Faith and community leaders in Chicago held a news conference to call for a major change in how the city tackles gun violence, speaking out after six deadly shootings over the past weekend. They announced a push to make gun violence reduction a permanent part of how the city operates, rather than a series of short-term responses.
The leaders said they will advocate for and file an ordinance to create a Department of Gun Violence Reduction in the city of Chicago. Alongside that, they said they want the city to also establish an executive order to support the work, arguing that the effort needs to be embedded into the fabric of how Chicago functions.
Groups including Live Free Illinois, the Chicago Faith Coalition and other community partners have advocated for such a department for years. The Chicago Faith Coalition, a group of faith leaders from across the city, has worked together on the gun violence issue for a number of years, framing it as a moral question tied to the life and death of the city's children.
Those behind the proposal said the city's response should not be treated as a temporary initiative but as a permanent commitment, with a long-term vision rooted in prevention, intervention, healing and accountability. They argued that a dedicated department would oversee and coordinate that work while holding people accountable for results across the city.
Leaders also pointed to a gap in the current system. They said community organizations, violence intervention workers, faith leaders and survivors carry out lifesaving work every day, but do so with limited support and inconsistent coordination. A permanent department, they said, would give that work a stable structure rather than leaving it to scattered efforts.
On the broader picture, the leaders said violence has come down in Chicago, but cautioned that the improvement is new and not yet the norm. They noted that violence was up last month and pointed to the weekend's shootings as a reminder of how fragile the gains are. They also called for confronting the number of guns in the city and criticized cuts to federal gun violence prevention funding, urging that the money be restored.