My feelings of anger, sadness, and frustration at this
nation for allowing violent acts to continue leaves me numbed by each new
atrocity. Numb enough to be once again
pushed into a paroxysm of grief and anger.
But not numb enough to be silent.
First, let’s get something clear: The U.S. has never been a safe place for
people of color or for people of different faiths. From the witch trials of the north, to the klan
night riders in the south, and to the abuse and mistreatment of first peoples from
1492 onward, the history is unambiguous.
So please don’t be shocked that there are people in this country who
hate enough to harm others and to do that without provocation.
It may be hard to acknowledge, but hate-fueled
action has been a consistent feature of every era. Just ask the Jews who were attacked by the
mobs incited by Father Charles
Coughlin in the New York of the 1930s. Or the victims of “race
riots” where White mobs attacked Black communities with impunity from
the mid-1800s into the 1940s. And it’s
not just faith that people use to attack others. Let’s not forget the killings of Matthew
Shepherd or Harvey Milk. Violence toward
people who are different has been our history.
Let’s own that. And let’s keep
working to confront and eradicate it.
What’s definitely gotten worse is the means by which people
who hate can carry out their acts. The
evil attack at Charleston’s
Emanuel AME and the one recently at Pittsburgh’s
Tree of Life were carried out by men who were able to transfer their
hate into the trigger and magazine of an assault-style weapon. Access to such weapons means that a lone
actor can inflict significantly more damage than in past generations. Through the 2008 Supreme Court Columbia v. Heller decision that overturned 200 years of
precedent, the nation has accepted a revised
understanding of the Second Amendment to mean something that the authors
of the Second Amendment never intended. And
here we are again.
So maybe we can’t soon change the minds of people intent on
hate – at least I’m convinced that we can’t do it quickly enough to prevent the
next tragedy. But we can, as
other civilized nations have, limit access to a weapon of war that
even military professionals can’t touch until they complete extensive
training. So as we’re countering the
debased public ramblings and veiled hate speech from a president who should be
leading us, let’s also stop putting weapons of war into the hands of people who
hate enough to use them. By all
measures, when the nation banned assault weapons for a decade, the number
and scope of mass assaults was reduced. It’s time to demand that these weapons are
once again banned.
