The Not So Funny One

I knew the US had a gun problem. I had heard about liberal gun laws. Every now and then, bits about US shootings would be on German news.

But I didn’t grasp the extent of the problem.

In New York I felt extremely safe to be honest – but in hindsight I guess that was because I didn’t really check the news. People were friendly and they were helpful. And in Washington and Philadelphia, I didn’t worry too much either. Maybe that „gun problem“ was just a few lunatics, my mind thought. But I guess it was a coping mechanism – or blissful ignorance.

It was when I arrived in Chicago that the tables turned. I was on the train from the airport to the city centre, when I saw a screen across the motorway saying „Endangered person missing. Pay attention.“ I wanted to know what was going on, so I grabed my phone and started to check Chicago news.

It was a rough and eyeopening experience. I found a short article – more like a sidenote really – about someone being shot in public earlier that day. And it didn’t happen in a dodgy suburb but close to Chicago’s city centre, the loop. I also found an article about someone being shot yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that. And what was worst: Nobody seemed to care. It was only small, clickbaity news outlets that published articles about it. The Chicago Tribune or other likeminded newspapers didn’t even care anymore.

A good weekend
I talked to an Uber driver here and I asked about safety and gun violence and he explained that it had been better a few years ago but that things escalated quickly. „You’re lucky if there‘s nobody shot in a day,“ he said and explained that he had recently moved his family to a small suburb for this exact reason. When I got into my hotel room, I googled again. I wanted to know whether he was right and I googled „Chicago Shooting“ – only to find out that 28 people had been shot in this city in the last two days. A woman was shot while taking out her trash. Two other women were shot in their own kitchen by someone opening fire from outside. A 12 year old boy was shot in the leg just walking down the sidewalk. And all of this happened while I was doing architectural river cruises, indulging in deep dish pizza or having Margaritas at the pier.

I checked back on Monday morning and the number of people shot over the weekend had risen to 35 with 5 people killed – and still nobody cares. There’s no news except for one article that lists all the individual incidents, giving short descriptions in neutral language, neatly sorting them according to the date they happend. Reading it feels more like following a live ticker of sorts than reading an article. But hey, don’t fret: It was a good weekend. The weekend before, 51 people were shot.

I fell in love with Chicago. I fell in love with Philadelphia. I fell semi-in-love with New York (relationship status: It’s complicated). But I would never move to any of these cities. My European mind just doesn’t understand it… I am kind of glad, that I did spend a blissfully unaware holiday because right now, every time I sit in a subway car my only thought is: „I wonder how many people around me are carrying guns right now.“