tonight on "nightline," an american war zone. in cities all across this nation, killing fields hidden in plain sight. among the casualties, a 7-year-old, gunned down selling candy. and a 6-year-old, sitting on the porch with her mother. we take you inside a hidden america. to chicago, where we meet children, afraid to leave their houses. and the young gang members caught up in a brutal battle. >> you got to be smart out here because you will be gone. off this earth. i i might not even make it today. >> and, an unprecedented event, as we bring 38 gang members together to sit down and talk with their rivals. and with the courageous mothers and children begging them to stop. >> don't shoot -- >> don't shoot --

>> don't shoot, i want to grow up. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, bill weir, and tonight, cynthia mcfadden with diane sawyer in new york city, this is a special edition of "nightline," october 19th, 2012. >> good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. tonight, my colleague and "world news" anchor, diane sawyer, joins us with the latest in on ongoing abc news series, hidden america. this one, from the streets of chicago. diane, the powerful report we're about to see really takes us inside what can only be described as a hidden american war zone. >> it is true, but we want to say at the outset, as we know, chicago is simply a great city, filled with wonderful people. but as we're going to show you, there are some areas, where small children really do live, as we said, in a kind of battle zone. so, listen to this number. at least 419 people were killed this year, across a dozen neighborhoods in chicago, and that is more than all the u.s. troops killed in afghanistan

this year. the cause? rival gangs, creating anarchy. and, so, "nightline" and "world news" decided to try something different, something unprecedented. we gathered 38 members of rival gangs, past and present, from hispanics to their black rivals, to talk about the slaughter and how to make it stop. tonight, in america, tens of thousands of children are living in a war zone. one of them is a little boy named ralph. hey, ralph, it's diane. >> ralph is a force of nature. >> that's it. >> reporter: he is also a child who pulled down the blinds in case someone shooting into his living room. >> i really don't go outside. just scared, always they going to shoot me or stab me. >> reporter: he hears gunshots day and night. >> you see the alley? gang bangers running and shooting. >> reporter: it was a gunshot that killed his grandmother, who was just standing outdoors.

>> that's my grandma. >> reporter: and it says, "rest in peace," for your grandma. >> we used to eat watermelon a lot and we used to eat noodles a lot. every time she was going to fix me something, we used to share it. and i loved that. >> reporter: so, ralph has a plan to keep his mother safe. on the front door, a gate. a padlock. bolt. on the back door, bolt, a bike in front of the door, a trash can wedged against that and a chair against the trash can. inside his fortress, he says, some day, he plans to be a super hero named ralph. >> and i'm going to change this city into a new city. by taking all the guns out of the city. >> reporter: like the guns that killed 10-year-old julian's big brother, manny. >> my brother was shot and killed halloween night at a gas station when we went to get a can of coke. >> reporter: your brother was paralyzed?

>> yes. >> reporter: did you go to see him? >> yeah, a couple of times. but my brother, he wasn't healing up right, so, it was a really tough decision for my parents to make, but they decided to let him pass. >> reporter: did they talk to you about it? >> i remember the day in the hospital, i told my mom, man, i can't wait until manny can come home. my mom said, manny isn't coming home. so, i just wanted to make sure that he knows, i love you, manny. >> reporter: they are children growing up in neighborhoods where haunted mothers walk the street, carrying pictures of lost daughters and sons. >> i keep telling them to stop, they just don't want to stop. they not listening. >> where is that coming from? >> reporter: where police is stretched thin. city officials, enraged. >> take your gang complex away from a 7-year-old. who raised you? >> reporter: the city is up against 100,000 gang members, young, angry, leaderless, some just 13 years old and carrying a gun. so, we send out word we want to try something different, with the anti-violence group

ceasefire, we ask to hold a meeting. would they come together, would they show up? one by one, they agree to come. gang members, some in the past, most in the present. they're told to get rid of their weapons. >> no box cutters, no knives. >> reporter: some of them are seasoned criminals, nearly 90% have been arrested on everything from drug dealing to attempted murder. one, arrested 50 times. he's a member of the hispanic gang two-six. he's called pacman. his friend is puppet. >> i enjoy fighting. >> reporter: there was mr. blast, from the four corner hustlers. >> i used to go through shootout, get into altercation with police. >> reporter: jessica, a black disciple, and dre. it is decembusk when 38 of them to this church on the south side, and is headed by an 'em passioned priest. >> at the end of the day, we stop the shooting, i'm the happiest man in the world. >> reporter: and the head of

ceasefire illinois makes it clear, this is an unprecedented event. >> we had guys from the south side, west side and the latino community. >> reporter: people who might be shot if they invade each other's territory, walk in and sit down. thank you. we know they are suspicious of us and each other. we tell them our purpose. find one concrete action, that night, that can help stop the violence. there, too, my abc news colleague, alex perez, who grew up in these neighborhoods. and so, the meeting begins. we pose the question -- can it be that there's no way to do something? >> it's so deep. i don't think anything really can. >> it's all nothing, really. >> reporter: right away, one by one, they start to tell us, we don't understand, how they are caught up in a vortex of increasing violence. >> never going to stop, because it keeps growing like a disease. >> people are not just shooting to shoot. they shooting, they try to kill you. >> reporter: and kill you over something as petty as an insult, a text. >> revenge.

