Chicagoan at Illinois gun hearing: 'Blood is spilling in the streets every day'

Grieving relatives endorsed new gun control measures at an Illinois House Committee hearing on Tuesday.

But opponents claimed the proposals would violate their Second Amendment gun rights.  

While a committee of alderman at City Hall debated a ban on the bump stocks that make semi-automatic firearms shoot like automatics, the Illinois House also held a hearing on guns.

“Over the weekend, I know personally of five people that were killed by gun violence while we're squabbling about who didn't do what,” said west side resident and educator Gayinga Washington.

Among the friends Washington is mourning is Darnell Simmons, a veteran city sanitation worker who was fatally shot in the chest while pushing his teenage son out of the line of fire last week.

“Blood is spilling in the streets every day. I don't care anymore if you are a Republican or a Democrat or in-between. What I care about now is we resolve this problem,” Washington said.

Despite a series of such appeals from people who've lost loved ones to gun violence, the state's politicians remain divided on the issue. Springfield Democrats say they will try next month to override Republican Gov. Rauner's veto of a new state license requirement for gun dealers. They complain the proposal violates their Second Amendment rights.

Democrats are divided on the governor's veto. Chicago Democrats still hoping to override it concede they are at least a half-dozen votes shy of the number they need. Legislators return to the state capitol in two weeks.