January 23.2013 ®*'e ^ o rtla n h (Observer Page 7 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views o f the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Myths that Guns Make The massive human and moral cost of gun violence by M arian W right E delman The heartrending massacre of 20 first graders and six edu cators in Newtown, C onn, has g a lv a nized public atten tion once again after a mass shoot ing. But the killing of children by gun violence is not new. It has been a relentlessly unreported and under reported plague that has snuffed out the lives of 119,079 children and teenagers since 1979. T hat’s an average of 3,721 child and teen deaths every year for 32 years. That’s 4,763 classrooms of 25 children each. The number of children and teens killed by guns since 1979 is two and a half times greater than the number of U.S. military personnel killed in action in the Vietnam or Korean wars, and over 22 times greater than American military personnel killed in the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The United States of America has spent a trillion and a half dollars on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars so far, purportedly to protect our children and citizens from enemies without, while ignoring the reality that the greatest threats to child safety and well-being come from enemies within. G un v iolence satu rates our children’s lives and relentlessly threatens them every day. It has romped through their playgrounds; invaded their birthday parties; ter rorized their Head Start class rooms, child care centers, and schools; fro lick ed dow n the streets they walk to and from school; danced through their school buses; waited at the red light and bus stop; lurked behind trees; run them down on the comer; shot them through their bedroom windows, on their front porches, and in their neighborhoods. Gun violence has taught, enter tained, and tantalized children in cessantly across television, movie, and video game screens and the Internet. It has snatched away their parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, friends, and teach ers; sapped their energy and will to learn; and made them forget about tomorrow. It has nagged and picked at their child and youthful minds and spirits and darkened their dreams, day in and day out, snuff ing out the promise and joy of child hood and inflicting them with post traumatic stress disorders - often chronic. The violence from guns has caused children recurring night mares and made them afraid to go outdoors or to the movies. It has made them want to or feel they have to get a gun or join a gang to protect themselves because adults can’t or won’t protect them. It has made them plan their own funerals be cause they don’t think they ’ 11 live to adulthood. It has killed them with guns every 3 hours and 15 minutes and injured them every 34 minutes. It terrifies them and makes them cry inside and wonder if and when enough adults are ever going to stand up and make it stop and make children safe. President Obama, in his moving remarks at the Sandy Hook inter- faith prayer vigil at Newtown High School on Dec. 16,2012, got it right when he said: “Caring for our chil dren. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged.” We will not pass the test of the God of the prophets or New Testa ment or all great faiths if we do not protect all of our sacred children against repeated and preventable gun deaths and injuries. Every child has a right to live and to dream and to strive for a future that is not destroyed in a second because we cowered before a special interest lobby and refused to protect them. What can we do? Learn the truth about and debunk the myths that guns make us safe. Did you know that one third of all households with children younger than 18 have a gun and 40 percent of gun-owning households with children store their guns unlocked? Contrary to what many people believe, having a gun in your home doesn’t make you safer but instead endangers you and your loved ones. A gun in the home makes the likeli hood of homicide three times higher, suicide three to five times higher, and accidental death four times higher. For every time a gun in the home injures or kills in self-defense, there are 11 completed and at tempted gun suicides, seven crimi nal assaults and homicides with a gun, and four unintentional shoot ing deaths or injuries. Read the Children’s Defense Fund’s new Protect Children Not Guns: The Truth About Guns, which debunks myths that guns make you safe. Convene congregational and parent and community study groups and let the enormity of lost child and human life sweep over you and pierce your hearts and make you determined to wake up, stand up and do something! Small acts by enough of us can set off big ripples across our nation and shake up our political leaders. The important thing is to care and to act and to keep acting for as long as it takes. Stop shopping at stores that sell firearms over the counter - making their purchase and use as routine and normal as a flashlight or toaster. Assault weapons should not be normalized and treated as a house hold product or