by Karl B. Rodney
Gun-related violence has threatened the very basic human rights of humanity globally, and one crisis that comes before us in significant ways, day in and day out, not only in the US but certainly in the Caribbean, in Africa, and indeed, around the world.
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Gun violence is a daily tragedy that we can almost anticipate, affecting the lives of human beings around the world some in very personal ways and some threatening safety and security.
Globally, more than 500 people die every day by violence committed with firearms. In the United States gun violence contributes to more than 38,000 deaths per year and over 85,000 injuries. Unfortunately, gun violence disproportionately impacts communities of color, women, and other marginalized groups in society.
Back in 1965 during the historic March on Washington, Reverend Martin Luther King Junior addressed the question of the intractible national tragedy of gun violence, only to become a victim of that gun violence three years later. He was killed in the State of Tennessee where we have witnessed the tragic recent killing of children in school.
It was in Memphis, Tennessee that a high-powered killing device took Martin Luther King away from us, and it was the same kind of high-powered device that killed children and adults in Nashville, Tennessee, and have killed so many in the United States and around the world. The guns that are used in this expanding violence are manufactured in the United States for the most part, and are manufactured not for the battlefield, but to a market of domestic use that has no need for these high-powered firearms.
High-powered devices are manufactured and promoted within the United States and find their way to the Caribbean and other parts of the world; it is the manufacturers of these deadly firearms that must be targeted in a way that they are held responsible for the damage that is done by the devices that they have manufactured and marketed. The Republican lawmakers in the United States have been clear that they have no intention of passing even the basic gun control laws that would eliminate those devices that have very little to do with hunting or the protection of one’s home, but are assault weapons for the battlefield which have no place in the streets of the United States, the Caribbean, or anywhere else, with their deadly outcome.
This easy access to these deadly firearms has been the main driver of gun violence and its result in death and destruction, and regulations need to be in place that will hold the manufacturers responsible for the kinds of weapon they are turning loose on the market and for what use. The campaign to force Republican lawmakers to do something about the protection of human rights by creating laws that will control or ban assault weapons, and cannot stop until we get results.
And that is why we have to give credit to the young black legislators, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, who stood up in the Tennessee House of Representatives after the massacre of children and adults at the school, the young men appealed for some degree of common sense gun control in their legislature and stood with people in protest
They were expelled, but the world was watching. The attention brought to this matter by the media and social media showed the level of thinking of the Republican super majority where they were not considering lives lost and how to protect lives, but punishing two black legislators for bringing it to their attention that gun violence is ripping the country apart and certainly Tennessee, and that some attention and action was necessary.
They turned a blind eye to the appeal of the young legislators and instead attempted to punish them. What a misplaced sense of justice. These legislators should be looking to control the manufacturing and distribution of these deadly firearms and should be looking to hold manufacturers responsible and bring an end to this violence that has created such a tragedy in the country and in the world; but no, they instead chose to punish the young legislators.
By their action, the Tennessee Republican legislators showed their misplaced priority and lack of any real justice – it looked to and worked towards the further marginalization of people of color by expelling two Black legislators and did nothing to end the continued slaughter of human beings, but on their emphasis on the commercial and influence of manufacturers and gun associations.
It has nothing to do with the Constitution as such but more for the profit of the gun manufacturers, profit that is wrapped in the bloodshed of the children of this country and the people around the world.
The late Warren Burger, who was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1969 to 1986 called The gun lobby’s interpretation of the Second Amendment “ one of the greatest pieces of fraud” ever foisted on the American public.
Chief Justice Warren was calling then for us not to be fooled by the cry out for the Second Amendment rights, looking at it as a fraud upon the country, and in today’s atmosphere, in today’s Republican driven policy, they are pushing this fraud on the country ever so strongly, while we see day in, day out the tragedy and the bloodshed and the loss of life that this country and the world is subjected to all in the name of profit for gun manufacturers.
Americans who want to end this horrifying, ongoing slaughter of her children in school and people at their workplace must move to defeat Republican candidates running for office so that we can bring some change and safety for our children and all people.
