Tougher Gun Laws Won’t Stop Violence, Says Cook County Public Defender


This past weekend brought with it a bleak statistic: the 3,000th person was shot in Chicago so far this year. The number of shootings in the city in 2016 is now higher than it was for all of 2015.

As Chicago grapples with ongoing violence, many community leaders and politicians have called for tougher penalties for illegal gun possession. But in a recently published op-ed, Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli warns, “A war on guns that focuses solely on punishment sounds like an easy fix, but it will fail just as did the war on drugs.”

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Campanelli joins “Chicago Tonight” host Phil Ponce to discuss holistic solutions to violence that address its root causes.


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