CHICAGO (CBS) — The City of Chicago is considering an unlikely method of tackling the illegal gun crisis – turning to Twitter.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Brandis Friedman reports, by using the hashtag #WhatIfChicago, organizers behind the upcoming Chicago Ideas Week are encouraging anyone with a positive idea to reduce the number of illegal guns on the city’s streets to tweet it out.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Brandis Friedman reports

“It’s sort of intended to activate and empower the Twitter community to collect their ideas and solutions,” said Chicago Ideas Week Director Jessica Malkin.

Malkin says the idea is to get as many people thinking and talking about potential solutions as possible.

“This is an issue that impacts everybody,” she said. “Regardless of what neighborhood you’re living in, it’s a huge issue in Chicago.”

The campaign goes into Ideas Week, which starts Oct. 8.

On Thursday, Oct. 11, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., a panel including police Supt. Garry McCarthy, a political representative for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, and other thinkers will discuss the best ideas, among others, with hopes of eventually getting the community involved in a solution.

Also on the panel will be Frank Main of the Chicago Sun-Times, Joyce Foundation senior program officer Nina Vinik, Harvard School of Public Health professor of health policy David Hemenway, and firefighter Annette Nance-Holt, whose son, Blair Holt, lost his life to gun violence at the age of 16 2007 when some other teens opened fire on a CTA bus.

The panel discussion will be held at gravitytank, 114 W. Illinois St., No. 3.