$3ortlanb (Observer Career
April IO. 2013
E ducation
Page 9
SPE C IA L E D IT IO N
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What the NRA Doesn’t Want
Ignorance or
bliss is not
sound policy
by
M arian W right E delman
Why is the National Rifle Asso-
ciation so afraid of the truth? There
are many m isconceptions about
guns and gun violence swirling
wound in Americans’ minds— and
in many cases, this misinformation
is no accident.
For years the NRA has blocked
the truth and actively fought against
and prevented research in the
causes and costs of gun violence
because they don’t want Ameri-
cans to know the truth about guns,
how to prevent gun violence, and
how to make themselves and their
children safer.
Why else would they have Con-
gress pull gun injury prevention
research funding from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
and the N ational Institutes o f
Health? Why have we put up so
long with efforts to block all
research on a huge public
health threat that injures
and kills tens of thousands
of Americans every year?
As Arthur Kellermann
and Frederick Rivara write in the
Februaiy 2013 Journal of the Ameri
can Medical Association article “Si-
lencing the Science on Gun Re
search:” “What can be done to re
duce the number of residents who
die each year from firearms, cur-
rently more than 31,000 annually?
The nation might be in a better po-
sition to act if medical and public
health researchers had continued
to study these issues as diligently
as some of us did between 1985 and
1997.” Instead, they note beginning
in 1996 pro-gun members of Con-
gress began mounting an all-out
effort to eliminate any funding for
research connected to gun injury
prevention. And as Kellermann and
Rivara explain, this continued re-
fusal to fund any research isn’t just
an academic matter: “Injury preven-
tion research can have real and last-
ing effects. Over the last 20 years,
the number of Americans dying in
motor vehicle crashes has decreased
by 31 percent. Deaths from fires and
drowning have been reduced even
more, by 38 percent and 52 percent,
respectively. This progress was
achieved without banning automo
biles, swimming pools, or matches.
Instead, it came from translating
research findings into effective in
terventions. Given the chance, could
researchers achieve similar progress
with firearm violence? It will not be
possible to find out unless Con
gress rescinds its moratorium on
firearm injury prevention research.”
The concerted campaign to hide
the truth and block research is fi
nally facing new scrutiny and oppo
sition. President Obama’s proposed
gun safety package would end the
freeze on gun injury prevention re
search although the amounts re
quested are inadequate. Ignorance
is not bliss or sensible or sound
policy, and in the case of our na
tional gun violence epidemic igno
rance is actually fatal. We need to
to Know
make decisions based on the truth
and counter the NRA misinforma
tion that has been infecting our
nation.
It’s time to challenge and deflate
NRA misinformation and recognize
that it does not speak for most
American gun owners or even the
majority of its membership. For ex
ample, polling data shows that 85
percent of gun owners and 74 per
cent of NRA members support uni
versal background checks— a policy
position the NRA vehemently op
poses now.
The NRA argues that back
ground checks don’t work. The re
ality is that criminal background
checks do work and making them
universal at the federal level would
make them far more effective. Since
its implementation in 1994, the Brady
Law, which instituted a federal back
ground check requirement for sales
through licensed dealers, has de
nied 2.1 million applications to pur
chase a firearm. But its impact has
been limited by the ability of crimi
nals to access firearms through pri
vate sales.
Another bit o f misinformation
from the NRA is that universal back
ground checks will lead to a registry
of gun owners. The Brady Law ex
plicitly bans the creation o f a gun
owner registry, and under that law
instant criminal background checks
have been made on over 100 million
gun sales in the last decade without
leading to the formation o f a gun
registry.
Here again, misinformation has
paralyzed effective gun safety pro
tections. The vast majority of re
sponsible gun owners support back
ground checks because they know
that the only people who will be
negatively impacted are criminals
and those who sell them firearms.
Please do your homework and
decide for yourself. Let’s break the
NRA lock on the research door to
learn and share the truth about the
human, economic and public safety
costs of gun violence in our nation.
