A few weeks ago I asked an old friend of mine what I could
do to improve my blog. He suggested that I post regularly and produce
researched articles every now and again. Bloggers block kept me from doing this.
However, yesterday I had a great conversation with a very enthusiastic foster
parent about gun violence and I found myself depressed and inspired.
She told me a story about a shooting death that occurred in
her neighborhood about 2 weeks ago. She said that a young man from around the
way was in the process of robbing a convenience store when a police officer
arrived. The perpetrator turned his gun on the officer, shooting him in the
face from about 10 inches away. The reports following the incident were
politically correct. They stated that the officer experienced serious trauma to
the head. The foster parent I was
working with chose to scream the truth, “that asshole blew his face clean off.”
As a case manager I often find myself in forgotten
neighborhoods where violence runs rampant. Every parent or guardian I speak to
has a story about gun violence; a story about a family member or friend they
recently lost to the “block.”
In 2005 there were 305 homicides in Philadelphia as a result
of gun violence. This figure does not include the number of people injured.
According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence “Sixty-six
percent of all murders are committed with guns.” Further more, campaign
representatives suggest, “Relationship problems, interpersonal conflicts, mental-health
problems, and recent crises are among the primary precipitating factors of
violent deaths. Access to firearms increases the lethality of these
interactions making it more likely that someone will die.”
A few months ago I may have been apt to believe that the
facts justify the interpretation: guns should be outlawed, or made inaccessible
in order to reduce the number of violent crimes. But, as I learned in the very
backdoor documentary “Guns and Weed: the Road to Freedom,” guns play an
important role in keeping our civil liberties in tact. And, in the heat of the
moment, at the height of rage a person will use whatever he or she can as a
means to their wrath.
Maybe the solution is to address the issues behind violent
crimes. Maybe it is time that we address domestic violence, gang violence,
violet cultural icons, and where our mental health and judicial systems are
failing. Our systems are in need
of serious restructuring. It is time that we address the problems with the
intention of rendering solutions. Now I guess we just have to figure out what
that looks like.
