Chicago police pass 3,000 mark in gun seizures

Chicago police say they’ve seized more than 3,000 illegal weapons so far this year.

At a Monday news conference where authorities displayed some of the confiscated guns, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the department continues to lead the nation in the number of gun seizures so far this year.

Meanwhile, McCarthy continued to call for longer prison terms for people convicted of unlawful use of a firearm.

He says the department’s crime-fighting strategies have helped substantially reduce the number of homicides compared to the same time last year. But he says longer prison sentences in gun cases would have meant dozens of shooting suspects — and their victims — would have been behind bars when the shootings occurred.