people do something to one of your friends, you want to do something back. >> everybody want to be famous and everybody want to get they name out there and stuff. >> reporter: and the biggest name out there is a 17-year-old rapper named chief keef, who is signed by a major record label, interscope. but police say they arrested him for picking a gun on an officer. his youtube video has received 17 million hits. on it, he reminds people they better not talk to the cops. ♪ i will never snitch ♪ none in my life >> reporter: and remember, he's talking to kids who say they can get guns as easy as a bag of chips. >> how many here think they believe that they could be a, that voice, to try to put somebody in check, say, man, you don't want to do that. >> reporter: but not everybody does. >> if you are going to go shoot somebody and i step in your way and you real heated, like, you want to shoot them, you probably going to shoot me to get out your way so you can get to the next man. >> what would happen if you waited an hour? >> it could be your last hour.

you ain't got time to think. >> you going to be the prey or the predator. >> what? >> the prey or the predator. which one are you going to be? >> reporter: and when we come back, we take you inside some of their lives outside this room. >> help us. help us try to be better. >> reporter: the impassioned into the night. >> we don't need diane to come up in here and say for us what we need to do as a people. >> reporter: and we show you what happened the night after this meeting with this man, called pacman, when he is shot six times. [old english accent] i doth declare that thou have brought overmany discounts to thine customers! [old english accent] safe driver, multi-car, paid in full -- a most fulsome bounty indeed, lord jamie. thou cometh and we thy saveth! what are you doing? we doth offer so many discounts, we have some to spare. oh, you have any of those homeowners discounts? here we go. thank you. he took my shield, my lady. these are troubling times in the kingdom. more discounts than we knoweth what to do with.

now that's progressive.

day and night, in chicago, you can see them on the street corners, mostly young men, patrolling their territory. >> that's a little north of us.

>> reporter: late, on a friday night, we're with ameena, the daughter of a notorious gang lord who has now become an anti-violence advocate. she shows me every ordinary place on this corner is a kind of mortuary. there have been 18 murders in this neighborhood in the past year. and as we said, in these houses, all around, children who just want to grow up but live in fear. >> i'm scared. >> i like to be the president. >> i want to be a police officer. >> i want to be a doctor. >> reporter: and no child ever said their dream was a future lost inside a gang. puppet, from our town hall meeting, said he wanted to be a paramedic, but joined at the age of 13. >> i didn't have a father, really, at home. my mom was always working. >> reporter: he's been stabbed in the head, shot seven times. doctors once declared him dead. >> this is my family. might not mean a lot to you because you don't know where i'm coming from or to other people but someone who lives the life i

live, it means a lot to you. then walk over here to the living room. >> reporter: he takes us on a tour of the trap, gang headquarters. >> some people don't have the nowhere to go, so, this is the only place for them to go when it's cold outside. you can look right here, it says sex room. obviously, either for sleeping or for bringing women right here. >> reporter: in another part of town, jessica, a member of the black disciples, tells us she's attending church, trying to start community college. her father was in a gang, her brother, best friend was killed after school two years ago. >> i wish that it was against the law to have a gun in the city of chicago. >> reporter: and then, there's dre. >> the reason i joined the gang, because i felt no love in the crib, i didn't feel like nobody paid attention to me, so i joined the gang to make my name well known and do something,

just -- make my name known somewhere. >> reporter: dre says he's trying to be like a dad to his younger siblings and protect them. >> you have to be smart out here. you got to keep your eyes peeled out here. because you will be gone off this earth. quick. in a hurry. anybody can shoot me down today. i might not even make it today. i can do anything. i can draw, i can cook, i can fix things. i'm good with playing video games, i'm good just doing anything. >> reporter: and dre says it's a kind of hell, for victims and their victimizers. >> this don't make me happy. you think i want to stand on the corner and sell drugs to other black folks who destroy my community for some petty ass money? help us. help us try to be better. give us opportunities to do things what we good at. give us something to do that's positive. >> reporter: back in the room, the mood is shifting.

