(ThyBlackMan.com) The radical right came after NBC Sportscaster Bob Costas, as he spoke in support of comments made by an African-American sportswriter, Jason Whitlock, as they also did yours truly. We had expressed discontent with the gun violence that has run amok in the cities of urban America. The death of still another accomplished black athlete, Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend Casandra Perkins, should once again prove handgun violence is exacerbated by lax gun laws.
Whitlock spoke out against gun issues and the NFL’s handling of Jovan Belcher’s suicide/murder and gun issues in his Sunday FoxSports.com column. During Roland Martin’s podcast, he likened the NRA to the Ku Klux Klan and tied the group to the dangerous street culture that unfortunately dominates “so many black youths.” Whitlock went on to say, “You know, I did not go as far as I’d like to go because my thoughts on the NRA and America’s gun culture — I believe the NRA is the new KKK. And that the arming of so 
many black youths, uh, and loading up our community with drugs, and then just having an open shooting gallery, is the work of people who obviously don’t have our best interests [at heart].” Unfortunately the radical right believes any attempt at gun control is a slap at Second Amendment rights. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
I stand by my assertion as expressed in my previous ThyBlackMan article, titled: Why Gun Control Has Nothing to Do With the 2nd Amendment.. Because these self-appointed arbiters of the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms), and the gun lobby, mostly bolstered by the NRA, thinks every episode of gun violence is the exception as opposed to the rule.
My trouble is with that same rationale espoused by the constitution that branded all blacks as 3/5 of a human. We live in an America today that is viewed as a land of opportunity for all. It is not just for those that bear an affinity to an antiquated concept that allows cowards such as George Zimmerman to murder an innocent victim, Trayvon Martin. They hide themselves behind a states asinine “stand your ground” law.
I agree with Whitlock as he states emphatically in the same article: “I think it’s obvious if you’ve traveled abroad, and traveled to countries where they have legitimate gun laws, that we don’t have to have what we have in America, where people somehow think a gun enhances their liberty, and that people somehow think a gun makes them safer.” What kind of society becomes complacent with a statistic that says the Number 1 cause of death for African-American males between 13 and 24 is homicide?
Most murders in the United States are committed with firearms, especially handguns. In 2011, firearms were used in 68 percent of murders, 42 percent of robbery offenses and 22 percent of aggravated assaults, nationwide. If we are to be viewed as a loving, kind and God-fearing nation, we have got to get a handle on the gun control issue, for it surely has a handle on us.
Staff Writer; Stanley G. Buford
Feel free to connect with this brother via Twitter; Stanley G. and also facebook http://www.facebook.com/sgbuford.
