More Than 2K People Have Been Shot in Chicago This Year

It's only halfway through the year and there have already been more than 2,000 shooting victims in Chicago, far more than recorded in the city this time last year—and far more casualties than the US suffered in the Gulf War. The milestone was passed over the Fourth of July weekend, when police say four people were killed and at least 46 injured in 42 shootings and one stabbing, reports CNN, which describes the mayhem as a "war among criminals" that has caught many innocent people in the crossfire. Police say there have been 319 murders in Chicago so far in 2016, around 50% more than at this time last year. There were 2,988 shooting victims in the city in the whole of 2015.

"We have too many guns in the streets of Chicago and too many people willing to use them," police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters Tuesday, though he didn't answer when asked what police plan to do to keep the violence under control for the rest of the year, the Chicago Tribune reports. Before the Fourth of July weekend, when gun violence in the city usually spikes, police arrested 88 people in gang raids aimed at preventing shootings. Some 5,000 cops, several thousand more than usual, were on patrol over the weekend, but while the strategy initially seemed to be a success, almost 30 people were shot late Sunday, hours after Johnson told reporters it appeared progress had been made in reducing violence. (More Chicago stories.)