Free Republic

Police continue to investigate this morning after at least seven people were wounded in shootings in Chicago Wednesday evening, including three men shot to death and a 6-year-old boy who suffered three gunshot wounds to the shoulder and chest, authorities said. Police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said no arrests have been made this morning in the child's shooting. The boy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital from near 57th Street and Mozart Avenue in the Gage Park neighborhood, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

Shootings left at least 8 people on the South and West sides wounded overnight, according to police. Three of the shootings happened between 4:50 and 5:40 a.m., police said. A 60-year-old woman was shot in the chin about 4:50 a.m. in 4500 block of South Wolcott Avenue in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side. Police said she wasn't the target and are investigating whether she was stuck in crossfire between two shooters. She was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, where her condition has stabilized. A 17-year-old boy was shot about 5:35...

ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper asked President Barack Obama Wednesday why the president’s plea for action on gun issues has come so late in his first term and only after last week’s tragic incident at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. Obama was holding a noon press conference to announce the creation of a Vice President Joe Biden-led task force to craft new administration gun control policy. “It seems to a lot of observers that you made the political calculation in 2008 in your first term and 2012 not to talk about gun violence,” Tapper said during the noon...

Nineteen people were shot in seven attacks overnight in Chicago, as the US city's gun violence epidemic continued. Thirteen of the victims were shot within a half-hour period, including eight in a drive-by shooting on a single street. Chicago officials have been battling a sharp increase in shootings and homicides, with some elected officials arguing gangs do not fear the police. The city's murder rate has spiked 29% year-over-year as of this month. By that time in 2011, 270 people had been killed in the city, according to data complied by the local newspaper RedEye Chicago. In 2012, that number...