Illegal Gun Busts Way Up This New Year's Eve
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police Supt. Garry McCarthy says Chicago Police take many more guns off the streets than their New York counterparts.
As WBBM Newsradio's Steve Miller reports, a total of 131 guns were confiscated on New Year's Eve, up from 83 a year earlier.
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McCarthy says per capita, Chicago Police take almost seven guns for every one that the NYPD takes off the streets.
"I need you to realize that every single time a Chicago Police officer takes a gun off the street, we are in an armed confrontation with a criminal," McCarthy said.
On New Year's Eve, McCarthy says he was on patrol in the Austin District - the West Side district where fallen Officer Clifton Lewis had been assigned.
"Hearing the gunshots and having these men and women, with total disregard for their own safety, go in and try to get these firearms off the street," McCarthy said. "That's the character of the Chicago policeman. And that's the character of Clifton Lewis."
Lewis was shot and killed while working a second job as a security guard at the M & M Quick Foods convenience store, 1201 N. Austin Blvd. His funeral is later Thursday.
