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
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H ELEN S ILVIS
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M ONICA J. F OSTER
Seattle Office Coordinator
J ULIE K EEFE
S USAN F RIED
Photographers
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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.
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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