Thrive
Waveney Ann Moore: A tug-of-war of rights, guns vs. life
This month will mark the second year Juneteenth will be celebrated as a federal holiday.
The June 19 observation commemorates the long-delayed freedom of African Americans in Texas, who’d remained enslaved more than two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
Historically Black Prairie View A&M University in Texas puts the Juneteenth moment into context with an essay on its website, “The Emancipation Proclamation — Freedom Realized and Delayed.”
“We knew freedom was on us, but we didn’t know what was to come with it,” the essay quotes former slave Felix Haywood from the Federal Writers’ Slave Narrative Project.
“We thought we were going to get rich like the white folks. We thought we were going to be richer than the white folks, because we were stronger and knew how to work, and the whites didn’t, and we didn’t have to work for them anymore. But it didn’t turn out that way. We soon found out that freedom could make folks proud but it didn’t make them rich.”
In a view from the other side, the Galveston Daily News wrote: “Their freedom can never make them the equals of the white race. … God himself has made a marked distinction between the white and black races, which no human laws, nor all the abolitionists in the world, can ever obliterate.”
One hundred and fifty-seven years on, the country continues its painful writhing. And Juneteenth again arrives amid times fraught with strife and pain.
The celebration of freedom for some, enshrined in the Thirteenth Amendment, comes as debate rages anew about another coveted Constitutional freedom – the right to bear arms.
Even as the cities of Uvalde, Buffalo and others weep fresh tears, gun rights advocates hold fast to the Constitution’s Second Amendment, with no hint of yielding to restrictions. It seems not to matter how many lives their freedom destroys – people going about their daily lives in a supermarket; children and their teachers at school; the faithful at worship.
How can anyone bear to look at the photograph of a now dead 9-year-old, posing innocently in her white, lace First Communion dress, and have no qualms about insisting on the indiscriminate right to own and wield an AR-15-style weapon? How can it not pain any human being to think of the families and friends left to mourn?
Holidays will never be the same. There will be no birthday celebrations. No graduations. Every potential milestone will mean another heartbreak.
From many of those who can make a difference, there’s been mostly deafening silence, political posturing, defiance or endless platitudes. The problem’s not guns, some say. It’s people. Bad people. Mentally ill people. People who want to usurp the Second Amendment rights of the country’s gun owners.
Mass shootings get the most publicity, but gun deaths happen every day. Here in Florida, an average year sees 2,849 people die by guns and 4,270 are wounded by them, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. Sixty-two percent of gun deaths in the state are by firearm suicide, the group says. Gun homicides increased 40 percent from 2011 to 2020.
The CDC says firearms were involved in 79 percent of all homicides nationwide in 2020, and 53 percent of all suicides.
Late last month in St. Petersburg, a 12-year-old girl was shot in the leg at the Childs Park Recreation and Fitness Center. Thankfully, she wasn’t seriously injured.
Police spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez said a 15-year-old boy was arrested for the shooting and charged with discharging a firearm in public and carrying a concealed weapon. How did he get that gun?
The city has seen eight homicides, seven with firearms, so far this year. Four victims were white. Four were Black.
Of the 33 homicides last year, 30 were with guns. A breakdown by race shows 23 of those who were killed were Black, seven were white, two, Asian, and one, Hispanic.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is talking about allowing guns to be carried without a permit, a troubling trend across the country. I can’t be the only one worried about an empowered gun owner ready to shoot a shopper who might accidentally jostle them in a supermarket checkout line, and if they miss, injure or kill innocent bystanders.
On another note, last week the governor signed into law additional school safety measures, saying in a statement, “Every child needs a safe and secure learning environment.” Without question.
Political leaders across the nation must be courageous about passing effective gun safety laws to ensure that everyone can be safe.
Like many others, I wonder whether those who refuse to accept any kind of consequential gun laws callously ignore the tragedies in Uvalde, Buffalo, Parkland, at the Pulse nightclub, Sandy Hook Elementary School, and sadly, so many others, just to protect their Second Amendment rights.
