Chicago Years Inform Ed. Secretary's Views on Gun Violence

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan attends a wake for Dawn Hochsprung, the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn. She was one of the six staff members shot to death at the school last month.

—Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty

By Michele McNeil

As U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan works with other Obama administration officials on policy responses to the shootings at a Connecticut elementary school, he brings a personal and professional history that has acquainted him with the impact of gun violence.

As schools chief in Chicago from 2001 to 2008, he was affected by the gun deaths of a 10-year-old on the eve of her first day of 4th grade, a 16-year-old boy shot in a city bus on his way home from school, and an 18-year-old honor student killed outside his high school, among others. And growing up, he was surrounded by violence on Chicago's South Side.

Those experiences have helped turn Mr. Duncan into an outspoken advocate of gun control who has drawn sharp criticism from the National Rifle Association. He's now among those tasked by President Barack Obama with crafting and selling a package of legislative and executive actions in the wake of the shootings that killed 20 children and six staff members at...