More guns, fewer police blame for spike in homicides

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It has been a violent year in America. More than 1,000 people have been murdered in Cook County, Illinois, an increase of almost 50% since 2019. In Philadelphia, more than 500 have been murdered, a 12% increase from 2020.

Baltimore has also seen an increase in murders – 311 so far in 2021 from 302 so far a year earlier. City Police Commissioner Michael Harrison blamed gun violence.

“Whether it’s young people, older people, people resolving their conflict with violence, namely gun violence,” Harrison told CBS News.

Another factor, Harrison said, is the rise of phantom weapons – firearms without a commercial serial number that can be assembled at home. Its officers have seized more than 300 phantom weapons this year.

“People can order them online in parts, have the parts delivered to their homes, assemble the gun in a house in an hour and have a fully functioning gun that cannot be traced,” Harrison said.

There are also fewer police on the streets. After growing steadily for decades, local police lost about 1% of their workforce from 2019 to 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. After George Floyd’s death in 2020 and a summer of protests demanding police reform, some major cities, such as New York and Oakland, have cut funding for the police.

“We did a survey of a few hundred police departments showing an increase in retirements and resignations,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “The workforce is shrinking.

Senseless violence has often claimed the lives of innocent children. In August, 8-year-old PJ Evans was killed in a flurry of gunfire at a family reunion in Prince George County, Maryland.

“It’s just gun violence at this point where it’s just plain insane,” said Evans’ uncle Antoine Dotson.

Three men have been charged in connection with the young boy’s death.

Dotson sought solace in his faith but admitted that even that was not enough.

“A lot of people say, you know, you look to the church and, you know, it was time for him to earn his angel wings,” Dotson said. “I still have a hard time losing him and not having him here in my presence.”

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