(ThyBlackMan.com) Believing they have a good campaign issue for 2026, Trump and Republican Congressional candidates will go into overdrive talking about violence and crime, in particular, if not exclusively, violence and crime in urban centers. So, let’s talk about violence and crime.
An eight-year-old and ten-year while sitting in a church pew in the act of worship were savagely and ruthlessly murdered. Just another day in the USA.
It is added to the growing list of such ungodly shootings in houses of worship. It joins the Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina and the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh to name just two that confound the mind.
An eleven-year-old boy playing a child’s game with other children rings a doorbell and runs away. “Ding, Dong, Ditch” the kids call it. They laugh as they run down the street to the next house to repeat the same act. Kids being kids, playing kids games.
Shock, horror and sadness replace the laughter as the eleven-year-old boy lies on the ground crying for help after being shot in the back. A gun owner must have thought his life was in danger. Why else would a grown man shoot an eleven-year-old boy in the back after the child rang his doorbell? Just another day in the USA.
It is estimated that there are 83-million-gun owners in the US. Many have multiple guns. There are more guns in the US than people.
The US has more guns by far than any other nation. In fact, it is estimated that there are more guns in the US than in all the other developed nations combined. Is there something seriously wrong with that picture?
Guns are manufactured solely to hurt, maim and kill. Civilized people are supposed to act civilized. Killing other people is not what civilized people do. Granted, guns do not pull their triggers and kill people. It is people who pull the triggers on guns who kill other people.
If the killer didn’t have a gun they would find some other weapon, a stone, brick, knife, pencil, pen to assist them in killing, gun rights advocates argue. However, it probably might be hard, much harder if the individual who fires off rounds and rounds and kills scores was left to use a stone or pen.
A child, a teen finds a gun inside their homes unaware that the gun is loaded and accidently ends up killing another child, teen or themselves. An adult who hears a strange noise outside their home. The adult reaches for a gun, adrenaline pumps through the person’s body. The adult empties the gun.
Because the person has not been to a firing range in a decade, if at all, the person hits everything but the squirrel that was the cause of the strange noise. Now the person looks down at the ground and sees a loved one or friend taking their last breath. The dying person’s blood flows freely from their body to the ground or floor creating a pool. Just another day in the USA.
Trump and Republican Congressional candidates will push the image that Washington DC, New York City, Baltimore, Los Angeles are out of control, lawless territories where crime and violence is prevalent. Crime statistics make such allegations false. That will not stop Trump and Republicans from saying it. Truth like the innocents of gun violence has been a victim for some time now.
It is also racist. However, that will not stop Trump or Republicans from saying it.
It has always been amazing that individuals who have no empathy for people who live in urban areas, who rigorously oppose programs and policies which would improve the wellbeing of people in urban areas, are the ones who seemed so preoccupied with calling out alleged violence in Chicago and other urban centers.
Do they really care about violence in particular gun violence in Chicago? Or part of some weird lame racist point supposedly directed at President Barack Obama because he lived in Chicago?
For years, the gun lobby and its supporters vigorously espoused the Second Amendment right for citizens to own guns. That American citizens need guns to prevent a hostile federal government going against We the People.
That one day there might be an evil, ungodly cabal headed by a demonic tyrant who would snatch away the citizens’ right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That would shut down longstanding institutions, debase traditions and conventions.
That would turn the government of the People, by the People for the People into a private social club that the demonic leader and his or her cabal games for their own personal enrichment.
The gun lobby and its no restrictions, no controls, gun right zealots maintained the Second Amendment was there to prevent such from occurring.
The Second Amendment to the US Constitution does not give citizens the right to own guns. Nor does it prevent it. The US Constitution is silent on the issue of individual citizens having guns.
The US Supreme Court in 2008 ruled that the Second Amendment gave individual citizens the right to own weapons. As we have seen with other US Supreme Court rules a future Court might rule differently.
As for gun rights advocates, most have no idea what the Second Amendment or any of the other Amendments to the US Constitution says since it is doubtful they have taken the time to read it. Then again, they are no different than the hundreds of millions who apparently never read the Seventh Commandment, “Thou shall not kill.” Although, it probably would not have made a difference with a lot of people. But that is another story.
What the Second Amendment states is that “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
At the time the Second Amendment was written there was no federal army. Individuals who had fought to gain independence from England using their own weapons were the militia.
When the US government established its federal army, the federal army was to serve as the well-regulated militia to prevent the rights of the people from being subverted by a future evil federal government.
Despite having a federal army, the gun lobby and its supporters maintain there is also a need for citizens to bear arms to prevent a tyranny enslaving the people.
Using the narrative of the gun lobby we can expect any day to see a majority of the 83-million-gun owners bearing arms marching on the White House and other federal buildings to prevent the current regime slithering further into a dictatorship.
With the exception of the “internet warriors” on their cell phones, iPad, laptops and computers, US gun owners are not thinking about marching anywhere but to their local beer and burger joint.
If an individual is counting on US gun owners to save the nation from tyranny, they may want to rethink that position. They have a greater chance of hitting the Powerball four consecutive draws than seeing that happening.
If Trump and others in Congress were serious about crime, violence, law and order they would enact sensible gun control measures. They would outlaw all assault and military type weapons. Require mandatory thorough and efficient background checks. Such background checks should include psychological evaluation.
If individuals are required to register their automobiles, then they should be required to register all of their guns. Owners of guns should be required to undergo regular gun training programs to both enhance their marksmanship and safety procedures.
As for shooting unarmed deer and rabbits, hunting should be outlawed. It clearly is no sport. It is uncivilized, barbaric and in conflict with the Seventh Commandment.
Thou shall not kill was not just about mankind. Not that it would make a difference since mankind has clearly been unable to follow that Commandment in dealing with itself. God’s other creatures must wonder when humans will become civilized.
Governments at all levels in the US must do more to ensure that people in all communities feel free to sit under their fig tree and not be afraid.
Using fear tactics and false narratives about crime and violence in the 2026 election for votes should be deemed by all parties irresponsible and un-American.
Finally, Americans need to judge their society not in terms of its technological devices and advances but how we treat each other as human beings. Hurting, maiming and killing is not civilized.
America may proclaim its great technological accomplishments but the actions of its people in how they treat each other suggest that they are nothing more than cave dwellers.
Staff Writer; Al Alatunji
Question or comment regarding this article? Feel free to send a message to: Alatunji@ThyBlackMan.com.
