WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- Three members of Congress from Illinois have called for a summit on urban violence after at least nine people in Chicago died in July Fourth weekend violence.
Chicago State University was chosen as the site of the national summit because Chicago had the highest murder rate in the nation in 2012, NBC News reported.
In announcing the event, Rep. Bobby Rush, a Chicago Democrat, said "this is an initiative that emerges out of the angst and the anger and the pain that's being occasioned on our constituents," the Chicago Tribune reported.
Rep. Danny Davis, also a Chicago Democrat, said Gov. Pat Quinn, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, local and federal law enforcement officers, psychiatrists and local gang leaders had been invited to the summit, scheduled for July 25-26.
"We're trying to take a comprehensive approach, recognizing there's no one panacea," Davis said.
Rep. Robin Kelly also was present at the press conference.
State Rep. Monique Davis asked the governor this week to call in the National Guard to stop a situation in Chicago that she said was "mayhem."
She claimed hospitals receive 70 gunshot victims a day and ambulance services are so overwhelmed with violent injuries people are driving victims to hospitals in their personal cars.
