Page 6
January 20, 2016
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O PINION
Guns Lethalize Anger and Despair
Common sense
actions are the
right direction
m arian W right e delman
Every single year, more than
30,000 Americans have their lives
cut short by guns —30,000. Sui-
cides. Domestic violence. Gang
shootouts. Accidents.
Hundreds of thousands of
Americans have lost brothers and
sisters, or buried their own chil-
dren. Many have had to learn to
live with a disability, or learned to
live without the love of their life.
President Obama spoke mov-
ingly about the lives shattered by
America’s gun violence epidemic
on Jan. 5 as he announced a se-
ries of new executive actions to
reduce gun violence. These new
measures will not prevent every
shooting that snuffs out the lives
of nearly seven children to gun
violence daily; they will save
many lives and help staunch the
by
relentless plague of gun violence
that terrorizes our nation’s homes,
schools and communities.
The president’s executive ac-
tions clarify that for purposes of
requiring background checks a
person does not need to sell guns
in a traditional store-
front to be “engaged in
the business” of selling
guns. Some of those who
conduct sales over the
Internet or at gun shows
will now be required to
obtain a license and run
background checks on potential
purchasers or face stiff penalties.
These steps, coupled with great-
er eficiency and effectiveness in
our background check system,
enforcement of existing gun laws,
and new investments in mental
health treatment and research into
gun safety technologies, are long
overdue.
Legislative action to strengthen
huge weaknesses in our nation’s
gun laws is still required but the
president’s common-sense execu-
tive actions move us in the right
direction.
Several measures highlight one
of the key components of our gun
violence crisis: that much gun vi-
olence begins at home. So many
wrongly believe that gun violence
happens mostly “out on
the streets” and others
believe owning a gun
will protect their family
from gun violence. The
opposite is true: A gun in
the home increases the
risk of homicide, sui-
cide, and accidental death.
Guns lethalize anger, domestic
disputes, mental illness and de-
spair. A gun in the home makes
the likelihood of homicide three
times higher, suicide three to
ive times higher, and accidental
death four times higher. The pro-
gun lobby has created the fantasy
of a gun as a homeowner’s per-
fect protection against a mythical
intruder. In reality, each time a
gun in the home injures or kills
in self-defense, there are four
unintentional shooting deaths or
injuries, seven criminal assaults
and homicides with a gun, and 11
completed or attempted gun sui-
cides.
Suicides are the leading cause
of gun deaths in America. In
2014, 21,334 adults, children and
teens committed suicide with a
gun compared to 10,945 gun ho-
micides. Whites are most likely
to die by gun suicide followed
by American Indians and Alaska
Natives. Whites were more than
three times as likely as blacks and
nearly ive times as likely as His-
panics to commit suicide by guns.
In 2014, 929 children and teens
committed suicide with a gun and
1,455 children and teens died in
gun homicides.
The National Coalition Against
Domestic Violence notes the pres-
ence of a gun in a domestic vio-
lence situation increases the risk
of homicide 500 percent. Even
when it is not used to kill, a gun
wielded by a domestic abuser
increases the frequency of ongo-
ing, nonfatal domestic abuse by
increasing the abuser’s ability to
control a victim; the ever-present
threat of gun violence makes it
more dificult for victims to leave
their abusers.
The FBI deines a “mass mur-
der” as an event in which four or
more people are killed. By that
deinition the majority of “mass
shootings” are cases of domestic
violence and the majority of mass
shooting victims are women and
children.
We can do better. We must do
better. President Obama said: “We
know we can’t stop every act of
violence, every act of evil in the
world. But maybe we could try
to stop one . . .” He echoes Nobel
Literature Laureate Albert Camus’
words in 1948: “Perhaps we can-
not prevent this world from being
a world in which children are tor-
tured. But we can reduce the num-
ber of tortured children.”
Marian Wright Edelman is
President of the Children’s De-
fense Fund.
Why the President Should Visit Haiti
An addition for
Obama’s bucket list
d r . r on d aniels
Recently much at-
tention has been made
of President Obama’s
“bucket list,” those things
he would like to accom-
plish before the end of
his term. Among the items on his list is a visit
to Cuba. This would be a dramatic event, cli-
maxing one of the signature achievements of
his presidency - breaking the decades- long
diplomatic and economic isolation of Cuba
to usher in a new era of normalized relations.