The rights of gun owners shouldn’t supersede the right of children to grow up. And questions shouldn’t have to be asked about how one reconciles being anti-abortion, ultra-religious, patriotic and yet refuse to protect the lives of those who are already here on Earth. Like a little girl who just celebrated her First Communion. A Black father buying a birthday cake for his child. Beloved teachers. Fellow Americans.
It can’t be more important to score a political point and ensure political power than to save a life. Start with the children. Think of them as your very own.
Benji
June 12, 2022at9:26 am
This editorial begins by mentioning Juneteenth, though I’m not sure what it had to do with the broader point. It does, however, make me consider what life would be like in a time when a broad population of humans were denied basic rights. I believe every human deserves these God-given rights, chief among which are the freedom to express yourself and the freedom to defend that right to express yourself against those who wish you harm. I believe this right should be afforded to all humans. If, from the founding of our country, it had been, I believe our country would look a lot different today.
These issues are obviously important, and warrant a serious discussion. I do not believe, however, that such a serious discussion can exist amidst straw men, false dichotomies, and heavy appeals to emotion. I don’t think it is fair to frame the argument as guns vs. life. To insinuate that those who believe in the second amendment don’t care for life is fallacious. We live in a dangerous world. These tools exist. It’s unfortunate that they are used to carry out such evils, but so long as people have these tools, it is necessary for responsible individuals to have the right to defend themselves. Again, my mind goes to Juneteenth—if those individuals whose human liberty had been denied were able to arm themselves, they may not have been oppressed for so long. Many whom I’ve talked to think it’s silly to believe that there may come a time where we must defend ourselves against our own police/military/government, but I believe it’s naive to think we have done away with the danger of government overreach and tyranny entirely. There are also those who have guns illegally, with the express intent to use them for crime. Putting certain arms in the black market will lead to a situation where only government, police and criminals have access to these guns, and criminal syndicates will make even more money now that these arms can only be bought from them. It’s hard for me to believe that this strategy will decrease violence, criminality, or incarceration. To imply the only way to preserve life is to limit a law-abiding individual’s access to certain arms ignores the real issue at hand.
At the root of this article is appeal to emotion. I expect it every time something horrible happens with a firearm. When emotions run high, however, it is often used to manipulate people into voting for or considering legislation that may not have their best interests in mind. There is a good faith debate to be had on this topic among those who really care about solving these issues. Insinuating, as Waveney Ann does at the end of this article, that those who oppose gun restrictions are anti-life, anti-abortion, and ultra-religious, engages in ad-homonym against those who may disagree, serving only to enflame the emotions of those who read this, further attempting to put people in a political box. There is nuance to all these ideas, however, and all the labels that are taken for granted at this essays conclusion deserve conversations of their own.
Believe me, I wish we lived in a world with no violence. But human rights are important, and should truly be considered on a principled level. We ought to let humans have the right to defend themselves. As we consider Juneteenth, let us consider what it would have been like if those who were enslaved had the right to speak freely, to worship freely, to trade freely, and to bear arms, the latter being necessary to preserve these freedoms—we know all too well that without the ability to defend themselves, the formerly enslaved were denied every freedom.
Let us move forward with love for our brothers and sisters 🙏🏾 May all those who have found hardship in this dangerous world find blessing and support from their community.
John Avery
June 11, 2022at11:56 pm
I believe in the entire Second Amendment, the part about the right to bear arms, and the part about it being well-regulated. Oh, and by the way, the Constitution has nothing to say at all about ammunition. It’s time to very seriously regulate ammunition, which has no constitutional protection at all.
Pamela T Green
June 11, 2022at5:38 pm
Thank you for this well written article. Everyone needs to read it! I’m forwarding it to our senators!
Kitty Rawson
June 10, 2022at8:25 pm
Thank you, Waveney Ann, for opening your heart to us. When will politicians start paying attention?
Kitty Rawson