CITY HALL — Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Monday that security along the route of the Chicago Marathon set for Sunday would be increased after a gunman opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas, killing at least 58 people and wounding more than 500 people.
"The city is prepared," Emanuel said, adding that the city has held six "active shooter" drills already this year to help Chicago police, Chicago firefighters, hospitals and emergency operations officials prepare for a similar incident or terrorist attack.
After two bombs were exploded along the Boston Marathon route in 2013, the city "upped its game considerably," Emanuel said.
"That will be enhanced" in the wake of the massacre Sunday night in Las Vegas, Emanuel said.
The city also learned a great deal from hosting the World Series last year and will implement those lessons during the Cubs playoff series set to start Friday, he said.
"It is clear what happened is senseless," Emanuel said of the Las Vegas attack. "It is also clear the response has been heroic."
Emanuel praised the police officers and firefighters who responded to calls for help, as well as those who stood in line for hours to give blood to help those who were injured.
"The light of the American people will outshine the darkness," Emanuel said.
Emanuel, who served as an aide to former President Bill Clinton, said "common-sense" regulations that prevented criminals and those with mental illnesses from getting guns should not have been allowed to lapse or be repealed.
"What we are doing today is not working," Emanuel said. "It is not working. This should be a wake-up call."