they argue about whether having a job could have made a difference. >> nobody has a job out here. all these kids sitting out here on the streets. >> you go to suburb areas, you have a lot of people putting their kids in, football, baseball, making sure their time is occupied. >> reporter: what did you dream of being when you were 1 ye2 ye old? >> a lawyer. because of the life i chose, i had one, not being one. >> reporter: at one point, the man known as mr. blast, whose arrest record includes attempted murder says, he's giving ceasefire a try. >> everybody up in here got talent. you can put these guns down and let's go with what we got. let's go with our talent. >> you think it's going to be real easy to put down the gun? >> raised to be a man. time for you to step out and show you a man. >> reporter: man enough not to shoot bystanders, including children. they agree, it is now. >> just crazy. >> if you in the way, it's just

like, oh well. it is what it is. >> our generation is, like, messed up. and every day i walk out of my house going to school, i'm in fear of what could happen to me, not knowing if i'm going to make it back home or not. that eat up my soul every day. >> reporter: and the night after our meeting, this man, pacman, encounters rival gang members who shoot him six times. yet pacman says he has a very different hope for his son. >> hopefully my son is going to be the president. you know? got to keep your head up. that's it. keep your head up. >> reporter: when we return, if you think it seems without hope in these neighborhoods, see what happens when ralph and julian and grieving mothers and community leaders enter this room. >> we're going to talk about how peaceful we're going to make the neighborhood.

they don't know it yet, but they're gonna fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some retirement people who are paid on salary, not commission. they'll get straightforward guidance and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

♪ a week after our summit, father mike launches an audacious idea. a basketball tournament for peace. members of enemy gangs from rival neighborhoods come into the church's gym. they take on each other, competing on the basketball court. nba stars joe kim noah, taj gibson are there. >> it's a blessing to be here. >> reporter: so is the legendary isiah thomas who grew up in these neighborhoods. >> this is the nba championship for the neighborhood. >> reporter: and, from our summit, there's dre, there's mr. blast. >> no question, people here shot at each other, that have tried to kill each other. but today, just love for each other. >> reporter: and when it's

over -- >> we played ball today. we did something that was better. we did something different. we changed it. >> reporter: it may seem like a small victory -- this where you agr grew up -- but these neighborhoods are filled with brave people struggling to secure small ideas. mothers, creating safe houses. fathers starting mentoring programs. derek brown is a former gang leader for the vice lords, nicknamed shotgun, who nows runs the boxing league for kids. kids as vulnerable to gang pressure as he was. >> i'm willing to die in order for these young minds and these young kids to live. >> reporter: you think i'm ready for the big leagues? back inside the church, 100 people, members of the community, have joined our group. only a few of the kids from earlier agreed to stay and listen. fell lisa davis, the head of chicago's office of public engageme engagement, says it has to start with getting control of the

guns. you're calling on all parents -- >> take the guns out of their homes. >> you can say that you're not going to take every gun out of everybody house and think that's going to fix something. no. go behind a couple bushes, i bet there's some guns under there. >> reporter: the grieving mothers stood up to tell the story of their children. >> i want justice for my son. >> reporter: and though police have promised to add more than 500 additional officers, this mother says it's not enough. >> 70% of the cases are unsolved. six years later. that means a murderer is still on the street. >> reporter: some offered jobs, training. a program director. >> we're going to be offers internships for young adults. >> if you want to change your life, then come and get a trade. >> reporter: and as it was getting late. >> i love you and i always love you, you know you my girl, but the bottom line is, we don't need diane to come up in here and say for us what we need to

do as a people. we don't need anybody to solve our own problems but us. >> reporter: isiah thomas also shows up, reminding everyone that with so many good people trying, caring, there has to be hope. >> 95% of the people in our communities are good, decent, hard-working people that send they kids to school to be educated. >> reporter: and tonight, father mike ittells us, since that one basketball tournament, 20 kids have signed up for job internships. and there have been no homicides in his neighborhood. and also, at our meeting, ralph was watching, hoping. so was julian, so was desiree. and so was a little boy named christian, whose poem was the last word. >> i want to go outside and play, but i can't. not because i have no friends, it's because of the violence.

it seems it never ends. >> and we are so grateful to the people who helped us organize this event and to those in the community who attended. and, a note about the police in chicago and the city. they tell us they are trying something different, focusing police action now, not on place, but on the shooters, the people who are the repeat offenders. and they say, already, it is producing a nearly 40% reduction in crime in some neighborhoods. but i am so struck, cynthia, in this case, it's so deep, so entrench and we are hoping everyone at home watching will come forward with your own great ideas for all the people in chicago, in that community, who want to take a chance on change. >> thank you, diane, for this important story. and thank you for watching abc news. "good morning america" will be waiting for you in the morning. have a great weekend. good night, america.