Half of residents in 3rd largest US city exposed to gun violence: Study

Half of the residents in America's third largest city of Chicago have been exposed to gun violence at least one time, with African Americans and Hispanics being more susceptible, a recent study in the mid-western state of Illinois has shown.

The study, released Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), further estimates that 56 percent of African American and Hispanic participants in the study had experienced gun violence before the age of 40.

In comparison, just 25 percent of the white population had been exposed to gun violence by midlife.

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The study also found that by the age of forty, 155 out of the 2,400 participants interviewed for the research study had been shot at least once, and 50 percent of the respondents across all racial categories had witnessed someone being shot.

"Black people in particular are often living in a very different social context, with far higher risks of seeing and becoming victims of gun violence," said Charles Lanfear, head author of the study from the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University (CU).

Lanfear further noted that he had suspected the rate of exposure to gun violence to be high. He added, however, that he was startled when he saw the results.

"We expected levels of exposure to gun violence to be high, but not this high," Lanfear underlined, pointing out that the findings in their study were "frankly startling and disturbing."

He noted that a "substantial portion of Chicago's population could be living with trauma as a result of witnessing shootings and homicides, often at a very young age."

Data shows that since 2016 gun violence has been on the rise in Chicago, which is the third-largest city in the United States after New York and Los Angeles, respectively.

Experts link the surge to a catch-22 situation in the United States.

The 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution gives Americans the right to keep and bear arms for "self-defense" amid growing evidence that guns are most often used as offensive tools to kill mostly innocent and unarmed people.

As gun violence increases, more and more Americans are seemingly feeling more scared and intimidated and looking to purchase firearms for safety in a country glutted with tens of millions of handguns as well as machine guns that virtually anybody in the country can own and access.  

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The gravity of the situation was recently highlighted with a six-year-old pupil deliberately shooting his teacher in a classroom in the state of Virginia. 

Meanwhile, gun violence all across the United States has become prevalent as consecutive US administrations -- Democratic and Republican -- have failed to do hardly anything in terms of enacting laws to stop the steady surge of mass-shootings and other forms of gun violence. 

In the government’s latest attempt to curb gun violence, US President Joe Biden once again called on Congress to pass a ban on the possession and use of firearms.

"Eight Americans, including children, were killed yesterday in the latest act of gun violence to devastate our nation," Biden said in a statement on Sunday.

Although Biden repeated his call on the lawmakers to help end the gun "epidemic," he -- throughout his career as veteran politician -- has done nothing meaningful towards enacting laws to better control and monitor access to firearms. 

"Once again, I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," Biden said, adding, "I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe."

He also demanded that lawmakers require universal background checks for gun purchases and end legal immunity for manufacturers' whose weapons are used in attacks.

'Epidemic': Gun violence in US kills almost 15,000 in 2023 so far

Since the beginning of 2023, 14,780 people have lost their lives in gun violence-related incidents, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

On Saturday, a mass shooting incident at a shopping mall in Allen, Texas left multiple casualties.

The gunman entered the Allen Premium Outlets mall where he randomly opened fire on the shoppers.

Eight people were killed and seven others injured in the incident. The gunman was also killed.

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