In a piece at BlackAmericaWeb, Don Lemon takes lawmakers to task on gun violence in America in the aftermath of recent mass shootings. He says they must make significant changes to gun laws if things are going to change.
Well, first let's remove the politics and truthfully talk about gun laws, about gun violence. After the Newtown shooting President Obama commissioned the Center for Disease Control to research gun violence and offer solutions. And the study was completed this summer and it just might make you rethink your stance, your view, on the issue. It did for me. It's making me rethink it. I'm going to cite the CDC study and I'm going to cite an article from Slate magazine, which find that no surprise we, the United States of America, have the worst gun related homicide problem of any industrialized country in the world. Almost 20% higher than the homicide rates of any other "high income country in the world." …
So, while the studies show that most gun violence, and most crime in the country, are not worse, it's going down, it's still an epidemic. And as a person who often walks down the street in some of those cities and who lives in a big urban city himself it makes me wonder for all of us. If our lawmakers, including the President, won't step up and make significant changes in gun laws, in gun registration, background checks, mental health, if gun purchases continue to grow and flood the streets, it makes me wonder that by some of us not owning a gun, or at least embracing the idea of one, are we setting ourselves up to be victims in a movie theater, a school, a public building, most of all in our streets, in our own neighborhoods, and in our own homes.
And armed with just our cellphones, our fists and our wits, are we setting ourselves up to be sitting ducks, defenseless in the face of a sane, or an insane person, armed to the teeth and bent on killing.
Read Don Lemon's entire piece at BlackAmericaWeb.
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