Chicago violence traps poor residents

Last year 506 people were killed in US President Obama’s home city of Chicago – that is more Americans than died in Afghanistan during the same period.

Most of the fatalities are young, African-Americans who are trapped in the grinding poverty of Chicago’s gangland – the South and West sides.

Obama plans to visit Chicago to talk about his plan to ban assault weapons. However, the city has some of the strictest gun laws in the US – and one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Al Jazeera’s Jon Hendren reports from Chicago.