chicago need to “man up” and take the war to the gang bangers. I sit on juries, and there is no way in hell I’m voting “guilty” on any law abiding citizen taking action against these POSes.

    • I saw the same thing and was equally shocked. In light of those circumstances, I think I would either not be out on the street at night (something everyone involved should have probably considered), or be hiding in the bushes with a shotgun.

      • The first Grand Jury to consider the case refused to indict him. But no White “gunman” can shoot teen-aged Black “yutes” in NYC without suffering the consequences of the law, no matter what the circumstances.

  9. If only a “No Guns” or “Gun Free Zone” sign had been displayed prominently, or if background checks were more ubiquitous, or if it was illegal to bring a gun within 100 yards of a school, or if assault weapons were banned, or even if only shooting at people in a school yard was outlawed, then no one would have been hurt.

    It is because of Gun Laws being so lax in Chicago that these crazed NRA members, Tea Party People got themselves all riled up playing video games and then decided to shoot up a school yard.

    or wait…did I get anything wrong…?….

  12. Another source said that the 3 year old is expected to survive, but will need reconstructive surgery. Maybe we should take up collections to cover the expense. Or will that look like admitting wrong doing?

  13. The only one I feel sorry for is the three year old in critical condition.
    Poor child, I’m sure he wasn’t a gangster or criminal.
    The rest of them, well to hell with them.
    More than likely lots of gang activity, drug involvement, and past criminal history.
    It’s Shitcago just another nite there. Wait until this weekend.
    Disarmed Chicago equals Mexico levels of gun violence.
    Any political figure that actually believes that civilian disarmament is the answer to utopia needs to take a good hard long look at Mexico where the populous is unarmed and yet the gun crime is off the charts.

    Smitty

    • Having grown up in some of the Chicago neighborhoods where an OFWG lie me could not travel today without a government provided free MRAP, I do have some sympathy for these victims. According to one resident who was interviewed the neighborhood was a safe and pleasant place 20 years ago then started to go downhill. I have seen this happen too many time in urban neighborhoods when those who can move to the ‘burbs and those who can’t are suddenly surrounded by undesirable neighbors. She further said that they have been partly successful over the last ten years or so in improving the area. Probably why they (erroneously) thought it might be safe to be in that park at 10:00 on a late summer night.

      But if your entire city is a Gun Free/Victim Rich Zone and anyone with a car can drive by your park it really doesn’t matter the condition of your neighborhood. The only difference is that if this were a more affluent neighborhood the Chicago Gestap – sorry, police, would be all over these perps AND promoting more gun control, rather than just trying to ensure the people continue to have no right to defend themselves.

  14. Wow…

    Those placements would’ve been less random had someone set fire to a pile of single-shot pistols and let ’em go off on their own.

    Maybe I should offer to take some gang bangers to the range so they can get better at doing their stuff without so much collateral damage.

    • Sorry, Russ, but I think in this case “collateral damage” was the intent. Sounds more like they were intending to send a message to the entire neighborhood than picking an individual target.

      Now, if they would confine their activities to just shooting other gang members then I could get behind your plan whole-heartedly.

  15. When i first heard about this shooting last night i thought it was a bunch of commodity brokers at a pick up game that got pissed at each other and started shooting like a bunch of crazed maniacs.

  16. TO: All
    RE: Chicago

    Because of the continual abject failure of Chicago’s gun laws, we can reasonably suspect that there is indeed a close relationship between the criminal elements in Chicago and the Chicago law enforcement community.

    And in my personal opinion, it is well lubricated with money….like homosexuals rely on vasoline.

    Regards,

    Chuck(le)
    [The Truth will out….there is a pattern of behavior here….]

    • Few people use old-fashioned Vaseline anymore, whether gay or straight. There are quite a few more effective and less-messy (because they’re water soluble, unlike Vaseline) options out there now.

  18. First Navy yard (Mental Health, lack of follow-thru with law and poor reporting to current background system) and now this (Gang-banger paradise).

    Both situations can work FOR gun-advocates if played smartly. Perfect time, after failure of federal gun-control bills and Colorado recall, to take offensive to point out fallacies of the current gun-control movement and focus on the real problems underlying the violence.

  19. Sounds like he was breaking his wrist down while pushing the gun forward, and slapping/jerking the trigger.

  21. Thank goodness for the brave gun laws that leapt out of the alleys and shadows to deflected the bullets aimed for vital organs. If the tough gun restrictions were not in place, then… um…

  22. CNN is reporting that an assault rifle with high capacity magazines was used, and already waving the bloody shirt in the form of the 3 year old’s mother. Assholes. Fox News has nothing on the weapon used. Anyone wanna bet it was a POS Tec 9, if it was an “assault rifle” at all?

  23. “An assault-style rifle with a high-capacity magazine was used in the shooting, which appears to be gang-related,” Chicago Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy said Friday. “We need to keep illegal guns and military-type weapons out of our communities,” McCarthy said. “Illegal guns drive violence. Military-type weapons, like the one we believe to have been used in this shooting, belong on a battlefield, not on a street or in a corner or in a park.”
    The nation needs a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, he said.

    Let me rewrite that statement properly:

    “A STOLEN MODERN SPORTING rifle with a STANDARD CAPACITY magazine was used in the DRIVE-BY shooting, which is MOST CERTAINLY gang-related,” Chicago Police Superintendent AND POLITICAL KOWTOWER Garry F. McCarthy said Friday. “We need to DO OUR JOBS and GET ALL GANG MEMBERS AND CRIMINALS out of our communities,” McCarthy said. GANG BANGERS AND CRIMINALS FIGHTING OVER DRUG PROFITS AND TURF drive violence. MODERN SPORTING RIFLES, like the one used in this INCIDENT OF GANG RELATED VIOLENCE, are used in LESS THAN 0.02% OF ALL VIOLENT CRIME. This nation needs COMPETENT POLICE AND THE ABILITY FOR ORDINARY CITIZENS TO CARRY LEGAL FIREARMS, WHICH WOULD RADICALLY REDUCE VIOLENT CRIME, he said.

    • McCarthy may well be a puppet of the Chicago political machine, but Terry Fator couldn’t put THOSE words in his mouth.

      And it is much more likely that they used an AK than a Modern Sorting Rifle. Here’s an idea for the Chicago PD – offer a gun trade-in program. No questions asked, you bring in any weapon, pistol, shotgun, AK or an AR and we will give you a factory reconditioned Mosin-Nagant and a license to own it in the city limits. Solves the magazine capacity limits (5 in the mag, one in the tube) and the rapid fire problem since they have to work the bolt. Make the same offer to every citizen, not just the bangers. I suspect the number of drive-bys would decline rapidly. /sarc

  24. Sad about the three year old. One of the news reports mentioned that it was the second time that child had been a victim of gun violence. Whatever that means.. Makes me wonder what makes the parents think it’s OK to take junior out in “public” places.

  27. A 3 year old child standing around watching a pick up basketball game at 10:15pm? Yes we should all be safe doing what we want to whenever we want to but hey I’m just sayin’…

  28. I first heard about it yesterday afternoon (time differences between Chi-Town and Sydney). As soon as I heard Chicago and South-Side I thought gang related. When it was said that it happened at a basketball court I thought definitely gang-related. But 13 shot for 0 deaths (as far as I know) made me wonder what were they using? A .22LR? A .32 ACP?

    But it didn’t stop the sock-puppet of a Police Chief getting in his “assault weapon” soundbite.

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