After days and days of teasing the American public and stoking the fears of gun nuts, doomsday preppers, and Alex Jones, President Barack Obama has finally released his gun-control executive orders and there’s nary a word in there about FEMA coffins and re-education camps. Sigh.
Truth be told, it’s fairly innocuous. In fact, it’s really nothing more than a to-do list, you know, the kind that you have sitting on your desk at work right now. Obama’s includes fairly mundane things like “commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations,” “nominate an ATF director,” and “remember to drop off the kids at the dry cleaners” and “pick up suit from soccer practice.”
That’s all well and good, but I believe curtailing gun violence will require a lot more action than anything the president can do on his own without destroying the carefully crafted balance of power between the three branches of government, and far more than Congress has the chutzpah to accomplish on their end. Like many of you, I seriously doubt we’ll see any meaningful gun reform getting passed on Capitol Hill.
Which is why I think that we need to be doing more to get guns in the hands of the American people and to encourage more men and women to get concealed weapons permits. As the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre so eloquently said, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Logically, we should begin by arming the group that is most often the victim of gun violence.
And so ladies and gentlemen, I think it’s time we all vow to do whatever it takes to ensure that this demographic receives the protection that they, as Americans, deserve. We can urge Congress to pass laws. We can create a petition on the official White House website. We can start a Kickstarter campaign.
Of course, I’m speaking about African Americans.
As you may know, African Americans as a whole are nine times more likely to be victims of gun violence than all other groups, according to the Department of Justice. One reason: Far fewer blacks own guns than whites (27 percent compared to 44 percent). In fact, blacks at all income levels are disproportionately victims of gun violence compared to whites.
Unfortunately, arming all African Americans and ensuring that they receive concealed weapons permits is most likely cost prohibitive. Fortunately, I have a solution. Let’s focus on the most victimized group within that victimized group: young black men.
According to another DOJ report, young black men “have accounted for about 1 percent of the population from 1980 to 2008, but, they have made up an increasing proportion of homicide victims, going from 9 percent of all homicide victims in 1980 to 18 percent in 1994.” By comparison, young white men account for 6 percent of the population and only about 10 percent of homicide victims. Clearly, our priorities are misplaced.
So, with all that in mind, I urge the members of the NRA to address this issue. They are our nation’s unqualified leaders when it comes to these matters, and it’s because of them that Obama and the rest of the liberal Left have been unable to further destroy our 2nd Amendment right to own a gun and protect ourselves and our families.
Hopefully, in the coming weeks and days the NRA will make this matter a part of their platform and begin leading the charge to get more legal guns into the hands of more young black men and to make sure that each and every one of them is granted a concealed weapons permit. Let freedom ring.
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