There is a place in this country in which more citizens died of gun violence in a single week than did American soldiers on the battlefields of Iraq. Given such an analysis, one could argue that statistically speaking, this American venue was, over the course of this particular week, more dangerous and violent than Kabul or Baghdad. Had this type of violence been occurring Oh, say 225 years ago, beloved founding fathers such as Jefferson, Franklin and Washington might have been victim to its consequences. The nation would have cried out over the loss of these pioneers and patriots as if a part of our collective national being would seem to have been ripped away prematurely due to senseless and preventable violence. Though the victims of this scourge are not great leaders but often young, African-American men, I still feel as if their deaths have left a stain on the character of America.
"The human cost of gun violence is devastating to the soul of the city and weakens the fabric of our region."
~John Street, Mayor of Philadelphia
The Continental Congress met there. Twice. Former capital of the United States from 1790-1800. A focal point in the American Revolutionary War. The site of the creation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Our nation's fifth most populous metropolitan area.
First it was eight gun deaths over the course of one weekend. Then it was 18 gun deaths in the course of one week. And at its peak, 22 gun deaths over the course of nine days in this city that should otherwise shine as a beacon of our rich history and the promise of our future.
Currently, 28,000 people have gun permits in this city with a population of 1.5 million. This pales in comparison with New York City, a city with a population more than four times larger, where only 16,000 permits were handed out. So if you are following along, that's four times as many people and nearly half as many gun permits in NYC. What are all of these people hunting in Philly? Besides each other I mean.
In this fair city that I call home, 82 percent of homicides were caused by guns last year. In a three-year period from 2001 to 2004, almost 5,000 people were killed with guns, and almost 500 were juveniles. The authorities have enforced all of the federal and state gun regulations. They have even instituted their own special programs to fight narcotics-driven violence and offered amnesty to gun owners for turning in their weapons to authorities in exchange for compensation. After this recent rash of violence, the city administration is at a loss for solutions. The quote from Mayor Street that I cited above was selected from a letter that he wrote to our state's governor pleading with him for state assistance for cracking down on guns in the city. The leader of our nation's fifth largest city is begging his governor to help him end the overwhelming violence in his city.
These deaths are not all being committed by previously convicted criminals. These guns are being stolen from people who have purchased them legally and used against the innocent. There just is no practical purpose for these weapons in this city or any similar metropolitan venue. The only "sport" being undertaken here is that of murder and lawlessness on the part of offenders empowered by these heinous weapons to which our culture still so tightly clings. This admiration for guns is about as senseless as the violence being exacted through their use.
As far as I am concerned, the Constitution is a living, breathing document. If rational human beings cannot sit down and decide together that 225 years worth of social change and human progress might mandate a deeper look at and perhaps an prudent alteration of our nation's laws, then we are in trouble. Places as different as Philadelphia and Red Lake, Minn., are in trouble because of our refusal to relinquish these weapons of mass destruction to the dustbin of history. Struggling against this culture of violence that is perpetuated by those who tell us to "err on the side of life" and to foster a "culture of life," the administration in Philadelphia has almost been forced to wage a full-scale war against gun ownership in the city. They've reached the conclusion that this particular right, this specific pursuit of happiness being enjoyed by our nation's gun owners, means very little when stacked up against the lives and liberties being ended and impeded by the prevalence of gun violence in our society. When our leaders are slow to legislate change, the necessity of collective preservation demands it.
Recognizing that there is much more to crime prevention than gun control (a discussion for another day), I say this to our leaders: Take them away. All of them. Every single gun. Or at least restrict the hell out of them to the point that our families and friends are not being lost by the thousands every year in our "peaceful" nation with a climate of violence that, statistically, looks more like war than anything I've ever seen. Before the human cost of these highly preventable and needless acts devastates the soul of our society any further, please ... take them away.
