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Mom loses 4th and last child to gun violence PDF Print E-mail
Written by Associated Press   
Thursday, 31 January 2013

shirley_chambers.jpgCHICAGO (AP) — At least five people were gunned down Saturday in Chicago, including a 34-year-old man whose mother had already lost her three other children to shootings.

Ronnie Chambers, who was his mother’s youngest child, was shot in the head while sitting in a parked car on the city’s West Side. A 21-year-old man who was also in the car was wounded, police said.

Shirley Chambers, whose two other sons and daughter were shot in separate attacks more than a decade ago, was left grieving again, WLS-TV reported.

“Right now, I’m totally lost because Ronnie was my only surviving son,” Chambers said.

WITHIN MONTHS

Chambers’ first child, Carlos, was shot and killed by a high school classmate in 1995 after an argument. He was 18. Her daughter Latoya, then 15, and her other son Jerome were shot and killed within months of each other in 2000.

“What did I do wrong? I was there for them. We didn’t have everything we wanted but we had what we needed,” Chambers said Saturday.

“They took my only child. I have nobody right now. That’s my only baby,” she said.

Chambers said despite this latest tragic chapter in her life, she’s not bitter or angry.

A few hours after Ronnie Chambers was killed, a gunman opened fire on three men near a South Side eatery, killing two of them and wounding the third, police said.

On Saturday afternoon, detectives were called to the scene of another shooting in which a man in his 30s and a teenager were shot to death. There had been no arrests.

Chicago’s homicide count eclipsed 500 last year for the first time since 2008. As grim as it is, Chicago’s homicide rate was almost double in the early 1990s — averaging around 900 — before violent crime began dropping in cities across America.

Last year’s increase, though, stood in sharp contrast to New York City, where homicides fell 21 percent from 2011, as of early December.

 

Comments (1)Add Comment
Not a gun control issue
written by Guest, January 31, 2013
Maybe it is less of a gun control issue and more of a societal issue {where killing and the gangster lifestyle is socially acceptable behavior as glorified in rap music, video games and movies] Maybe it is an issue of the [adult] children hanging out with the wrong elements in the wrong areas, not once but continuously. How many times must one touch a hot stove before they take common sense action to prevent being burned--these unfortunate killing were not simple random acts of violence. Obviously, the family did not learn from the unfortunate loss of the first child, the second child, the third child etc. Did they move to a safer area? Did they stop handing out in questionable areas? Did they watch who the associate with? Chicago has some of the toughest gun laws in the Nation- but the highest rate of gun violence. Evidencing that it is not the regulation of guns that controls the senseless violence. It is a lack of respect for human life and behavioral issues. Millions of people own firearms-- but they do not go around killing people. The gun is the means-- not the cause.

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