The site of an American President, the irst
African American President, being wel-
comed in Cuba, an Afro-Hispanic nation,
would be stunning and historic!
But, I also believe a visit to Haiti, the
world’s irst Black Republic should be on
Obama’s bucket list. The Haiti Support Proj-
ect of the Institute of the Black World 21st
Century always views January as Haitian
Independence Month because it was on Jan.
1, 1804 that General Jean Jacques Dessalines
declared Haiti’s independence. This after a
long, brutal but glorious struggle for self-de-
termination during which the Haitian free-
dom ighters defeated the British, Spanish
and ultimately decimated the army of Napo-
leon Bonaparte of France!
Never in the history of humankind had
an enslaved people defeated their slave
by
masters to create an independent nation.
The Haitian Revolution, which gave birth
to the world’s irst Black Republic, was one
of the greatest feats in history! Not only did
the Haitian freedom ighters create an inde-
pendent nation at the height of the Europe-
an and American slave trade, they further
declared that any enslaved person who set
foot on Haitian soil would be free!
These declarations alone are of suficient
historical signiicance to warrant acknowl-
Under the leadership of General Henri
Christophe and at the behest of the French,
Haitian troops contributed to the defeat of
the British in the battle of Savannah during
the Revolutionary War. The colonies
achieved their independence and were able
to found a new nation on what was Native
American land, because the Louisiana Pur-
chase was a direct outgrowth of the defeat
of Napoleon’s armies by the Haitian Free-
dom Fighters. This disastrous defeat end-
...the U.S. owes a huge debt of
gratitude to Haiti for its contributions to
this nation’s struggle for independence
and the expansion of its territory.
edgement with a visit by President Obama.
This recognition would be particularly signif-
icant since Haiti was stigmatized, marginal-
ized and punished by the U.S. and other slave
trading nations for fear that the example of
an independent black nation would be infec-
tious, spreading among enslaved Africans
everywhere to fuel rebellions. This was in-
deed what happened.
It is important to state that President
Obama should also visit the irst black re-
public because the U.S. owes a huge debt
of gratitude to Haiti for its contributions to
this nation’s struggle for independence and
the expansion of its territory.
ed Napoleon’s grand vision of creating an
economic axis between Saint Dominique
(Haiti), the most prosperous “colony” in
the Caribbean and the vast French territory
in North America, anchored by the city of
New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississip-
pi River. After the humiliating defeat at the
hands of the Haitians, Napoleon abandoned
this ambitious goal and sold the Louisiana
Territory to the U.S. at a bargain basement
price. The size of the U.S. nearly doubled
as a result of this acquisition, a fact that
Americans should forever be thankful to
the Haitians for facilitating.
When the U.S. invaded Haiti in 1915,
it was the NAACP under the leadership of
Walter White that led the opposition to the
U.S. occupation. The reality of an indepen-
dent black nation in the Caribbean under-
cut the argument of black inferiority as a
rationale for legal and de facto segregation
in the U.S. Haiti was a beacon of hope to
African people everywhere!
Needless to say, support for the ruthless
Duvalier regimes and constant destabiliz-
ing interventions and interference in Haiti,
the U.S. has seldom afforded the irst black
republic the dignity, respect and support its
historical signiicance and contribution to
this nation deserve. A state visit by Presi-
dent Barrack Obama would be an occasion
to acknowledge these historical wrongs
and properly recognize Haiti’s contribution
to the U.S. and the World! It might also
usher in a new era of respectful and mutu-
ally beneicial relations with Haiti; a nation
with 10 million people (with a vibrant and
productive Diaspora in the U.S.) which has
the potential to become an economic pow-
erhouse in the region.
So, President Obama, add a visit to Haiti
to your “bucket list,” and while you’re there
add a tour of the magniicent Citadel, one
of the greatest monuments to freedom and
self-determination in the world, to the itin-
erary. Let the planning begin for a glorious
experience in the world’s irst black republic!
Dr. Ron Daniels is president of the Insti-
tute of the Black World 21st Century and
distinguished lecturer at York College City
University of New York.