I believe the truth will set us free.
Marian Wright Edelman is presi
dent o f the Children's Defense Fund.
Trayvon Martin Tragedy Still Stings
Adding salt to
an open wound
by
B enjamin T odd J ealous
One year later, the Trayvon
Martin tragedy still stings,
and some people are still
throwing salt on the open
wound. Last month George
Zimmerman's brother, Robert
Zimmerman, posted a tweet com
p a rin g T ray v o n M a rtin to
De'Marquis Elkins, 17-year-old black
teenager charged with fatally shoot
ing a one-year-old baby.
The tweet showed a photo of
Elkins side by side with a photo of
Martin, both making inappropriate
gestures, with the caption "A pic
ture speaks a thousand words. Any
questions?"
Zimmerman's follow-up tweet
read "Libferal] media [should] ask if
what these [two] black teens did [to]
a [woman and her baby] is the rea
son [people] think blacks might [be]
risky". The implication was that
Trayvon Martin's actions
on the night he was mur
dered were equivalent to
the killing of an innocent
child.
This would be worri
some enough if it were just
the opportunistic cry of a family
embroiled in racial controversy. But
this belief - that male "black teens"
are inherently more likely to be crimi
nals - is ingrained in our society. It
has seeped into our institutions in
the form of racial profiling, and too
often it poisons the judgm ent of
those who are supposed to protect
us.
Last year I visited Sanford, Fla.
in the wake of the Trayvon Martin
case. The NAACP hosted a forum
*** Jlortlanb (Obstruer
P u b l is h e r :
E d it o r :
Established 1970
M ark Washington
M ic h a e l L e ig h to n
where residents could report inci
dents of police abuse. A number of
African American mothers alleged
that their teenage sons had been
profiled, abused or even assaulted
by the police. I found that the atti
tude of the local police department
toward "black teens" was uncom
fortably similar to that of Robert
Zimmerman.
But the fact is that 50 years after
the Civil Rights Act, racial bias still
runs rampant among law enforce
m ent in th is c o u n try . And
Zimmerman's attitude infects an in
stitution much more influential than
the Sanford Police Department: the
NYPD.
The Ne w York Police Department
is currently fighting a class-action
lawsuit against their racially biased
practice of "stop-and-frisk" polic
ing. Stop-and-frisk allows officers
to stop, question and physically
USPS 959-680
search any individual they consider
suspicious. In 2011 NYPD officers
stopped nearly 800,000 people for
alleged "suspicious activity." Nine
out of 10 were innocent, 99 percent
did not have a gun - and nine out of
10 were black or Latino.
There’s evidence that patrol of
ficers may be encouraged to meet
arrest quotas. A tape played at the
trial reveals a supervising officer
asking for "more 250s," or more stop-
and-frisk forms. One plaintiff, a po
lice officer, testified about the pres
sure he felt from supervisors - "they
were very clear, it's non-negotiable,
you're gonna do it, or you're gonna
become a Pizza Hut delivery man."
Leaked recordings reveal that the
NYPD has effectively placed a
bounty on "black teens." By profil
ing young teens of color, they are
using the same grisly logic as Rob
ert Zimmerman. And the result is
apparent: in 2011, black and Latino
men between the ages of 14 and 24
made up 42 percent of those tar
geted by stop-and-frisk. That group
makes up less than 5 percent of the
city's population.
The crim e attrib u ted to
De'Marquis Elkins' was truly horrific
and despicable. But Elkins does not
represent an entire demographic, just
like Adam Lanza did not act on behalf
of all young white men.
Racial profiling punishes inno
cent individuals for the past actions
of those who look and sound like
them. It misdirects crucial resources
and undercuts the trust needed
between law enforcement and the
communities they serve. It has no
place in our national discourse, and
no place in our nation's police de
partments.
Ben Jealous is president and
chiefexecutive officer ofthe NAA CP.
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