New York Times article reformatting

In the below story, I would implenent the followings graphics:

Bar graph of the homicide rates of the 10 biggest U.S. cities (would illustrate high homicide rate of Philadelphia in respect to other major cities)

A link to the survey by the Police Executive Research Forum (in the fourth graph)

A poll question: Do you believe the rising homicide rate in Philadelphia could be slowed by stronger gun control laws? (Yes/No)

A link to the gun control bill that failed in the Pennsylvania state Legislature




Philly struggles to cope with increased gun violence

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the New York Times on April 15
PHILADELPHIA, April 14 — In some ways, Karim Williams, Philadelphia’s latest shooting victim, is a typical patient at the trauma unit.

The 27-year-old, who says he was shot while he walking from his girlfriend’s car into a bar, is young, mildly intoxicated and apparently clueless as to why he was shot.

More surprising, doctors here say, is that he is neither seriously injured nor dead, since Philadelphia is in the midst of an epidemic of gun violence that has left the police struggling to preserve public safety and government officials renewing efforts to tighten the state’s gun control laws.

Last year, there were 406 homicides in Philadelphia, most of them by gunshot, the highest number in nine years, according to the Police Department. From 2004 to 2006, the number of homicides in the city rose 22 percent, more than twice as much as the aggregate increase recorded by 56 cities surveyed by the Police Executive Research Forum, a national law enforcement group.

This year, the pace of the killings has worsened; as of Friday the death toll stood at 110, or 16 percent higher than at the same time last year. By comparison, in New York City, with six times the population, there were 102 homicides from Jan. 1 to April 8, a drop of almost 24.4 percent from the same period a year ago.

Some 18 percent of the gun wounds treated at the University of Pennsylvania hospital were fatal, and 16 percent of the victims will suffer permanent disabilities.

Gun violence is becoming so common in some parts of the city that many people are no longer shocked by it, said Dr. Bill Schwab, chief of trauma and surgical critical care at the hospital.

“Are people becoming numb to violence? The answer is yes,” Dr. Schwab said. “It’s very common for them to be sitting on their porch and to hear gunshots in the night.”

What sets Philadelphia apart from other cities, say the police, politicians and academic experts, is the combination of high poverty, an increasingly violent youth culture and the easy availability of guns.

Pennsylvania’s cities are forbidden by state law from making their own gun laws, and so must conform to the political will of a largely rural state that, according to the National Rifle Association, has around a quarter of a million gun owners.

A bill to limit the ease of gun purchases was rejected by the Pennsylvania State Legislature last year.

For Karim Williams, the explanation for Philadelphia’s carnage is a lack of jobs.

“You’ve got to have jobs for the people that need them,” he said from his gurney. “You have to keep people occupied. Without jobs, all you can do is resort to violence.”