Chicago is facing an illegal gun control problem and authorities seem to have no idea where the guns are coming from.

Al Jazeera reported that last year, police in Chicago seized about 7,000 guns -- a number that is higher than the combined numbers of New York and Los Angeles. In addition, the number of deaths from those guns, especially of teenagers in neighborhoods known for gang activity, continues to increase.

One woman who lost her child told Al Jazeera that there is hardly ever time to mourn one's loss because by the next day it is someone else's child.

Because of the lack of paper trails in the illegal gun business, authorities have had to find alternate routes to tracking culprits down. They are able to trace a gun back to its first retail purchase, and have developed a way of tracing other information at the city's Gun Intelligence Center.

Many of the guns appear to be coming in from the neighboring state of Indiana.

The private sellers will often be at gun shows and fairs and will allow the sale of the item without paperwork. In the state of Indiana, only a resident can purchase a gun locally, so the sellers will encourage the buyers to transfer the purchase by writing a bill of sale.

But authorities are using new techniques to trace the illegal gun uses by studying the social circles and crimes in which they appear.

The Gun Intelligence Center opened in May but has already been able to find several cases to recommend for federal prosecution. They use a combination of data, including government informants, to find the sellers.

One woman has taken it upon herself to raise awareness. She has placed bricks as a sort of memorial for every life lost, which includes the name, date of death and age of the late person. Hundreds of these bricks now exist, but she said the real key to a decrease in violence is stopping illegal guns from getting into the city by changing laws to address the issue.

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