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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2012)
Opinion Our Nation Can Protect Children, Not Guns “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds When the Children’s Defense Fund released its new report, Pro- tect Children, Not Guns 2012 in March, we dedicated it to the memory of Trayvon Martin and the thousands of other children and teenagers killed by guns in America, including the 5,740 killed in 2008 and 2009 according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The fight to uncover the truth of what happened the night Trayvon Martin died hasn’t ended but basic facts that have never been in dispute are starkly clear. Of the two people involved, one was a teenager carrying an iced tea and a bag of candy. The other was a much larger adult car- rying a gun and patrolling a gated community despite having previ- ously been under a restraining order for domestic violence and charged with resisting arrest with violence and battery on a police officer. Without George Zimmer- man, a zealous neighborhood watcher with a gun, Trayvon Mar- tin would be alive today. The same is true for thousands of other chil- dren—whether they were victims of deliberate shootings, victims of accidental shootings, or victims of suicide. Guns lethalize anger and despair and twist everyday ten- sions into life-threatening and life-taking tragedies. As a nation we need to protect children from guns, support com- mon-sense gun safety measures, and pass stronger federal, state, and local laws that would save many lives. We could start by clos- ing the gun show loophole. The Brady Handgun Violence Preven- tion Act requires federally licensed gun dealers to conduct background checks on every gun sale, but a loophole in the law allows private dealers to sell guns without a license and avoid the required background checks. This C HILD W ATCH Marian Wright Edelman loophole accounts for a large share of all gun sales. It’s estimated that over 40 percent of all guns in our country are sold by unlicensed pri- vate sellers to buyers who did not have to pass a background check. with hunting animals. As James Alan Fox, professor of criminolo- gy at Northeastern University in Boston, said right after the Tucson murders: “Notwithstanding the worn-out slogan that ‘guns don’t kill, people do,’ guns do make it easier for people to commit mur- der. And semi-automatic guns, like the Tucson assailant’s out-of-the- box spanking-new Glock, make it easier to commit mass murder.” Our nation should strengthen gun restrictions on people convict- ed of a violent misdemeanor or a violent act as a juvenile. Under Congress must restore the ban on both high-capacity clips and assault weapons. These deadly assault weapons that cause multiple deaths at a time have nothing to do with hunting animals Congress must require criminal background checks on anyone who attempts to purchase a gun. Congress should reinstitute the ban on assault weapons. The fed- eral Assault Weapons Ban, signed into law in 1994, prohibited the manufacture and sale of 19 types of semi-automatic military style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines that con- tained more than 10 rounds of ammunition, but it expired in 2004. Legislation pending in Con- gress would reinstitute the ban on high-capacity ammunition maga- zines that were used in the mass shootings in Tucson, Arizona and at Virginia Tech. Congress must restore the ban on both high- capacity clips and assault weapons. These deadly assault weapons that cause multiple deaths at a time have nothing to do current law, a conviction for a vio- lent misdemeanor doesn’t prohibit a person from purchasing or pos- sessing a gun, and a related loophole exists for people adjudi- cated for violent offenses as juveniles. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that a person convicted of a violent misde- meanor was eight times more likely to be charged with a subse- quent gun and/or violent crime and one in three people convicted of a violent misdemeanor who tried to buy a handgun was arrested for a new crime within three years of acquiring the gun. Congress must close these loopholes and prohibit gun possession by individuals who have been convicted of violent misdemeanors or have been found delinquent for violent acts. Another common-sense solution for protecting children and adults would be requiring consumer safe- ty standards and childproof safety features for all guns. Every gun in this country should be childproof. One-third of all households with children have at least one gun in the home and it’s estimated that nearly two million children live in homes with an unlocked and loaded gun. It makes no sense that the Con- sumer Product Safety Commission regulates toy guns and teddy bears but not a product that in 2008 and 2009 killed 56,529 adults and 5,740 children and teens—a total of 62,269 human beings. No exter- nal enemy has ever come close to killing this number of civilians of all ages in the U.S. Federal law is silent on gun-related consumer safety standards and child access prevention. In fact, the production and manufacture of guns is exempt from oversight by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. As a result, many handguns do not con- tain easily-installed life-saving safety features. Only 27 states have even attempted to keep chil- dren from accessing guns by passing child access prevention laws. Gun deaths are the third leading cause of fatal injuries in the U.S. for people age one and older—following only motor vehi- cle and poisoning deaths. Congress must subject guns to the same consumer product safety regulations that cover virtually every other consumer product. Congress also must require child- proof safety features on all guns. Read the rest online at www.theskanner.com Mourning the Loss of John Payton “Diverse democracies depend on diverse people who know and respect each other.” – John Payton Over the past century, the most powerful force behind America’s on-going struggle for equality has been an outstanding group of civil rights attorneys. Imagine where we would be today without lawyers like Charles Hamilton Houston – “the man who killed Jim Crow” — or his protégé, Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, who in 1940 founded the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF). For over 70 years, LDF has been America’s first and foremost civil and human rights law firm. During that time, the organization has had just six leaders: Thurgood Marshall, Jack Greenberg, Julius Chambers, Elaine Jones, Ted Shaw and the LDF’s sixth President and Direc- tor-Counsel, John Payton who passed away last week at the age of 65. Whether he was defending affir- mative action before the United States Supreme Court or leading the fight to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, John Payton was one of the most brilliant and fearless civil rights champions of our gen- Page 4 The Portland Skanner April 4, 2012 T O B E E QUAL Marc Morial eration. A graduate of Pomona College and Harvard Law School, Payton’s commitment to civil rights led him from a career at WilmerHale, one of Washington, DC’s most prestigious law firms, firm’s website, “Beginning in 1997, he led the firm’s representa- tion of the University of Michigan—from the district court through the Supreme Court—in the Gratz and Grutter cases, which hold that public institutions of higher education may consider race as a factor in admissions in order to achieve the educational benefits that flow from having a racially-diverse student body.” Payton continued his exemplary defense of civil rights at LDF where, in 2010, he won a Supreme Court employment discrimination Payton continued his exemplary defense of civil rights at LDF where, in 2010, he won a Supreme Court employment discrimination case on behalf of a group of Chicago African American fire fighters to his leadership of LDF begin- ning in 2008. It was at WilmerHale that Payton laid the foundation as a great civil rights attorney. According to a statement on the case on behalf of a group of Chica- go African American fire fighters. He also won a Supreme Court vic- tory in Northwest Austin v. Holder, which upheld the constitu- tionality of a core provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On a personal note, John Payton was a dear friend and colleague. I had the pleasure of working close- ly with him on a number of initiatives, including a new effort just underway to develop a collec- tive voice on Education among civil rights leaders. He also recent- ly arranged for the National Urban League to sign onto an amicus brief on the Health Care case that will be argued before the Supreme Court beginning this week. I admired John’s sharp intellect and enjoyed the lively talks we had about the law and Supreme Court strategy. He was a seasoned, thoughtful litigator who earned a place alongside great civil rights lawyers like Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall. President Obama called Payton “A true champion of equality who helped protect civil rights in the classroom and at the ballot box.” I will miss his friendship, his part- nership and his humanity. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Gay McDougall, and his wide circle of family and friends. Marc H. Morial is the President and CEO of the National Urban League
