CHICAGO — After a bloody holiday weekend left 11 people dead and more than 60 wounded throughout the city, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is calling for a "partnership for peace."
Emanuel attended an anti-violence vigil in Roseland Monday evening where he said everyone — from parents to police to federal lawmakers — must play a role to curb bloodshed in Chicago.
"A lot of people will say where were the police ... and that's a fair question, but not the only question," Emanuel said. "Where are the parents? Where is the community? Where are the gun laws? Where are the national leaders, so we do not have the guns of Indiana, Wisconsin and Cook County and downstate Illinois flowing into the city?"
Emanuel called the scores of shootings "totally unacceptable," and said every city resident, from Roseland to Ravenswood, must feel the "anguish" and "unease" caused by gun violence.
As he has in the past, Emanuel said gun violence plaguing the city must be addressed in a variety of ways, which he said include policing, tougher gun laws, more investment to help children in impoverished neighborhoods and instilling a "shared sense of purpose and values" in communities across Chicago.
During a news conference Monday morning, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy also said the city saw "an unacceptable level of violence" over the weekend.
McCarthy said the department put a lot of effort this year into strategies to prevent violence, which included beefing up the police presence for fireworks displays throughout the city. McCarthy, who commonly declines to elaborate on police tactics, did not provide details on this weekend's strategies, but said the department was "moving in the right direction" for most of the weekend.
"Thursday, Friday, Saturday, they were very, very busy, but we were winning," McCarthy said. "Yesterday was the day that really blew it up for us over the weekend."
The city saw 29 people wounded, four fatally, since Sunday afternoon.
But despite Sunday's spike, McCarthy said the city saw "basically the same level of shootings" as last year's holiday weekend.
In 2013, 11 people were killed and at least 62 were wounded over the holiday weekend, which started the Wednesday before the Fourth of July, according to DNAinfo Chicago data.
Trying to maintain perspective on the weekend, McCarthy also touted year-to-date totals for murders. There have been 185 homicides so far in 2014 compared with 196 homicides in 2013, McCarthy said.
McCarthy's news conference, held at the Ogden District police station in the North Lawndale neighborhood, highlighted more than 3,300 guns seized this year, with 100 of those guns seized this weekend alone, police officials said.
McCarthy regularly holds news conferences on guns to call for stricter penalties for gun crimes, something he frequently says would reduce gun violence in the city.
McCarthy, like Emanuel, said shootings over the holiday weekend stem most directly from a "proliferation of firearms" in Chicago.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it's 'Groundhog Day' in Chicago," McCarthy said, referencing his frequent calls for more severe sentencing for gun crimes in Illinois.
McCarthy also attended Monday evening's prayer vigil, where Emanuel too called for stiffer gun laws on background checks and "straw purchasing," the act of someone legally buying a gun and passing it along to someone who cannot.
George Barron, 20, lives in Roseland and is a member of Kids Off the Block, a nonprofit that hosted the vigil. Barron said he agrees with Emanuel and McCarthy when it comes to guns, but said it is also the mindset of young people on Chicago's streets that need to change.
"I believe it's the people with the guns," Barron said. "I believe it's just Chicago and the mindset that people in Chicago have.
"You got to find something where people can relate to take their minds off the BS in the street," Barron said.
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