(Image Source: Inquisitr ) BY KERRY LEARY ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN A 15-year-old Chicago girl was shot dead Tuesday after school, a little more than a week after performing at President Obama’s inauguration with classmates. REPORTER: “ 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was a volleyball player and a major resident recently involved in inauguration festivities in Washington.” FRIEND: “All the time, you'd see her walking down the hallway cheering everybody on.” FRIEND: “There's a pain going through the whole school right now.” “ 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton is being remembered as a bubbly teenager with her whole life ahead of her. students this morning return to school with their eyes full of tears. ” Pendleton was hanging out with friends after school, taking shelter from rain under a canopy in a park when a man open fired on them. She was shot in the back and was pronounced dead at the hospital. The Washington Post says there have been more than 118 shooting incidents in President Obama’s hometown Chicago this year. “ … the shooting hits home at a time when he is pushing Congress to enact stricter gun laws that he says would curb not only mass shootings but also everyday gun violence in cities such as his hometown of Chicago.” And the president isn’t the only politician speaking out. Pendleton’s story surfaced during the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing Wednesday when Illinois Senator Dick Durbin spoke out about the ongoing gun violence in Chicago. “We have guns everywhere. And some believe the solution to this is more guns. I disagree.” Gabby Giffords, who was seriously injured in 2011’s mass shooting in Tucson, also spoke at the Senate Judiciary Hearing Wednesday , noting something should be done about gun violence in the United States. “Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children.” But Politico reports, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre responded to the outcry for gun bans in the United States, noting... “We’ve got to get in the real world with this discussion … I sit here and listen to it, and my reaction is how little it has to do with the problem of keeping our kids safe and how much it has to do with the decadelong … gun-ban agenda when we don’t even enforce the law on the books.” The gunman got away in a car after killing Pendleton Tuesday and the investigation is ongoing. Authorities say Pendleton was not in a gang and was not the intended target of the open fire. There have been 42 homicides in Chicago in January 2013 - making it the bloodiest January since 2002.