Philadelphia Mayor: Gun Violence Makes Me Look Forward to Leaving Office

Jim Kenney, Mayor of Philadelphia speaks during Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 25, 2016. (Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

By    |   Tuesday, 05 July 2022 09:23 AM EDT ET

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said gun violence had made him yearn to be out of office.

Kenny spoke with media members Monday night after two city police officers were shot during Philadelphia's Fourth of July fireworks.

Earlier in the day, six people were killed and at least 30 were wounded in a shooting during an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago.

"I'm concerned every single day," Kenny said while addressing the gun violence, ABC 6 reported. "There's not an event or a day where I don't lay on my back and look at the ceiling and worry about stuff.

"Everything we have in the city over the last seven years, I worry about. I don't enjoy Fourth of July, I don't enjoy the Democratic National Convention, I didn't enjoy the NFL Draft. I'm waiting for something bad to happen all the time. I'll be happy when I'm not here, when I'm not mayor, and I can enjoy some stuff."

Kenney spoke with reporters after two police officers on security detail were wounded during a shooting at Fourth of July festivities. ABC 6 sources said they believed the gunfire erupted from a location in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

"We live in America, and we have the Second Amendment, and we have the Supreme Court of the United States telling everybody they can carry a gun wherever they want – it's like Dodge City," Kenney said.

"We have to come to grips with what this country is about right now."

Kenney was asked whether there was something he could do to reduce the threat of gun violence.

"If I had the ability to take care of guns, I would — but the legislature won't let us, the U.S. Congress won't let us," Kenney said. "The governor does the best that he can. Our attorney general does the best he can. But this is a gun country. It's crazy.

"We're the most-armed country in world history, and we're one of the least safest."

Kenney, 63, was reelected in 2019 and his term will expire in 2024.

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Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said gun violence had made him yearn to be out of office.
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Tuesday, 05 July 2022 09:23 AM
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