10,000 illegal guns taken off streets of Chicago in 2019: police

Chicago police say they have passed a milestone in illegal gun seizures.

Police have confiscated more than 10,000 guns from city streets so far in 2019, police Supt. Eddie Johnson said in a news conference.

That beats the 9,800 guns recovered in 2018, Johnson said. The department averages about 7,000 guns seized each year.

Johnson used the announcement to criticize current gun laws and the treatment of gun offenders in court.

“We really need systematic change to prevent these guns from ever finding their way into the city,” Johnson said. “Until our legislators get serious, we’re going to continue talking about this.”

Amid the seizures, at least 414 people have been killed in gun violence in Chicago this year, according to Sun-Times records.

“We hit a sad milestone in Chicago,” Guglielmi said in a statement. “One illegal gun has been taken off city streets every 48 minutes of this year so far...”

In September, police recovered more than 80 weapons in targeted raids over one weekend. Police announced then that gun seizures were up 19% compared to the year before.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.