After a year of devastating gun violence, three Chicago residents share what can be done to stop it

For more on this story, watch “This Is Life with Lisa Ling” Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Find past episodes on CNNgo CNN — It was just over a year ago that we shot part of our “Under The Gun” episode for “This Is Life” in Chicago’s inner city. “Gun violence is every bit a public health crisis as Covid-19,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted in August, after a 9-year-old boy was fatally shot on the city’s Near North Side. I’ve had people who have never owned a gun tell me, “Brother Mike, I know how you feel about them, but you know, the reality is that I gotta protect myself and if there is going to be a race war, I gotta be ready.” And so the gun proliferation has gone on steroids – and I think on top of that, where you have communities where you have more trauma, more depression, more frustration, it’s been acted out more in gun violence. I say, “Welcome to my neighborhood.” They say, “There’s violence coming downtown.” I say, “Welcome to my neighborhood.” They ask, “How do we stop the violence downtown.” And I say, “You should have stopped it in the communities.” We have to understand that when there’s nothing left in these communities, people are going to go downtown, they’re going to the North Shore.