Breaking News: Gun Goes Off On Chicago CTA Bus
At approximately 6:30 AM CST, a gun went off on a CTA bus near Chicago’s Southwest Side. According to WGN TV, the accident took place on the number 47 bus. One woman was struck by a ricochet during the incident.
Chicago police reported that the unattended hand gun was found by a 45-year-old male passenger. He believed the hand gun to be a toy, and carelessly handled the firearm, resulting in a discharge of the weapon. The bullet was aimed low enough to strike below a row of nearby seats. However, a fragment of the projectile ricocheted and hit a 47 -year -old woman passenger in the left hip.
The woman was not seriously injured and the bullet fragment did not pierce her clothing. However, she was taken to the hospital for observation, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The origin of the gun is unknown at this time. It is also unknown whether the man that picked up the gun will be presented with any charges for discharge of the.22 caliber handgun.
The gun in question is a.22 caliber metal and wood gun and is approximately three inches long, according to Nancy Loo of WGNtv
Gun violence and injuries are not uncommon in Chicago. According to an April 15 article on Chicagomag.com, nonfatal gunshots injured 46.5 per 100,000 residents in the city as a whole in 2006-2012. With population of 2.7 million, the number of injuries is quite astounding. If both fatal and non-fatal gunshots are combined, an average of 62.1 people out of every 100,000 were wounded or killed on average per week, in the Chicago area alone.
The authors of the research state:
“This finding has (at least) two implications for our understanding of non-fatal gunshot injuries. First, the concentration of non-fatal gunshot injuries in networks such as these demonstrate that such incidents are more concentrated than previously thought, and even more concentrated than gun homicide by either demographic group or place. Our findings indicate that 70 percent of all non-fatal shootings occur in networks comprising less than 6 percent of Chicago’s total population. This distribution of shootings within co-offending networks fundamentally changes how we assess the distribution of risk in Chicago.”
Although today’s shooting was accidental and no one was seriously wounded in the incident, the focus on finding the individual responsible for leaving the.22 caliber gun behind will undoubtedly be a focus of investigation.
The Chicago CTA has not commented on whether they will look into their policy of allowing guns onto the CTA buses, or whether there will be a more proactive search for weapons that may have been left behind.
Photo Courtesy: WGNtv.com
