Instead of just writing an organized essay about gun violence in Chicago I’m going to just give you 5 reasons why the people who are getting louder and louder on the news and internet won’t get the answers they seek from President Obama (or any other important figurehead for that matter) when he speaks on the issue today. It’s my belief that because these five reasons are the true source of the problem there is not one person in this world who can say anything to make these people suddenly just wake up and stop.

1. The gang stereotype people hold from the 80’s and 90’s is not what is going on today. I’m not saying that there are no organized gangs here in Chicago but most of the shootings are not coming from organized gangs. These are children and young men mostly from the ages of 13-22 who have their own little groups that refer to themselves as gangs. Some sell drugs, most claim they are or intend to be aspiring rappers but none have any real influence or money and are not regulated by anyone. This is why it is hard for the police to catch them. The police are still operating in the mindset that these gangs are organized and that there is a leader that needs to be caught to dismantle the rest of the group. When there is no leader you can practically arrest anyone involved in that mess and there are still 5000 people of equal status still on the street.

2. People between the ages of 13-22 (especially if they stop seeing the point of school early) have this feeling that everyone is out to get them and that little problems are actually big problems. Things like internet access exacerbate this problem even further so the end result is a bunch of kids who all think that someone else is out here insulting them and because they have no idea how to fight (this is boys actually. Girls fight, boys take it a step further) they take their desire for retaliation out on each other through shooting. However in their minds, retaliation can’t happen when no one is around (they believe the presence of people increases the greatness of their situation because they all want to believe they are their own legends) and retaliation is never ending (meaning if someone they know gets hurt/killed then each side keeps trying to get revenge against each other forever). So yes that’s how you end up with a bunch of innocent people getting killed.

3. Anyone with sense knows that this “no snitching” trend is stupid. There are 2 sides to the no snitching spectrum. There are the people who don’t tell because it is a person they are trying to protect and are in denial about these people’s dealings and associations. Then there are the people who don’t tell because they are afraid of the retaliation thing I mentioned in the last point. Those 2 things lead to a lot of guilty people walking free and able to carry on the same things they continue to do to make themselves feel important day in and day out (The intimidation over others makes them feel important. If no one will punish them for little things then they feel as if they can and will get away with anything).

4. People can cry “jobs, jobs, jobs”, “dads, dads, dads” and “education, education, education” until they turn blue but these kids out here on the street don’t hear that, they don’t care about that and they don’t see the importance of that. These aren’t kids who are secretly looking for guidance and role models. They have already decided that the only person worth looking up to is themselves. They don’t see the point in going to school and getting into thousands of dollars in debt when there are so-called “easier” things to do that can make those thousands of dollars come their way faster. They don’t see the value in working an honest 9-5 job. They think it’s boring and that they want to spend their lives “living”. To get into their minds is to know what they think about and see the world through their eyes. A lot of people who want to “help” don’t do that. They refuse to do it because they believe that everything these kids think about is wrong and the way of the world (as hard as it is) is right and when you can’t convey that to them you better believe they are at least smart enough to see that the argument to do this right thing without any real connection to how it's relevant to them is not strong enough to change their minds.

5. The argument for or against the Second Amendment is not going to get people to stop killing each other. In fact most of these people with guns doing the shooting probably can’t tell you what the Second Amendment is. They just know that if they want a gun they can get it and they only get in trouble if they get convicted for hurting someone with it. They don’t stay in jail if they get caught with a gun, they don’t pay whatever huge penalties come with it. They just do their little 4-8 months in jail and they are back on the street like its nothing. So as long as these legal loopholes are in place and people want to cry the overcrowding game then you are going to keep shuffling people through the legal system like the stack of papers it recognizes their arrest records as and you maintain the status quo forever.