“We are caught in an inescapable
network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever
affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote these words in his April 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail,
in the same passage with his well-known warning that “Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” A few months later, Dr.
King wrote that the same culture of violence that killed Medgar Evers in
Mississippi in June 1963 and four little Black girls in Birmingham in
September 1963 had finally killed President Kennedy in November 1963
reminding us that it’s not possible to confine injustice, hatred, or
violence to one group or community. What is tolerated in one place will
eventually infect and affect everyone. People
walk from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument in Washington,
Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, during a march on Washington for gun control.
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When many people think about gun deaths in
America, the first stereotype that comes to mind is urban gun homicide—a
crisis that disproportionately affects the Black community. As a
result, too many people assume that despite recurring cases of often
labeled “isolated” or “unpredictable” mass gun violence primarily
committed by White male shooters, “ordinary” gun violence is mostly a
Black problem that is or should be the Black community’s responsibility
alone to solve. This is simply not true, although the Black community
must mount a much stronger and more persistent voice against gun
violence. The fact is that most Americans killed by guns are White, and most Americans who kill themselves or others with guns are White and our nation’s gun death epidemic is not simply a White or Black crisis but an American crisis.
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Between 1963 and 2010, 73 percent of gun
deaths in America were among Whites—over one million deaths. Large
numbers of White parents have borne the terrible burden of losing their
child to guns: Whites comprised 62 percent of child and teen gun deaths
between 1963 and 2010—exceeding 100,000 deaths. In 2010, 65 percent of
gun deaths among Americans of all ages were among non-Hispanic Whites,
as were 34 percent of gun deaths among children and teens. Gun deaths
were the second leading cause of death for non-Hispanic White children
and teens that year, second only to motor vehicle accidents, and the
fourth leading cause of death among non-Hispanic Whites ages 1 to 64
after cancers, heart disease, and non-gun accidents. Eighty-three
percent of White gun deaths were suicides, 14 percent were homicides,
and two percent were accidents. Among White children and teens, 63
percent of gun deaths were suicides, 26 percent were homicides, and nine
percent were accidents.
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The state with the highest overall number
of gun deaths among non-Hispanic Whites in 2010 was Texas, with 1,620,
followed by Florida, California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio,
Georgia, Tennessee, Arizona, and Michigan. The ten states with the
highest rates of gun deaths among non-Hispanic Whites were
Nevada, New Mexico, Alaska, Wyoming, Arizona, Mississippi, Montana,
Alabama, Louisiana, and West Virginia.
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The total of 31,328 people of all ages who
died from guns in 2010 included 20,427 Whites, 7,291 Blacks, 2,943
Latinos, 378 Asian-Americans, and 289 American Indians and Alaska
Natives.
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Where do all of these deaths leave us?
Fifty years later, it leaves us right back with Dr. King: there is no
point making gun violence just one group’s problem because we are all
caught in an inescapable network of mutuality without a place to hide
from pervasive guns and gun violence. Gun violence is a White problem because most gun death victims in America are White. Gun violence is a Black problem because Blacks are disproportionately more likely to be gun death victims. Gun violence is
a Latino and an Asian-American and an American Indian and Native
Alaskan problem because shamefully children and people of all races are
dying from guns.
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Gun violence is an urban problem that devastates cities like Chicago, and Detroit, and Tucson, Arizona, and Washington, D.C. Gun violence is
a suburban, small town, and rural problem that devastates places like
Newtown, Connecticut, and Conyers, Georgia, and Littleton and Aurora,
Colorado, and Pearl, Mississippi. Gun violence is a problem in states with strong gun laws because guns still travel in from states next door. Gun violence is a problem for parents who would never dream of owning a gun and
for parents whose guns are stored responsibly and safely because their
children share the same playdates and parks and schools and universities
and movie theaters and streets as children and adults who do have
access to guns and whose family members and friends do not store them
safely.
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Gun deaths are a tragedy for families whose loved ones are murdered. Gun deaths are
a tragedy for families whose loved ones commit suicide. We should take
our blinders off because when the 2010 gun death rate for non-Hispanic
Whites in the United States was nearly eight times higher than the
average gun death rate in 25 other high income countries—and the overall
gun death rate for all Americans was seven and a half times higher than
the average gun death rate in those countries—and when children are
killed or injured by guns every 30 minutes, gun violence is an all-American crisis.
Other countries have already made the decision to say no more. It is
time for all Americans to stand up, speak up, work together and do the
same for our children and all of us.
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OneLove
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:::MME:::
