SCREAMING NEED FOR GUN LAWS
In Crime Ridden Cities Like Mine Killing Someone is Called Resume-Building
Police understand only too well — but citizens pay the price, and gun-humping politicians keep whistling past the graveyard
I was reading the Sunday newspaper— that rapidly vanishing bundle of paper and ink you can spread out on the table to read while sipping coffee.
On the front page, above the fold, splashed an article with a headline proclaiming Tennessee a mecca for stolen guns. Under the bold-faced headline, it read: “Very few are arrested, even fewer face prosecution.”
The article went on to state gun violence is the number one cause of death among children and teens in Tennessee and how the state’s rate of gun deaths in kids under 17 is 36% higher than the national average.
Tennessee also recently set a new annual record for the number of people killed in mass shootings. Most of those shootings occurred right here in my hometown, Memphis.
As reported in an article in The Atlantic, Memphis set a record for murders in 2021, with 346 — breaking the previous record of 332, set in 2020.
Placing the blood-red cherry atop this dangerous dessert was information extracted from FBI data which ranked Memphis as the third most dangerous city in the nation.
Gangs and guns
Currently, there are over 140 documented gangs in Memphis and almost 15,000 gang members according to Memphis Police.
Within the city there are intervention groups such as Memphis Allies — an organization whose mission is to reduce gun violence through “street counseling.”
They work with juveniles and young adults in high poverty areas where gun violence thrives on a daily basis and where gangs rule the neighborhoods.
Another group, 901 BLOC Squad, also works to stem the shooting and murder rate. It’s Executive Director Delvin Lane understands the psychological attraction of gang life, and likens them to street-level fraternities and sororities.
Their aim is to connect high risk youth and gang members to resources that can help them make better life choices and to unlearn conditioned responses that trigger their gun-trigger.
Lane emphasizes that he doesn’t require his participants to leave their gangs, because they’re the only “family” many of them have.
Most gang members he deals with are from fractured families living in generational poverty. The pressure to belong to a gang is intense, and it’s an environment where guns are seen as problem-solving tools.
Lane’s challenge is to encourage his program participants to think about their situations in new ways. “To see that pulling a trigger always buys more problems, not fewer ones,” he said in an interview with The Daily Memphian.
Being a killer is cool
The counselors from 901 BLOC also work on issues like identity and perception.
Because everything is public on social media, gang members want to cultivate images of toughness and machismo.
“Nobody wants to be soft —nobody wants to be the smart kid,” adds Alvin, a Memphis Allies outreach specialist who goes by his first name. “They want to be known as street.”
Shooting someone is called “resume-building,” according to Delvin Lane. “Being a shooter is cool to them. Being a killer is cool.”
Changing these mindsets isn’t easy. And it’s even harder when gang members have unfettered access to guns anywhere in the state.
Absence of common sense gun laws
While lawmakers in Nashville twiddle their thumbs and scratch their asses, gun violence continues to dominate our daily news across the state.
This past August a special session brought Tennessee legislators together with the hopeful mission of passing “red flag” laws.
These provide emergency protection orders that temporarily pause access to guns for people who are at risk to harm themselves or someone else. After the 2018 Parkland shootings, 18 states plus D.C. implemented “red flag” laws.
But nope, our conservative, “religious,” gun-worshiping majority would have none of it. They agreed only to pass a milquetoast bill requiring firearms to be “safely secured” in automobiles or boats while the owner isn’t in their car or boat.
Bill HB-1233 also states gun owners must report the loss or theft of their firearms to law enforcement within 24 hours of discovering their guns have gone missing.
I’m sure most gun-owners would do this anyway — quickly and willingly without a law telling them they had to. In other words, duh!
The law is ludicrous — as the Sunday paper article I read reported that out of 5,386 cases of guns stolen from cars statewide in 2022, less than 4% of the perpetrators were ever arrested!
There were more arrests of pick-pocketers and people robbing coin machines than gun thefts from cars.
The NRA says no laws should stand in the way of gun access
But even this toothless Bill HB-1233 ran chills down the spine of the NRA-ILA, which for some reason, opposed this “lock it up” and other gun safety laws.
On their website they vowed to “monitor these bills” and report “if and when any are set for committee hearings in the Tennessee House or Senate.”
They also made this frantic appeal:
Contact your lawmakers today and express your opposition to ALL gun control legislation. Let them know you expect them to protect your Second Amendment rights.
This group has nothing to worry about in this state, though. Over recent years our gun fetishistic lawmakers have passed the following:
- In 2019, Tennessee passed law that created a new carry permit with fewer safety training requirements than the previous permit law
- In 2021, Tennessee eliminated its permit requirement for carrying concealed handguns in public spaces and now generally allows anyone who’s 21 years old to carry a handgun in most public spaces without a permit
- Members of the military ages 18 to 20 can carry handguns openly or concealed without a permit
Tennessee also has zero laws imposing a waiting period prior to purchase of a firearm.
What the answer?
I wish I knew. There doesn’t seem to be an appetite to pass any common sense gun laws nationally. And it’ll be a frosty day in hell if it happens here in Tennessee.
We’ve become inured to the almost daily mass shootings. Images of children loaded onto gurneys — faces covered — are no longer shocking. Duck and cover drills are played out in schools across the nation and few people are standing up with bullhorns screaming “WHY?”
I’m in no way against responsible gun ownership.
I even took a gun training course offered by the local sheriff’s office years ago with some girlfriends because it sounded interesting. I was trained to shoot a .357 Magnum. I even kept my bulls-eye target for a while to show off my marksmanship.
It didn’t inspire me to go out and buy one though. I seriously doubt I’d be able to defend anyone and I’d probably end up shooting myself or someone else who didn’t need to be shot.
My concern is the unstemmed proliferation of guns and their glorification. The unadulterated worship of firearms permeates throughout our society and creates a gun culture that elevates violence and becomes a resume builder for aspiring street criminals.
In my view gun ownership should be a privilege and a responsibility. Just as our ability to drive a car safely is tested, so should potential gun owners.
Not everyone should drive a car. There are certain mental and sometimes physical impediments that are taken into account. If someone abuses their privilege to drive through repeated DUIs, then their license should be reneged and often are.
Mentally unstable people or those with a record of domestic violence shouldn’t be able to purchase a gun.
How simple is that? How much sense does that make?
Obviously, to some it makes no sense at all. They argue restricting these instances is engaging in “slippery slope” thinking.
That’s a bullshit argument.
I taught critical thinking classes in an MBA program for 18 years. I know my fallacies — and I can see when this one is being abused.
What are your thoughts? Should there be unrestricted access to guns for everyone? Or, do we need laws that can sift out the nutjobs and whack-a-doodles?
I’d like to know where you stand.
