A day after Chicago saw a series of mass shootings in a matter of hours, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was scheduled to appear in the city Thursday to meet with police and community leaders as the Justice Department launches new efforts to stem the flow of illegal firearms here.

       Garland, a native of north suburban Lincolnwood, will begin the day in Washington, D.C., to announce the formation of strike forces aimed at going after gun traffickers in several cities, including Chicago, at a time when urban America had seen spikes in gun violence.

       He will then travel to Chicago to meet with U.S. Attorney John Lausch, who will oversee the local strike force, as well as police and community leaders, officials said.

       Garland also is expected to go to the Harrison District police station on Chicago’s West Side to visit its “strategic decision support center,” a nerve center that crunches crime data and helps police supervisors determine where to deploy cops.

       Later in the day, Garland is slated to participate in a group discussion with a community organization that mediates gang conflicts and provides support for people most at risk of being a party to violence, either as a victim or perpetrator. President Joe Biden’s administration has proposed spending about $5 billion toward such groups that specialize in violence prevention efforts.

       Garland’s visit comes the day after a combined 10 people were shot in two attacks Wednesday evening in the North Lawndale community on the West Side. The shootings happened within minutes and a few blocks apart, leaving five people shot in each incident. Of the 10 victims, a 14-year-old boy was shot and killed. Hours later, eight people were wounded in a shooting on the Near North Side just west of DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

       U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appears at the White House on July 9, 2021, in Washington. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty-AFP)

       The strike force — a mix of federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other law enforcement agencies — will be tasked with identifying and disrupting pipelines that are responsible for bringing illegal guns onto city streets. Law enforcement officials for years have blamed lax gun laws in neighboring states like Indiana and Wisconsin for making it easier for Chicago criminals to obtain guns when they’re not allowed to own them.

       Biden’s administration announced similar strike forces being formed New York, Los Angeles, the Bay Area and Washington, D.C.

       The teams are the latest strategy in the federal government’s effort to fight gun violence, and Chicago has been a focal point of that fight.

       Last year, under then-President Donald Trump’s administration, Chicago and other cities received a surge of federal agents to fight violence as part of Operation Legend, named in honor of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed in Kansas City, Missouri. In Chicago, the operation involved a few hundred federal agents from the ATF, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service.

       Chicago police and other big-city police departments routinely work with federal law enforcement on criminal investigations. Such partnerships over the years have included Project Exile, aimed at shifting more gun prosecutions to federal court for tougher penalties, and Project Safe Neighborhoods, designed to better coordinate federal resources and local intelligence on crime.

       One of the key missions of the federal anti-violence effort is also to be more aggressive in going after straw purchasers, people who make legal purchases of guns on behalf of criminals. Such rogue purchases can potentially be made under the noses of licensed firearms dealers, even in Illinois where the gun laws are considerably stricter than Indiana and Wisconsin.

       Garland’s visit comes as Chicago police Superintendent David Brown on Monday announced a separate strategy to expand the department’s own firearm investigation efforts.

       The Police Department announced that a dedicated 50-person unit, which started work last weekend and consists of already existing teams of cops, will go after illegal gun traffickers, including straw purchasers.

       The department will also focus on people who have guns even though their state-issued firearm owner’s identification cards have been revoked, Brown said. He said his new effort, first organized in the spring, will “complement” the federal gun-trafficking strike forces.

       Brown is facing pressure from aldermen and other critics of the Police Department who want a quick reduction in shootings and homicides that have crippled parts of the city this year.

       Homicides were down 3% over 2020 with 410 homicides, statistics show, 11 fewer than last year. But shootings — incidents where at least one person was shot fatally or nonfatally — were up 9% over last year and 60% over 2019, according to official CPD statistics through Tuesday.

       Attorney General Merrick Garland to visit Chicago to support federal effort to combat gun violence

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