A report released last month by the University of Chicago Crime Lab offers valuable new information on Chicago’s gun violence crisis. The first step to forging solutions is to amass the data and facts to understand the nature, scope and contributing causes of the problem, and this data is critical for philanthropists, as it is for policy makers, law enforcement officials, citizens, and the media.

There is much to learn from the Crime Lab’s report. For example, many people likely do not know that almost 20 percent of Chicago’s homicide victims are children and teens; that almost half of gun violence victims are not affiliated with a gang; and just 6 percent of shootings last year resulted in arrest.

But one figure stands out: 90 percent of Chicago’s homicides in 2016 were committed with guns. This is much higher than the national average of 72 percent of homicides committed with firearms. Other gun crimes also increased in Chicago last year, much more so than non-gun crime.

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