Chicago is known for many wonderful and famous landmarks, also including the unique deep dish pizza, the Cubs and Sox baseball games, and Lake Michigan. Although these city staples are great to have, the city of Chicago still possesses the infamous title of being the murder capital of the U.S. Local Chicago news stations report shootings and deaths that occur that each day, sometimes each hour, and stories of innocent children and teenagers are exposed to.

The desensitization of Chicago and the surrounding communities to tragic events has caused citizens to come to terms with the violence that occurs every day.

According to DNA info, the death toll in Chicago during 2015 stood at 493 people, 424 of those were from shootings in 2015. In 2016 alone, there have been 463 people murdered, 412 of those lives being lost to shootings, yet it’s illegal to own any gun in the city of Chicago if you do not have a license for that firearm.

In fact, Chicago is known for having the strictest gun laws in the country. For instance, there have been various proposals to ban guns from all restaurants and bars, but Chicago remains the murder capitol. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Police Department want to make gun laws even stricter, enforcing tougher sentences to those convicted of gun crimes. But can gun laws in Chicago get even tougher? The amount of illegal guns flowing throughout the city is out of hand. If people really need a gun, they can illegally buy one.

When “Chicago teenager murdered” is searched on the internet, pages and pages of stories about the innocent lives being lost in the city of Chicago. The upsetting fact is that a majority of these articles are as recent as this year. These are children. These are teenagers. Everyday people are being killed simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mothers have to teach their kids about the violent truth of Chicago when they are young. While others are being taught to go out and be a kid, the kids of Chicago are being told to stay safe because at any point in time they could easily end up dead, and that reality doesn’t sit well with both sides.