glorified as Ameri can as apple pie. T urn off the violent TV shows. Stop buying the violent toys and video games and call for nonviolent conflict resolution and restorative justice training o f our educators, faith leaders, children, and all of us. Let’s make violence unaccept able rather than acceptable in our nation which leads the world’s in dustrialized nations in military ex penditures, in number of guns sold and in circulation (an estimated 300 million), and in child, youth, and adult civilian gun deaths. What is it going to take for the American people, for you and for me, to push the President and mem bers of Congress and Governors and state legislators to stand up to the National Rifle Association, gun manufacturers, and sellers? What is it going to take for them to place protection of children and youths and adults ahead of the pro tection of guns and profits and their election to office? How much is a child’s life worth in today’s political economy in America? As we celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday and the 50th anni versary of the March on Washing ton and the dream of our gun-slain prophet of nonviolence, let us truly hear and follow rather than just cel ebrate him. Marian Wright Edelman is presi dent of the Children's Defense Fund. Important Protections Lost by Extremism What happened to the Violence Against Women Act? by L eslie W atson M alachi Democrats and Republi cans in Congress are having a hard time agreeing on any thing these days. But there are some things that should never fall victim to partisan bickering. One of these is protect ing women against domestic violence and sexual assault. But for R epublicans in C ongress, ap parently, it isn’t that sim ple. Thanks to the extrem ism o f House Republicans, the V io lence A gainst W omen Act expired this m onth after 18 years o f saving wom en's lives. Here's how it happened. Back in April, the Senate passed a reauthorization o f the act, which since 1994 has provided fund ing and training for state and local law enforcem ent to prevent dom estic violence and sexual assault. The law has worked incredibly well: betw een 1993 and 2010, the rate of intim ate partner violence fell by 64 percent and the reporting o f dom estic violence has increased dram atically. Be cause o f this, it has been reauthorized tw ice with overw helm ing support from both D em ocrats and Republicans. • But at the start o f this year, the act expired because H ouse Republicans re fused to reauthorize it. They refused even to hold a vote on it, instead proposing a watered-dow n bill that the president prom ised to veto. W hat they objected to were the new bill's increased protections for im m igrants, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and N ative Am erican women. Yes, they objected to greater protec tions for at-risk com m unities. Im m igrant wom en are especially vulnerable to d o m estic violence because m any rely on a spouse for their ability to live and work in this country. The new law would expand the num ber of victim s of spousal abuse who could apply for their own visas and start their own lives. Sim ilarly, LGBT people too often fall through the cracks o f our safety net for dom estic violence victims: they are turned away from shelters or denied support, sim ply because o f the gender o f the abuser and the abused. This law w ould fix that. Finally, many Native A m erican victims o f dom estic violence and sexual assault are left without recourse against non-Na- tive abusers when their cases get lost in the gap betw een federal and tribal courts. This is no m inor problem. An astounding one in three Native women will survive a rape in her lifetim e, and the vast m ajority o f crim es against Native Am ericans are perpetrated by non- Natives. The Violence Against Women Act would bridge that legal gap and allow all Native Am erican survivors o f abuse to seek justice in court. Republican efforts to prevent expanded protections for these at-risk groups made all women lose im portant protections. This issue is especially im portant to me as a survivor, an advocate, and a m em ber o f the m inisterial staff at an African-Am erican congregation. Violence against women is an issue that affects everyone in America, but it dispro portionately impacts women o f color. The 2010 National Intim ate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that more than a third o f Hispanic women and nearly 44 percent o f black women have experi enced rape, physical violence, and/or stalk ing by an intimate partner in their lifetimes. As a faith leader — and as someone who worked with others to help enact this legis lation in the first place — I feel that it is important to speak out in support of those who are most vulnerable to violence and abuse. The lawmakers who blocked the Violence Against Women Act aren't just insulting victims of domestic abuse, they're actively putting women’s lives in danger. Congress should act quickly in this New Year to reau thorize this life-saving program. Minister Leslie Watson Malachi is the director fo r African-American Religious Affairs at People fo r the American Way.