<p>Community leaders have been pressuring Chicago mayors for more than a decade to create a <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2026/06/22/local-leaders-advocates-department-of-gun-violence-reduction" >stand-alone city department</a> focusing exclusively on reducing and preventing gun violence, but they now have a champion in Mayor Brandon Johnson.</p><p>Johnson on Tuesday embraced the call after a<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2026/06/22/8-dead-dozens-hurt-including-13-shot-during-juneteenth-party-over-holiday-weekend-in-chicago" > Juneteenth weekend</a> that, as he put it, “should have been a celebration,” and was instead “disrupted by heartbreaking acts of gun violence” that left eight people dead and 40 others wounded.</p><p>That included a mass shooting in the Princeton Park section of Roseland that injured 14 people between the ages 17 and 47. The weekend violence prompted President Donald Trump to post on social media political potshots at Chicago.</p><p>Earlier this week, a coalition of city, county and faith leaders renewed their longstanding call for a city Department of Gun Violence Reduction with an annual budget of $100 million to coordinate the disparate efforts of several city departments.</p><p>Former Mayors Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot resisted similar demands. But Johnson is all for the idea.