"IT IS easier to buy a gun or drugs here than food," says Marcenia Richards, the executive director of the Peace Coalition Against Violence. Her group, part of the church of Saint Sabina, is trying to halt the tide of murder that is ravaging what is left of the community of Englewood, a rundown district of Chicago. Outside her church is a wall with the names of almost 100 children and young adults. A sign says: "We are not forgotten."

Killings like these are now less likely to be ignored, in large part because of the revulsion caused by the killing of 20 children at a Connecticut school in December. The death of a Chicago teenager, Hadiya Pendleton, who had recently performed in Barack Obama's inauguration parade, got much attention. So did the agony of Shirley Chambers, who lost the last of her four children to gun violence in January.

In tune with the national mood, the local mayor, Rahm Emanuel, well-known for his anti-gun views before his arrival in 2011, has become much more outspoken. He has begun to sever the city's ties with companies that manufacture or sell assault weapons, and he is urging banks and mutual funds to cut off companies that stand in the way of reforms to gun laws.

Yet gun-rights advocates counter that Chicago already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, with little to show for it. The city of Chicago has no gun shops, banned handguns entirely until 2010 (when the ban was struck down by the Supreme Court), and now requires owners to register their guns with the police. Yet it is a trivial matter to drive the short distance to the city limits and buy a gun at one of the many shops conveniently sited there.

Evidence suggests that this is just what many people do. Gun seizures by the Chicago Police Department have been analysed by the University of Chicago. From the start of 2008 to the end of March 2012, 42% of the guns came from within the state—mostly from Cook County, in which Chicago sits. Of the 1,375 recovered guns involved in a crime within a year of purchase, 19.5% came from a single Cook County shop.

Over the past 20 years shootings have fallen by half, but 2012 saw an uptick in violence. There were a total of 506 killings, 16% more than in 2011. Detroit also reported a sharp rise in murders last year, to the highest level since 1992. Both cities were hit hard by the recession.

The issue of gun control is becoming politically charged. Debbie Halvorson, an ex-congresswoman and Democrat, is a strong contender to win the congressional seat vacated last year by Jesse Jackson junior, but her "A" rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA) is causing much comment. The district represents many black neighbourhoods in the south of Chicago that are troubled by violence.

Tom Vanden Berk, chairman of Brady PAC of Illinois, an anti-gun group, notes that Ms Halvorson's NRA rating has become a liability, something that would not have happened in the past. His group spent over $60,000 last year supporting anti-gun state senators and representatives. Countering the political clout of the NRA, rather than staging peace marches, is the only tactic he believes will work in the long term. But back on the streets of Englewood the battles still rage.