The Rev. Jesse Jackson pledged to march this weekend on behalf of the Windy City teenager who was shot and killed, days after performing at an event for President Barack Obama’s Inauguration. 
 
 Jackson said the march would feature his Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the Rev. Al Sharpton, among others. He added that there are a number of factors that drive gun violence beyond gun laws, which are stringent in Chicago. 
 
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 “It’s not just about gun laws; it’s about gun flow and drug flow and job flow,” Jackson said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “We know where they’re manufactured. And you cannot stop them. Rahm [Emanuel] is doing a tremendous job, I think, trying to maneuver … But he’s in this box, guns coming in. And when the plants close and the jobs leave, so poverty and drugs and guns and race are factors.” 
 
 Jackson was responding to a question about why Chicago has already seen more than 40 murders in 2013 despite tough gun restrictions. He noted that guns come into Chicago from outside city limits, where gun laws are more lax. 
 
 The reverend’s comments come several days after 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed about a mile from Obama’s Chicago home. A week earlier, she had participated in inaugural events with her high school band and came to the president’s Inauguration, news reports said. 
 
 “It’s a terrible tragedy anytime a young person is struck down,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said at a press briefing on Wednesday. He added, “The president and first lady’s thoughts are with the family.” 
 
 Jackson said that the coalition of social justice activists plans to march on Saturday to the spot where she was killed. ||||| Hadiya Pendleton, a Chicago teenager, was shot on Tuesday by a bullet police believe was intended for someone else. Gun violence in Chicago appears to be on the rise. In the meantime, legislators discussed gun laws in Washington on Wednesday. 
 
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 This undated family photo shows 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton of Chicago. Pendleton was shot and killed Tuesday by a gunman who apparently was not even aiming at her. Pendleton is the latest face on the ever-increasing homicide toll in the president's hometown. 
 
 A 15-year-old Chicago girl who performed at President Barack Obama's inauguration last week was shot to death in a city park in what police think was a case of "mistaken identity" related to a gang turf war. 
 
 "Mistaken identity -- wrong place at the wrong time," Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said at a press conference on Wednesday, a day after the shooting that killed Hadiya Pendleton and injured another teen. The press conference was broadcast by CLTV. 
 
 McCarthy said police have been interviewing witnesses who were standing near Pendleton in a park on the city's South Side. He said police were making progress in the investigation. 
 
 "I don't want this to be a three-week or a three-month investigation," said McCarthy, who was in Washington earlier this week addressing gun control. "I want this closed now ... I want that kid off the street," he said, referring to the killer. Police believe a handgun was used. 
 
 Pendleton, a sophomore at Martin Luther King Jr. College Prep, had performed at the inauguration with her school band, according to local media reports. News of her death near Obama's old home in the Kenwood neighborhood came before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on gun control on Wednesday. 
 
 Gun violence in Chicago has been in the national spotlight over the past year, with 506 murders in 2012, an increase of 17 percent over the previous year. So far in January, there have been 42 homicides and 157 shootings, according to Chicago police. 
 
 Obama spokesman Jay Carney was asked about Pendleton's death Wednesday. He said the prayers of the president and the first lady were with the girl's family. 
 
 "The president has more than once, when he talks about gun violence in American, referred not just to the horror of Newtown or Aurora or Virginia Tech or Oak Creek, but to shootings on the corner in Chicago and other parts of the country," said Carney. "And this is just another example of the problem that we need to deal with." 
 
 McCarthy said that an $11,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the capture of Pendleton's killer. 
 
 Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, shot in the head in a 2011 mass shooting, made an emotional plea before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for action to curb U.S. gun violence, but a National Rifle Association executive said new gun laws have failed in the past and would fail again. 
 
 Giffords opened testimony at the first congressional hearing on gun violence since the Dec. 14 massacre in which a gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. 
 
 Responding to outrage across the country following that incident, Obama and other Democrats have asked Congress to pass the largest package of gun restrictions in decades. 
 
 Speaking at the news conference in Chicago, Father Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest known for his activism against gun violence, compared the Chicago shootings to Newtown. 
 
 "This is Sandy Hook. This is Connecticut. This is Newtown, right here. We have to be just as outraged," Pfleger said. 
 
 (Reporting By Mary Wisniewski; additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Roberta Rampton and Renita D. Young; Editing by Greg McCune and Leslie Adler)
– Jesse Jackson is organizing a march this weekend in remembrance of Hadiya Pendleton, the Chicago teen who was killed just days after performing with her school band at President Obama's inauguration. Chicago already has some of the nation's strictest gun laws, but Jackson says he's hoping to inspire action on other factors that lead to gang violence. "It's not just about gun laws," he said on MSNBC. "It's about gun flow and drug flow and job flow." Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition will participate in the march, as will Rev. Al Sharpton, Politico reports. Hadiya's shooting is believed to be gang-related, but police say neither the 15-year-old nor anyone she was with had gang ties. Indeed, in sixth grade she even recorded an anti-gang PSA, the Chicago Tribune reports. It's heartbreaking to watch now: "So many children in the world have died from gang violence," another girl in the video tells the camera. "More than 500 children have died from being in the wrong place at the wrong time."