🔴 LABOR DAY WEEKEND IN CHICAGO: 4 DEAD, 13 WOUNDED AS GUNFIRE INTERRUPTS ANOTHER HOLIDAY

CHICAGO: Cookouts. Festivals. Music. Family. One last long weekend before Chicago collectively admits summer is packing its bags.

That's what Labor Day weekend is supposed to look like.

Instead, by Sunday afternoon, Chicago police were reporting at least four people killed and 13 others wounded in shootings across the city, with victims ranging in age from 15 to 54.

And Lady Red has one question:

CAN WE HAVE ONE DAMN HOLIDAY WITHOUT SHOOTING SOMEBODY?!

Seriously.

Memorial Day comes around, somebody starts shooting.

Fourth of July? Shooting.

Labor Day?

Apparently somebody looked at the calendar and said, “Well, tradition is tradition.”

Enough.

🔫 TEENAGERS ARE AMONG THE VICTIMS

Among those wounded were 15- and 16-year-old boys.

Read that again.

Children.

A 15-year-old was shot multiple times Saturday night. Hours later, a 16-year-old was shot while walking outside.

Whatever argument, beef, disrespect, neighborhood nonsense or social-media foolishness people think is important today, somebody's child can spend the rest of their life carrying what happened in a few seconds.

And that's the part that gets lost when these numbers start becoming statistics.

Four dead. Thirteen wounded.

Those aren't scoreboard numbers.

Those are people.

🚨 THREE PEOPLE SHOT IN ONE WEST SIDE ATTACK

Sunday morning brought another frightening scene on the West Side.

Police say two men and a woman were standing outside when a vehicle stopped nearby. Two people reportedly got out and opened fire before fleeing.

All three victims were struck.

One man was hospitalized in critical condition, while the other man and woman were reported in serious condition.

Imagine standing outside at seven in the morning and suddenly somebody pulls up shooting.

AT BREAKFAST TIME?!

The sun barely had its shoes on.

💔 FOUR FAMILIES ARE NOW PLANNING FUNERALS

Among the fatal shootings was a 42-year-old woman found shot multiple times inside a Near West Side home early Sunday.

Another victim, 20-year-old Jerome Kirk, was sitting inside a vehicle on the West Side Sunday afternoon when police say a gunman approached and fired multiple shots. Kirk was rushed to the hospital but later died.

Other deadly shootings occurred earlier in the weekend.

And while everybody else is deciding what goes on the grill Monday, four families are dealing with somebody who isn't coming home.

There's nothing sarcastic about that.

🔴 LADY RED'S TAKE

Here's what makes me mad.

Chicago entered Labor Day weekend with officials talking publicly about safety plans. Additional officers were expected to be deployed, violence-prevention workers were hitting neighborhoods, and everybody knew a holiday weekend meant extra attention was necessary.

And people still got shot.

That doesn't mean those efforts don't matter.

It means we have a problem that cannot be solved by simply putting another squad car on the corner.

Because police can't stand beside every person in Chicago who's angry.

They can't search everybody before an argument.

And they can't magically appear during the few seconds between somebody getting mad and somebody reaching for a gun.

At some point, we have to stop acting like pulling a trigger is a normal way to finish an argument.

You won the argument?

Great.

Go home.

Somebody disrespected you?

Block them.

Somebody called you something?

Call them something back if you absolutely must and GO HOME.

Because this whole “I'd rather go to prison for 40 years than let somebody think I'm soft for 40 seconds” philosophy is STUPID.

There.

I said it.

⚠️ AND THE WEEKEND ISN'T OVER

These numbers were reported as of Sunday afternoon, meaning they are not necessarily the final Labor Day weekend totals.

That's important.

So I'm not interested in turning 4 dead and 13 wounded into some permanent final tally while the holiday weekend is still underway.

I'm hoping those numbers don't move another inch.

Because Chicago has had enough headlines that begin with:

“At least ___ people were shot...”

We know how that sentence ends.

Maybe it's time we start changing how it begins.

Enjoy your Labor Day.

Love your people.

Check on your kids.

Walk away from stupid arguments.

And if somebody makes you mad enough that you're thinking about picking up a gun?

GO SIT YOUR ASS DOWN SOMEWHERE UNTIL YOU'RE NOT MAD ANYMORE.

Everybody doesn't need to die because somebody hurt your feelings.

and remember

WHOEVER ANGERS YOU CONTROLS YOU. DUH!

Don't give anyone that kind of power. It's called WEAK when you let someone else trigger you.

730 BOOM RADIO

IT HITS DIFFERENT. EVERY TIME. BOOM! 💥