Aamer Madhani

USA TODAY

CHICAGO — After the city's most violent month in over 20 years, civil rights and community leaders in Chicago are grappling to find answers — and even looking to President Obama for help — to stem the bloodshed in the nation's third largest city.

The grim death toll of 92 murders in August marks a low point in what has been a difficult year for the nation’s third largest city. Already, the city has recorded 474 murders — about 47% more killings than Chicago tallied at the same point last year and more murders than New York and Los Angeles combined.

It's the most murders Chicago has recorded in a single month since June 1993, when the city tallied 99 murders, according to police department data. Back then, the city was grappling with gang warfare in the midst of the crack-cocaine epidemic, and the city recorded 855 murders for the year.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has blamed the recent surge in killings on increased gang activity and gun laws he says are too weak to be an effective deterrent.

"The historical cycle of violence we have seen in some communities must come to an end," Johnson said. "Repeat gun offenders who drive the violence on our streets should not be there in the first place, and it is time to changes the laws to ensure these violent offenders are held accountable for their crimes."

Police note that the increase in gun violence in Chicago is concentrated to about five police districts on the South and West sides of the city. The neighborhoods are predominantly African-American, and suffer from deep levels of poverty.

The vast majority of murder victims and assailants are on the police department’s Strategic Subject List, a predictive roster the department generates by crunching arrest information, gang affiliation, shooting patterns and other data to determine people most likely to be involved in a shooting. The list includes about 1,400 people.

Johnson cited a yet-to-be-published analysis by researchers at the University of Chicago Crime Lab of 2015 murders in the city that found nearly 40% of those arrested last year for homicides had previous arrests for gun crimes.

While Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have spoken out about the need for tougher gun laws to deter habitual offenders, some activists and politicians said the issue won’t be solved until federal, state and local officials create jobs and other opportunities in the most violence-plagued neighborhoods.

Chicago in the midst of most violent month since 1996

Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson on Thursday called on President Obama to convene a summit on urban violence and to come visit his adopted hometown to talk about the issue. Jackson noted that the president has repeatedly visited communities across the USA during his presidency after they have suffered mass shootings to mourn with the victims’ families and talk about the larger issue of gun violence.

“When (49) people were killed in Orlando, it got attention from the president and vice president,” said Jackson, who announced plans to convene a series of town hall meetings in Chicago’s neighborhoods most affected by the violence. “When Sandy Hook happened, there was a visit (from the president). When it happened in Colorado, there was a visit. We can’t get a visit. We need a plan to deal with the causes and cures (of the violence).”

The White House did not immediately respond to Jackson's criticism.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest did weigh in earlier this week on the surge of gun violence in Chicago, suggesting that the news media pays more for attention to mass shootings than the daily scourge of shootings that impacts urban centers like Chicago.

“I’m not suggesting that the media shouldn’t pay attention to those issues, but what gets much less attention are the kind of day-to-day outbursts of gun violence that we see primarily in America’s inner cities, including in a place like Chicago,” Earnest said. “And the president is deeply concerned about addressing some of the root causes of violence in those communities.”

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In addition to the rising homicide toll, the city experienced 384 non-fatal shootings for the month of August. The city has recorded more than 2,300 non-fatal shootings for the year, an increase of more than 48% on the year.

Arrests for illegal possession of guns are up about 5% for the year compared to the same time last year. The police department has also seized nearly 6,000 weapons from the streets of Chicago this year during arrests and voluntary gun turn-ins, an increase of 22%.

The city has seen 28 people under the age of 17 killed since the start of the year. All the victims were black and Latino, said Richard Boykin, a Cook County Commissioner, whose district includes part of the city’s West Side that have been hard hit by the surge in violence.

“We have a state of emergency,” Boykin said. “We have a crisis.”

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said earlier this week that he has weighed deploying National Guard troops to violence plagued Chicago neighborhoods. After consulting with various stakeholders, the Republican governor said he’s concluded it would not be a wise move.

“We’ve talked about it with community leaders,” Rauner said. “We’ve talked with police officers about it. No thoughtful leader thinks that’s a good idea or would really provide a solution. In fact, it may exacerbate other problems.”

Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad