The first month of 2023 has brought disturbingly familiar news.
In California, 31 people were killed and 24 wounded in seven shootings. In North Carolina, four shootings took nine lives and left 12 people wounded. In Utah, eight were killed in one shooting.
Here in Illinois, three shootings left six killed and eight wounded.
Every day brings images of another horrific mass shooting. We all fear it could be us or someone we love in that next school, church, business or festival to face a barrage of indiscriminate bullets.
Will this ever stop? As the sheriff of Cook County, I’m dismayed to say, “No.”
Our nation is too awash in guns and a culture of violence to realistically conceive of a future in which the shootings stop. Yet, I believe we can get to a place where mass shootings no longer seem to be the norm.
My office is working to make that a reality every day. To get there, we know we will need far more than one change to the law.
State lawmakers targeted the tools of mass shootings this year by banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. We need federal lawmakers to do the same, particularly when it comes to high-capacity magazines that facilitate seemingly endless killing. This will help in the long run, no doubt.
We now must also focus on identifying and stopping the people who use those tools to kill. The red flags to violence are often easy to spot. The problem lies in having the ability and resources to do something about them.
Consider that more than 25,000 people in Cook County have had their firearm owner’s identification card revoked, but they have not turned over any firearms as required under the law. This is a pool of tens of thousands of people that the law says shouldn’t have guns, often because of previous violent acts or severe mental health issues. That’s more than 25,000 red flags.
Still, most police agencies lack the staff to knock on doors and get those guns. Sheriff’s police stepped in to do this time-consuming work and have retrieved more than 1,000 firearms and secured the transfer of thousands more, but that is cold comfort when I think about the work left to do. Local police need the resources to address these red flags in their own backyard.
Violent extremism is another cause of mass shootings. Hindsight has repeatedly shown us that these shooters often preview their terrifying plans online. Still, no one stops them — usually because no one was watching for those red flags who could do something about it. That is why I dedicated resources to looking for these signs online. If crime is occurring online, police agencies need the resources to be online too.
My office also helps schools properly assess and address threats. This is sensitive work that can prevent school shootings. With hundreds of schools in Cook County, we need all police agencies to have the resources to work with schools to address the red flags that arise during the school year.
This is not quick or easy work.
Often, the red flags we find require multidisciplinary teams of police, social workers, school administrators, doctors and lawyers to deftly navigate the mental health and judicial systems. They need to counsel family members, ask judges to commit individuals to treatment facilities and secure warrants to search for weapons, among many other efforts.
We have worked cases involving teens who had plans for targeted violence toward schools as well as individuals who were radicalized into violent extremist beliefs. The cases take weeks, if not months, and hundreds of staff hours to address and thwart violent acts. Most of these cases will still require long-term attention.
I’m certain this work has saved scores of lives and averted numerous horrific crime scenes.
My office can do this work because the county taxpayers and Cook County Board support our mission. Even though most law enforcement agencies face the same cases and challenges, they struggle with very limited resources and staff to address them.
We can reduce violence in Chicago, Cook County and this country. But police agencies need the resources to do the job right. We need good people to do that work, whether officers, lawyers or social workers. We need to support their good work. We need to invest far more in mental health services.
Moreover, we need the public to understand this is a complex problem requiring a multifaceted solution. Your nightly news and social media feeds have been filled with snappy partisan posturing over gun rights. But that debate is only a small part of how a nation overwhelmed by the killing can reduce mass shootings.
