Gun Control, A Useless Dialogue About Chicago and Detroit

Gun Control is a useless political conversation, not unless we are talking about controlling the more than 300 million guns already on the streets of America. The gun cow left the barn centuries ago and has vowed never to return.

The barn was the Atlantic Slave Trade as early as the 15^th century.  Perhaps, the dialogue of gun control should have begun then and there.

Some historians have contended that “chattel slavery”, a legal institution of the United States, was the greatest evil of all human behaviors and began with gun violence.

“Evil”, if not gutted, has a way of multiplying itself. Evil is infectious. Evil is purulent. Centuries later, the descendants of slave owners still possess guns, and so do the descendants of slaves, as well. Talking about karma!

Chattel slavery resulted in more violence in America than we could have ever imagined; more precisely the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. Wherever did the Founding Fathers think they or we could ever form “A More Perfect Union” with chattel slaves on board and an arsenal of guns? Let’s be clear that White men brought violence to America. Slaves only reacted, at first, with gut, grim and future glory. And then guns came into their possession.

I wonder if at least one or two of the Founding Fathers possessed any moral character and said to the others, , “hey guys, this is morally wrong and not going to work”? That is, chattel slavery!

According to the Congressional Research Service, there are more than 300 million guns in America. Parenthetically speaking and by the law of averages, we can say that every American has a gun. There are a little bit more than 300 million Americans.

The Brady Campaign states that every day, 309 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police intervention. Every day, 93 people die from gun violence: 32 are murdered. 58 kill themselves.

It has been of little value to mention Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, where an enormous amount of gun violence takes place or a Southern city where a White Supremacist goes into a Black church and kills people in a worship service; Not to mention a Sandy Hook or Virginia Tech where many White students were killed by gun violence. The point is that innocent American lives are taken so needlessly, regardless of race, religion or creed.

Stop blaming the NRA. It’s already over! They have already succeeded in what they have intended to do. If no other gun was ever sold, again, in the United States, the fact is there are still more than 300,000, 000 guns and often in the hands of the wrong people.

The dialogue needs to be shifted to other major issues.

For one, America needs to offer mental health care to those that need it; and at an affordable price. And to address, ADEQUATELY, all of the other social problems that afflict America! No more band aids please!

It was Ronald Reagan’s shameful memory to start shutting down mental health institutions in America in the 70’s. The mentally ill were released into the streets.  Never before had America seen the exacerbation of homelessness; many homeless persons, pushing all of their belongings in shopping carts in the streets, dirty and unkempt and asking for handouts. Ironically, Reagan was shot by a schizophrenic, John Hinckley.

I remember very vividly at how astonished the citizens of the State of Maryland and America were when Reagan began the massive de-institutionalization of state cared for mentally ill patients. It was horrific and not because of the loss of jobs, but rather that the mentally ill were being put in the streets; and without care.

Another major concern, that has, in this matter is the very sensitive topic of race relations between White and Black America. Some conservatives have asked that Blacks never mention slavery and Jim Crow because, again, it is the past and things have changed. Some things have undoubtedly changed, but we still live with a historical and current biased Judicial System that is not blind to justice for all. This is very contentious for those who believe and feel we are still being unjustly treated after all these years.

Injustice is one of those evils that is infectious and purulent; and a major cause for gun violence in the United States and in the world.

One can only wonder if the Founding Fathers or at least one of them had a premonition that this Second Amendment would lead to the massive gun violence that is pervasive in America.

And on a sad note, gun violence in America is here to stay, not unless fundamental changes are made in the governing of its people.