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Obama 'Knows What ... Needs to Be Done' to Curb Gun Violence, Top Cop Says

By Darryl Holliday | January 29, 2013 7:50pm
 Police Supt. Garry McCarthy held a press conference Tuesday evening to address a spike in violence as well as talk gun control in Chicago
Police Supt. Garry McCarthy held a press conference Tuesday evening to address a spike in violence as well as talk gun control in Chicago
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DNAinfo/Darryl Holliday

BELMONT CRAGIN —  Just back from a trip to Washington, D.C., Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said he met with Pres. Barack Obama who he believes "knows what it is that needs to be done" to curb gun violence.

McCarthy said he met with President Barack Obama and other leaders for a "frank" discussion about gun control.

As for Chicago, McCarthy said the city is "not alone in going through a bad spell." 

A recent spike in shootings, including 12 murders in the last five days, has left many wondering how officials will respond to the violence.

"The reasonability of our gun laws needs to be examined," McCarthy said, offering a similar sentiment to a press conference held Monday in which First Deputy Supt. Alfonza Wysinger called for stricter penalties on firearm crimes.

A ban on assault weapons, universal background checks, mandatory reporting of lost and stolen weapons, along with a three-year mandatory minimum sentence for illegal possession of a firearm were among McCarthy's recommendations.

Like Wysinger on Monday, McCarthy noted that a mere two out of the city's 22 police districts had more guns seized recently than the all of New York City.

"And there's a reason for that," he said. "When people get caught in New York they go to jail."

Before McCarthy's press conference Tuesday, a series of shootings claimed the lives of three people, including Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old student at King College Prep.

On Monday, Wysinger said that a rash of violence over the weekend, the deadliest weekend in Chicago in more than a year, "could have been a lot worse" if not for the department's gang reduction strategies.

"I don't like to use the phrase 'could have been worse,'" McCarthy said on Tuesday. "It could have been a lot better."