A contingent of Lake County elected officials was in Washington Wednesday as the horrific events of the July 4 parade mass shooting took center stage at a U.S. Senate hearing. The Highland Park tragedy has re-energized calls for a ban on guns like the kind the shooter used, but critics say that’s the wrong focus.

Democrats hope that the 100-page bill moving through the Judiciary Committee will pass the House before the August break. But that is far from assured.

According to Chicago Police Department data, there were 22 separate shootings between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

The nearly 80-page report was the first to criticize both state and federal law enforcement, and not just local authorities in the South Texas town for the bewildering inaction by heavily armed officers as a gunman fired inside two fourth-grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 students and two teachers.

Seven people were killed and 46 others injured in the mass shooting. That same holiday weekend, eight people were killed and 60 others wounded in shootings across Chicago. As support pours in for Highland Park, some Chicago residents are left wondering why the gun violence in the city doesn’t receive the same attention.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, alongside Sen. Dick Durbin, met with residents and members of March Fourth, a gun safety advocacy group, Tuesday to hear more about their experiences as well as discuss policy solutions.

Police Superintendent David Brown on Wednesday said 28-year-old Jabari Edwards was arrested in Burlington, Iowa and will face two counts of attempted murder stemming from the June 1 shooting.

Illinois officials were on hand in Washington, D.C. to commemorate President Joe Biden’s recent signing of a bipartisan gun law.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle spoke to WTTW News following Biden’s White House celebration of the passage of a federal gun safety law that was attended by elected officials, gun control advocates, gun violence survivors and the families of victims.

The Chicago Police Department did not advise the WNBA to limit outdoor events held Saturday and Sunday in conjunction with the league’s all-star game, including a concert by Chicago-native Chance the Rapper, a department spokesperson told WTTW News.

The “celebration” Monday morning at the White House came a week after a gunman in Highland Park killed seven people at an Independence Day parade, a stark reminder of the limitations of the new law in addressing the American phenomenon of mass gun violence. 

The 2-block by 3-block area consists largely of small shops and restaurants. It had been blocked off with crime scene tape, barricades and uniformed officers since Monday as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies processed evidence.

Eduardo Uvaldo, who would have turned 70 on Friday, was a native of Mexico who first moved to the United States when he was 15. In an obituary, he was remembered for his love of his large family — he was survived by his wife, Maria, four daughters, four siblings, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Mourners on Friday remembered 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim as a woman who worked tirelessly at her synagogue, and 88-year-old Stephen Straus as a gentle man who loved art in the first formal services to be held for the seven people killed by the gunman who opened fire on a July Fourth parade.

Sports-loving Cooper Roberts and his 8-year-old twin brother, Luke, loved the Fourth of July parade. But now the family is envisioning a “new normal” for Cooper who was struck in the chest in a hail of gunfire that left dozens of others wounded and seven dead when a gunman opened fire on the parade in Highland Park.

Just under a month ago, the Highland Park chapter of March for our Lives organized an anti-gun violence rally at Sunset Woods Park – the same location of a Thursday candlelight vigil – following mass shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo, and Tulsa among others. Attendees then marched through Highland Park, including right through the site of this past weekend’s shooting.