While Gun Violence Continues to Destroy Our Communities, Where’s Our Resolve to End It?

Having just wrapped up its annual convention in Houston, the National Rifle Association has reaffirmed its wisdom in naming me, among hundreds, to its “blacklist” – a designation reserved for gun control advocates. Actually, I belong in a special category because the gun control I propose would be total and absolute. Under my plan, the number of Americans with legal possession of guns would be reduced to a few thousand, if that. The truth is, I despise the guns and, increasingly, the people who defend their accessibility. Not even the “just for hunting” and “just for sport” arguments sway me. As a citizen of the most homicidal country on the planet –- and, not coincidentally, the highest per capita ownership of firearms –- how can I justify the human tragedies as a fair trade-off for the right to stalk game or shoot at targets? No doubt, my blackness has only intensified my resolve. In my community, gun violence is the number-one killer of 15- to 24-year-olds, mainly males. In effect, gun violence is helping wipe out posterity. It’s another strike against the number of free, healthy and hopeful young black males -– half of the equation that makes the future of the black family a win or lose proposition. [more]