CHICAGO — Police have seized more than 5,000 illegal guns in 2013, the Chicago Police Department and Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Office said Friday.
The number of weapons seized is similar to the number police seized last year, said Adam Collins, a Police Department spokesman.
Both Police Supt. Garry McCarthy and Emanuel have pushed for stricter gun laws that include mandatory reporting of gun ownership transfers and a three-year minimum sentence for illegal gun possession.
"Our state needs better laws that keep illegal guns out of our communities and punish the criminals who carry them," McCarthy said in a news release.
This year, 131 people who were gun victims or arrested in a shooting or a gun-related murder would have been behind bars at the time of the incident if tougher sentencing was in place, police said.
