In the weeks since the Washington Navy Yard shooting, the city of New Orleans reached a tragic milestone.
All told, 108 people have been murdered in the Crescent City so far this year. In September two black girls, one 11 years old and the other age 2, were shot and killed. And earlier this year a national organization advocating for stricter gun control told the story of a black 10-year-old New Orleans boy who has been shot and seriously injured twice in his short life.
Although the national spotlight has remained fixed on mass shootings in Washington; Newtown, Conn.; and Aurora, Colo., as well as the gun violence coming out of Chicago, street crime and “ordinary” shootings that take one or two lives at a time are still disfiguring communities and putting black children and teens in particular peril. For black America the national gun debate is not about the shocking, but still relatively rare, mass shootings or the political gamesmanship that draws attention to the violence consuming President Barack Obama’s adopted hometown. Cities riddled with gun violence, such as New Orleans, are also located in states with some of the nation’s weakest gun laws. Those laws are costing children, particularly black children, their lives, gun control advocates say.
Across the country in 2012, gun violence was the second-leading cause of death for American children ages 7 to 19, according to a July report released by the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). But it constituted the No. 1 cause of death for black children and teens.
Between 1963 and 2010, nearly 60,000 black children and teenagers have been killed by guns. That means more than 17 times the number of black children have been killed by guns than the total number of black Americans lynched between 1862 and 1968, according to Caroline Fichtenberg, director of research at the CDF.
A growing group of gun control advocates say that in cities and states where gun laws make guns easier to buy, legal to carry and easy to sell without a background check are places where gun violence and homicides happen more frequently. In fact, the 10 states with the weakest gun laws collectively suffer gun violence at a rate twice as high as that of the 10 states with the nation’s strongest gun laws, according to an April analysis by the left-leaning Center for American Progress in Washington.
In 2012 Chicago’s gun violence helped produce a murder rate of 18.7 deaths per 100,000 Windy City residents, according to federal data. But other communities grew far more violent. In New Orleans, for example, the murder rate reached 53.5 per 100,000.
Then the problem is not guns. It's a cultural problem within the community in question. But drawing attention to that isn't allowed.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mikeb, et al., before you start whining about racism, this isn't a bunch of Klansmen going into black neighborhoods and shooting children. It's violence within the community. How about working to solve that, instead of going after people who did nothing wrong?
"In fact, the 10 states with the weakest gun laws collectively suffer gun violence at a rate twice as high as that of the 10 states with the nation’s strongest gun laws"
DeleteBut it's not guns?
Don't bother anon; these lying fuck head hillbillies don't accept facts, or reality. They just lie to make themselves feel better. The facts prove them wrong, so of course, a lie is the only way out. Bust their delusion and they will go postal.
Delete"gun violence", but not all violent crime, and not murder either. The difference that drives that stat is that where people own guns, you have a lot more people committing suicide with a gun.
DeleteAnonymous, taking twenty states out of the fifty doesn't make sense. Look at all fifty states. There is no correlation between gun laws and rates of violence. The quotation that you gave is wrong on the facts.
DeleteArte you just going to spout that shit you lying fuck head hillbilly, or do you have some lying fuck head facts to back up your shit?
DeleteThe problem isn't merely limited to the Second Amendment. America, relishing in it's military omnipotence, has such a powerful world presence that it fails to realize that the real enemy is within. There have been so many restriction that have been erroneously placed on State interests that the current system has created a State grossly incapable of defending the most fundamental human right of life, which is bequeathed upon the individual by the collective State for the purpose of serving your leaders.
DeleteThe United States Constitution implicitly prohibits all Federal action, and then proceeds to establish exceptions (commonly known as "Enumerated Powers") to enable the Federal Government to carry out limited duties which exceed the authority of the individual State. The power of the States which comprise the union, are limited by the (typically negative) "rights" found in their native constitutions, or more recently, the provisions of the Federal Constitution which have been deemed to apply to such.
The current system illustrates the backwards notion that individuals (as opposed to the collective State) are (somehow) endowed with "rights" (such as the right to hate, the right to evade law enforcement, the right to own killing machines, and the like) and that, upon the formation of a collective society, and a State to rule over such, subjects grant necessary power to the State in order for such to fulfill specific duties.
Such a concept is ridiculous, in addition to being inherently dangerous, as the common subject has no rights in a civilized society. When a government is formed, all rights previously retained by individuals are collectivized, and left to the discretion of the State.
We need to rethink our concept of "crime" before such "crime" consumes us all. Therefore the role of the State's legal codes ought to be re-evaluated to allow certain actions, as opposed to prohibiting certain actions.
Government ought to tell the people what they can lawfully do, instead of what they can't.
The quotation was for "gun violence", not violence in general. It could be right Ob the facts, but misleading people into believing guns affect crime overall (or murder rates overall).
DeleteThere are many initiatives underway to address the problems of inner cities. Meanwhile, it's imperative that we do something about the gun availability. Loose gun laws ensure a steady flow of guns from lawful ownership to the criminals.
DeleteThe gun-rights fanatics and liars, like Greg, pretend it's one or the other. They keep saying we need to do something about the cultural problems, as if we're not already, and according to them, we should leave the poor guns alone. In other words, they're happy with the gun flow into the black market, which means Jim is absolutely right. They celebrate death all because they're so self-centered that they don't give a fuck about gun violence as long as their precious gun rights are not harmed in any way however slight.
No, Mikeb, what I say is that one approach has real promise of working and doesn't meddle in the business of good citizens, while the other would violate our rights without offering any good in return.
Delete"while the other would violate our rights without offering any good in return"
DeleteOf course the lying fuck head hillbilly lies. "The other" as the lying fuck head hillbilly puts is; are gun control efforts that have proven to work, throughout American history. As long as the lying fuck head hillbillies deny efforts that have been proven to work, then they deny reality and proven facts; and instead accept needless death. Like a good little lying fuck head hillbilly.
Wow, Mike! Throwing in with Jim, eh?
DeleteWas it because Jade had almost as much class as Diogenes and that was too pretentious for you?
It's just that reasonable people immediately spot a lying fuck head hillbilly idiot racist You can't see it, because you are a lying fuck head idiot racist hillbilly.
DeleteJim, I've asked you several times to lighten the fuck up. Are you ignoring my requests? I've had enough now, so stop with the repetitious and obnoxious bullshit. You've made your point. From now on you can make it in a more civil manner.
DeleteThe people demand justice, the lion demands food. We need a scapegoat.........
ReplyDeletePUNISH THE GUN OWNERS!
They are dirty, dirty I say, and they must be punished!
Requiring that gun owners be responsible is not the same as punishing them.
DeleteWhich is worse, the raging trolls or the insane trolls?
ReplyDeleteWhich one do you fancy yourself as?
Delete