The fierce urgency of now: Saving America’s children
15th May 2023 · 0 Comments
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there “is” such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency.
This is a time for vigorous and positive action.” — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. King’s prophetic words still ring in the ears of those who care about life – their lives and the lives of all humans.
Somehow, messages to love thy neighbor and treat others as you want to be treated have fallen on many deaf ears. The wanton murders, injuries, and killing of America’s children bear witness to the fact that the lives of our most precious resource, our future, our children, hold no value in the eyes of gun owners who kill for the slightest provocation.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens ages 1-19. Every year, 18,000 children and teens are shot and killed or wounded. Approximately three million are exposed to gun violence, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in America.
As of May 9, 2023, the Gun Violence Archive reports that 96 children have been killed due to gun violence in the U.S. this year.
On Sunday, May 7, a 14-year-old girl was shot in the back of the head by David Van Doyle, 58, while playing hide and seek on his property in Starks, Louisiana, near the Texas and Louisiana border. The child survives but will undoubtedly bear physical and mental scars for the rest of her life.
According to a neighbor, on April 18, Robert Louis Singletary, 24, allegedly shot and wounded a 6-year-old girl and her father after a basketball rolled onto his law in Gastonia, North Carolina.
And then there’s the case of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl shot by Andrew Lester, 84, when he rang the wrong doorbell while trying to pick up his younger twin brothers from a friend’s home in Kansas City, Missouri.
There are more cases of children being injured or killed by gun-toting people than in any previous year.
According to a Pew Research Center report, gun deaths among America’s kids rose 50 percent in the last two years. More children and teens were killed by guns in 2021 than in any year since 1999, the first year the CDC began tracking the data.
Homicide was the largest single category of gun deaths among children and teens in 2021, accounting for 60 percent that year.
Against the rising tide of anti-Black rhetoric from white nationalists, it is not surprising that 46 percent of all gun deaths among children and teens involved Black victims, even though only 14 percent of the U.S. under-18 population that year was Black. Pew’s chart shows that Black children are five times as likely as white children to die from gunfire in 2021.
But that was in 2021. Further studies may show that all children, regardless of racial or ethnic identity, may become victims of gun violence.
It’s not hyperbole to say that America’s children are walking in the shadow of death. Mass shootings at schools, malls, grocery stores, public events, and crazy neighbors with guns make parents fear the worst.
America’s life expectancy has been falling in recent years, from 79 in 2019 to 76 in 2021, driven by the pandemic, the rise of gun violence, and drug overdoses, Axios reports. But given how things are going in our gun fetish society, many Americans won’t live to see 20, let alone 70-something.
It’s often said that there are more guns than people in the U.S. But because elected officials in certain states are removing gun restrictions, we’ll never get an exact count. Yet, the rise in gun violence, the ability to purchase guns without background checks, permits, training, or any safety measures has and will continue to lead to a proliferation of guns, gun violence, and gun deaths in the United States.
It’s not rocket science. More guns, more death.
In “Dying Young in The United States: What’s Driving High Death Rates Among Americans Under Age 25 and What Can Be Done?” Richard Rogers and other scholars found that “Americans ages 15 to 24 are twice as likely to die as their peers in France, Germany, Japan, and other wealthy nations. While mortality rates for young people have been steadily declining in these nations, rates have remained stagnant or risen in the United States among every age group under 25.”
The fierce urgency of now is upon all Americans. United in thoughts and prayers and expressing outrage and sorrow is not cutting it. Action is needed.
Rogers and his colleagues offered several policy suggestions that can reduce gun deaths among children and youth:
• Institute universal background checks, waiting periods, and gun safety training.
• Repeal concealed-carry licenses.
• Ban assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and bump stocks. Restrict gun ownership by persons with criminal records, pass extreme risk protection order laws, and use restraining orders to reduce gun access among youth and people at risk of harming themselves or others (for example, domestic abuse cases).
• Increase the legal age to buy a gun.
• Fund research into the risk factors for and effects of gun violence to support evidence-based policy decisions to reduce gun injuries and deaths.
According to Brady United, most Americans support stronger gun laws that are proven to reduce deaths.
If policymakers and legislators passed laws based on researchers’ and gun safety advocates recommendations, many American lives would be saved.
It is the bitterest of ironies that those who profess to be pro-life are impotent and unwilling to do what is needed to save our children, to dispel the shadow of death that hangs over them and us.
But they won’t. They can’t give up the money, power, and luxuries they buy due to being bought and paid for by gun rights lobbyists.
“In 2019, the NRA spent $3.22 million to benefit the political campaigns of senators who oppose gun safety legislation. In 2020, they spent $2.20 million. These senators refuse to support common-sense gun reform, like expanding Brady Background Checks and banning assault weapons,” the Brady Group reported regarding U.S. senators.
Based on OpenSecrets data, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence published a list of U.S. senators who took money from gun rights lobbyists throughout their careers. The listing was focused on senators in the 116th Congress, which ended January 3, 2021.
Forty-eight Republican senators, including Louisiana’s Senator John Neely Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, are on the list. Kennedy received $215,788, and Cassidy, a medical doctor, took even more. Cassidy got $2,870,574. Doctors are supposed to save lives, not turn their back on gun violence that takes lives.
Louisiana experiences an average of 1,036 gun deaths per year. So, is it fair to say that its senators have blood on their hands? What about the state legislators? Concealed carry weapons with a permit are legal. A pending bill would reduce the permit fee from $100 to $250.
It’s evident. Louisianans can’t count on their elected officials to do anything about gun violence or lift a finger to stop children from being gunned down. So, it’s up to voters to vote the uncaring politicians out. 2024 is coming.
This article originally published in the May 15, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
