January 23.2013
®*'e ^ o rtla n h (Observer
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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.