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Everytown, Illinois Moms Demand Action Respond to Weekend Gun Violence in Chicago Including the Mass Shooting in Fernwood

12.19.2016

At least the 16th Mass Shooting in the United States in 2016; More than 700 homicides in Chicago so far in 2016

CHIGAGO— In response to reports of weekend gun violence in Chicago including a mass shooting in the Fernwood neighborhood that killed three men and one woman and left another woman injured, the Illinois chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and the Everytown Survivor Network, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety, released the statement below.

The Fernwood shooting is at least the 16th mass shooting in the United States in 2016, and the 156th since January 2009. These fatalities are among the over 700 homicides in Chicago so far in 2016.

STATEMENT FROM PAMELA BOSLEY, A MEMBER OF THE EVERYTOWN SURVIVOR NETWORK, PART OF EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY, WHOSE 18-YEAR-OLD SON TERRELL WAS SHOT AND KILLED AFTER LEAVING A PERFORMANCE AT THE LIGHTS OF ZION MISSIONARY BIBLE CHURCH IN APRIL 2006:

“My heart aches for the Fernwood community, which is blocks from where I live and where my husband and I strive every day to keep our family safe, and for my entire city of Chicago. Every weekend brings more headlines of senseless tragedy and lives taken too soon. When my innocent son, Terrell, was shot and killed on grounds of a church on the South Side of Chicago ten years ago – grounds that should have been safe – my world was forever changed. And now our city must come together to change this culture of gun violence that has risen to historically high levels this year.”

STATEMENT FROM TANJA MURRAY, VOLUNTER CHAPTER LEADER FOR THE ILLINOIS CHAPTER OF MOMS DEMAND ACTION FOR GUN SENSE IN AMERICA:

“The headlines from this weekend are tragically too familiar. Our thoughts are with the Fernwood community and all of the Chicago neighborhoods barraged by gun violence this weekend. We will never stop working to end this violence, not when the number of Chicago families grieving is on a constant uptick and not while we know our neighboring state’s—and our nation’s—laws are putting us at risk.”

Additional facts about gun violence in Chicago and 29 other large cities in the U.S., and case studies of antiviolence programs, are available in the 2016 report Strategies for Reducing Gun Violence in American Cities.