By Scott Stenholm - Editorial Producer, Larry King Now
As the latest mass shooting - this time in San Bernardino, California - dominates the current news cycle (and the national conversation), the legendary director talks about the origion of the term 'Chi-raq' and explains why the south side of Chicago is dealing with an unrelenting amount of gun violence.
"Chi-Raq is a term that was invented by local Chicago rappers, combining Chicago and Iraq into Chi-Raq... Right now Iraq is safer than the south side of Chicago. We started filming this movie June 1st. That was the first day of filming, July 9th was the last day. During that time, 331 people got wounded and shot. Sixty-five people got murdered. From June 1st to July 9th... it has escalated since then", says Lee.
Later on in the interview, Lee responds to the question posed by some as to why Chicago has such consistent gun violence while maintaining some of the country's strictest gun laws. He notes that many of the guns infiltrating the city come from nearby Indiana where gun laws are far more lax, saying, "They go to Indiana; you can be in Chicago and in thirty minutes be in Indiana. In Indiana, people with fake IDs, they go to these gun shops and gun shows and walk out with assault weapons."
The 'Chi-raq' director explains why he says Iraq is now safer than the south side of Chicago.
Watch the full interview with Spike below:
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