Chicago’s Latest Victim Was A Young Anti-Violence Activist

Delmonte Johnson, 19, a teenage activist involved with anti-violence group GoodKids MadCity, died of gunshot wounds in Chicago. The tragedy was particularly saddening because of the nature of Johnson’s activism and the reality of Chicago residents like himself.

Johnson was standing outside of a store in the South Side of Chicago when someone shot him from inside of a tan sedan at about 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Johnson later died at the hospital. Police have yet to announce a suspect.

On Twitter, members of GoodKids MadCity mourned Johnson’s death, vowing to “continue [the] fight to end #GunViolence in Chicago.” And during a vigil on the same day, the victim’s mother, Onique Walker, celebrated her son’s passion for his community.

“He was getting ready to get a fundraiser going for the kids so they could go on a Christian camping trip,” Walker said. “My son, oh, God… I’m gonna miss my baby.”

While the circumstances surrounding Johnson’s death remain under investigation, it’s clear that his death was tragic and unnecessary.

Unfortunately, gun-related crimes have never ceased to happen in the Windy City. Quite the contrary, as they worsened considerably since gun control was widely adopted by the city.

According to an investigation in 2013, the city’s murder rate was so high then that it actually beat the murder rate during the Al Capone era, when no gun laws were in place. And recently, in late August, 59 people were shot in Chicago in just one weekend, killing six people and sending 53 to the hospital.

And as left-leaning researchers have pointed out, a close look at gun-related violence shows that aside from suicide, which is the most common cause of gun-related death in the country, gang violence is the second most common factor in gun-related deaths, claiming young men mostly between the ages of 15 and 34.

In other words, gun restrictions do little to prevent the top two most common gun-related deaths, especially because criminals do not go through the proper legal channels to purchase weapons. Evidently, government-backed gun restrictions will do absolutely nothing to stop them.