Take the 2nd Amendment as Seriously as the 1st or Shut Up! (It could be the law)

To those strident voices who are, in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, calling for the abolition of the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because it is old and outdated, I offer this.

The 1st Amendment, ratified 222 years ago, guarantees your freedom of speech. You may not like what I say, but I get to say it, AND you get to disagree with me without fear of being locked up or shut up.

The 19th Amendment, ratified 93 years ago, protects the voting rights of women. Frankly, I've heard my wife, my mother and my sister say things that make me cringe at the very idea that they get to help elect our leadership. (I love you ladies dearly) But guess what? That freedom should always remain.

In my humble opinion, the rap star Flavor Flav (google him) is as dumb as a box of rocks, but his right to enter a voting booth and fill out a ballot is sacred according to the 143 year old, 15th Amendment and it should remain so.

Only one time has the U.S. Constitution been amended in the direction of restricting freedom, that was the short-lived Eighteenth Amendment which brought us Prohibition and a flourishing black market in alcohol. It lasted only 13 years and was overruled. The people's right to drunken debauchery shall not be infringed.

Should the President be able to repeal, by executive order, the 222 year old, 2nd Amendment? The answer is no! Remember, the U.S. Constitution was written with the express purpose of limiting the power of the Federal Government. The Federal Government cannot now remove amendments to suit a given agenda.

The constitution of the United States is the bedrock of our freedom and should only be amended in the direction of expanding our liberties and not restricting them.

Everyone should be concerned when government begin talking about restricting our freedoms.
Whether you have a black or brown face, whether you shave your legs before going out, like to enjoy a beer during the playoffs or blog your content or discontent with our current President, your rights are being protected.
Persons who own guns deserve to have that right protected as well.

Why White America Ignores Urban Gun Violence

While we as a nation continue to try and wrap our collective head around the unspeakable tragedy that occurred in Newtown on December 14^th 2012, and as the issues of gun control, gun violence and mental health are now firmly planted on the front burner of our political stove, there are some people in the black community asking the question, what took you so long to recognize gun violence as a problem because black people have been dealing with this for years?  Dr Cornel West laments that there is “not a peep, not a mumbling word when black folk get shot.”

 Truth is…black children shoot each other with such regularity that it is no longer a big deal.

 The list of young black homicide victims and their murderers is so long that it just blurs into a large bloody tapestry on the back wall of American society that goes largely unnoticed because it is always right there.  

 The questions that I am more interested in are…Why do so many of our children have so little regard for the sanctity of human life that they can pull a trigger and end a life as easily as flicking off a light switch? And, what can we do to reverse this process? Because new gun laws alone aren’t going to do it. We have far too many young black men with no fathers, no values, no direction, and no hope.

The city of New Haven alone has seen fifty-one murders in the past twenty-one months but the level of outrage from the parents, politicians, and clergy that matter most is sadly lacking. Then of course there is the city of Chicago with 500 homicides in 2012 alone.

By the way, since 2001 the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan is about 2000. During the same time period more 5,000 people have been killed by gunfire in and around Chicago, the overwhelming majority of the victims were black.

 With numbers like these it is no wonder that there is little to no media coverage of violence in our urban centers.  In American culture things that happen every day and all day aren’t special.

It doesn’t mean that not every violent death is a tragedy because make no mistake every life that is cut short is a huge loss not only to the family but to society as a whole which is robbed of the promise that resides within every human life.

 I’m typing these words on the morning of January 1^st 2013 and already in Chicago 11 people have been shot since midnight, including 20 year old Octavius Dontrell Lamb, who will never see a full day of 2013.

In Philadelphia at around 12:30am a 17 year old boy was shot and killed. By 3:00am there were two more bodies littering the streets of the city of brotherly love.

In my native city of Cleveland, at  2:50am police found an unidentified black male shot to death on the front porch of an east side home.

The reason the mainstream media pays so little attention to these killings of mostly black and brown people has less to do  with racism than the simple fact there are just too many of them.

 If we believe that constant exposure to violence on television and in video games desensitizes children and adults to violence in real life, then why is it so hard to believe that constant exposure to gun violence in our minority communities would desensitize the rest of the nation to the true impact and depth of this very real national tragedy?

 Black people shoot each other with such regularity that it is no longer news, it is just normal.

And folks, white people can’t fix that, only black people can.

This is why I am choosing to focus my efforts on inspiring and motivating as many young minds as possible with the idea that their lives are valuable and filled with the promise of greatness and opportunity. Maybe some of those young minds will in turn begin to see value in the lives of their peers as well.

 

Wayne Winsley is a former U.S. Congressional Candidate, award winning speaker and author. He lives in Connecticut.