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Chicago/Philadelphia: Mayor rails against gun lobby after shooting

2022-07-05T17:05:24.555Z


Gun violence on July 4th in the USA: Six dead near Chicago, shots in Philadelphia. Mayor Jim Kenney expresses frustration with his country. In front of the camera, he clearly says what he would like to do most. And why he can't.


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The images look frighteningly familiar: people who want to celebrate flee in panic because they are being shot at.

Hours after a deadly shootout in Chicago, shots are also fired in Philadelphia on the US National Day, injuring two police officers.

The mayor of the city is both desperate and frustrated in equal measure.

Jim Kenney, Mayor

»

It was a relaxed, easy-going day.

The weather was beautiful.

The concert was beautiful.

But we live in America and we have the Second Amendment and we have the Supreme Court of the United States telling anyone they can carry a gun whenever they want.

It's like Dodge City.

We have to deal with what this country is about right now.

We had a beautiful day out there today, except for some git who was either shooting out the window or was shooting from somewhere who has a gun and probably shouldn't have had it."

In the United States there had been a whole series of particularly bloody gun attacks in the past few weeks.

In mid-May, an 18-year-old shot dead 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in the small Texas town of Uvalde.

Ten days earlier, an 18-year-old shot dead ten people in and outside a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, for racist reasons.

Jim Kenney, Mayor

“I was in Canada two weeks ago and never thought about a gun.

The only people in Canada who had guns were police officers, and that's the way it should be here.

But as long as I live, that will never happen.

There are a lot of weirdos with guns, and they can get them anytime they want.

We have to live with that.

If I could ban guns, I would.

But the legislature won't let us.

The US Congress won't let us.

The governor is doing what he can.

Our Attorney General is doing what he can.

But this is a land of guns.

That's crazy.

We are the most heavily armed country in world history and one of the most insecure.

Until the Americans decide they want to give up arms, we won't get rid of this problem."

What makes the mayor despair: Far-reaching reforms of the gun laws repeatedly fail due to opposition from the Republicans and the influence of the powerful gun lobby organization NRA.  

Jim Kenney, Mayor

“I worry every single day.

There isn't an event or a day that I don't lie on my back and look at the ceiling and wonder and worry.

Everything we've seen in the city over the past seven years worries me.

I don't enjoy the 4th of July.

I don't enjoy the Democratic National Convention.

I don't enjoy the NFL draft.

I'm always waiting for something bad to happen.«

The two injured police officers in Philadelphia have now been released from the hospital.

But this year, too, numerous people died around the National Day celebrations in the USA - as in so many years before.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-07-05

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