Feb. 25, 2018

Toward a Multiracial Youth Coalition
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - One cannot help but be riveted by the outstanding response from the young survivors of the carnage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and their absolute audacity in confronting both Florida legislators and the President with their frustration at the absence of common sense gun control.

During a CNN Town Hall, student Cameron Kasky asked Senator Marco Rubio whether he would continue to take money from the National Rifle Association, the organization students have focused on as one of the reason there are no common sense gun laws. Rubio said he would continue to take money from the NRA (they own a $3 million slice of his hide), but that he would agree to change laws so no one under 21 could purchase an automatic weapon, and that he would agree to outlaw the bump stocks that transform semi-automatic weapons to automatic weapons.

All of the students who have spoken up have been impressive, so much so that CNN commentator Jack Kingston (former Georgia Republican congressman) and other of his ilk have asserted that these students are “crisis actors” who are being “manipulated” by “liberals” and “Democrats”. All you have to do is listen to one of these young people, hear the tears trailing at the end of their voices, and hear their frustrated voices rising into yelling, to know they have not been coached. The emotion is too raw, the feelings are too real, and one young woman told a CNN reporter that she “resented” the notion of manipulation. These young people are between 14 and 18, middle and upper-middle-class young people who have had the benefit of a civics education. They plan to March on Washington on March 14th, and have already attracted support from Oprah Winfrey, George and Amal Clooney, and others.

The Parkland young people have been savvy enough to note that their school was not shot up by an immigrant but by a homegrown terrorist. They have implicitly rejected the rhetoric that comes from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue about dangerous immigrants. Imagine that they actively reached out to some of the dreamers and encouraged them to be part of the youth movement for common sense gun laws. Some dreamers will be vulnerable to being deported as early as March 6. If these youth can combine their movements with their demands, they could develop a very powerful movement.

Imagine further, that the young people who have been exposed to gun violence on the streets of cities like Chicago and Washington, DC joined the Parkland movement, and that a group of diverse young people came together to push politicians to do better on legislation that affects their generation. This includes gun laws, but may also include health care, and access to education. Even though the Parkland young’uns come from middle-class backgrounds, they are surely aware of the narrowing of opportunities for the middle class. If these mostly white young people could join with youth of color, they could mirror the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King had when he talked about multiracial coalitions.

Perhaps I’m being overly optimistic about the possibility of a multiracial youth coalition. We have seen several young white men pick up automatic weapons and kill multiple people. Dylan Roof was just 21 when he killed nine African Americans at Emanuel African American Episcopal Church. Nikolas Cruz, the killer In Parkland, is 19. Even as the Parkland students galvanize, there are forces that are also galvanizing young people. These are the neo-Nazis, the white supremacists, and the downright racists who appeal to young white men who somehow feel that others have more opportunity than they do. These are the folks who listen to the siren call of 45’s rhetoric and eagerly embrace his divisiveness.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” is available via www.amazon.com for booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visit www.juliannemalveaux.com

 

 

Feb. 25, 2018

Students Across Nation March for Gun Control
By Amiyah King

High school teachers from Maryland and Washington gathered in front of the White House to demonstrate to demand President Trump address the issue of gun violence in the wake of 17 killed at a mass shooting in Parkland, Fla.  The students earlier marched to the Capitol to tell congressional leaders they want action to keep them safe from gun violence. PHOTO: Amiyah King/Howard University News Service

Classmates, from left, Sally Egan, EmmaMcMillan and Avery Brooks are classmates display their signs seekingbetter gun control.  There were similar student rallies across the nation. PHOTO: Amiyah King/Howard University News Service

(Trice Edney News Wire/Howard University News Service) - Tens of thousands of high school students across America were marked with an unexcused absence Wednesday, but everyone knew where they were.

In the Washington area, high school students from DC. Public Schools and from public schools in Maryland marched to the Capitol and then to the White House to demand Congress and the president institute gun control legislation that will keep them safe. The march was organized by students from Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Md., and Bethesda-Chevy Chase in Montgomery County, Md., in response to the recent shooting in Parkland, Fla.

It was exactly one week ago Wednesday that 19-year-olf Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 students and wounding dozens more. Cruz, who had been expelled from the school, was charged with 17 accounts of murder of his classmates, teachers and other school officials.  The shooting was the 18th school shooting in the first two months of this year.

Student survivors at the school have launched a nationwide effort to focus attention on gun control in the wake of the shooting.  Other student demonstrations were reported in Illinois, Florida and Texas.

Washington-area students walked out of their classes today at 9:30 a.m. where they followed each other in procession to Union Station where they joined other protestors who took public transportation from Maryland.  From Union Station, thousands of high schoolers marched to Capitol Hill and later participated in a sit-in demonstration outside the White House.

During the sit-in, students gathered in a semi-circle to hear leaders talk about why they were there.
“No more thoughts and prayers,” said student leader Daniel Shepard.  “If this isn’t the last school shooting, we’ll be out here every opportunity we get.”

In response to the speakers, students shouted, “No more silence and gun violence.  Hey, hey.  Ho, ho. the NRA (National Rifle Association) has got to go.”

Teachers and parents were mixed with the crowd of demonstrations either as chaperones or to provide support for their children and their cause.

“I don’t think they need my help,” said Mandi Mader, mother of three who attended the march in support of her children. “I’m just one more body to represent them here.”

Most students said they were advocating for the implementation of gun control laws in Congress as a solution to the crisis.

Talia Fleischer, a sophomore at her high school, said she hopes to see “a sign that something will be done in Congress.”

“Countries like Australia and England have great gun control laws, and they have no mass shootings,” she said.
In 1996, Australia passed the National Firearms Agreement after a mass shooting in Tasmania in April of that year. In that incident, a 28-year-old man, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, shot and killed 35 people, and injured 18 others<http://www.loc.gov/law/help/firearms-control/australia.php>, in what was known as the Port Arthur Massacre.Under the 1996 law, Australia banned certain semi-automatic, self-loading rifles and shotguns, and imposed stricter licensing and registration requirements.

Paul DeVries and his daughter, Brechje DeVries, were among the demonstrators.  Brechje DeVries, 17, moved from the Netherlands to the United States a year ago and attends high school in Maine.  Her father was in the U.S. for one of her sports activities in the Washington, and the two decided to attend the demonstration.

Brechje DeVries said mass shootings are almost unheard of in her country.  Her country has experienced only one mass shooting in its history. She said she is stunned and frightened by their frequency in the United States.
“It’s scary,” she said. “There have been threats at schools near me, so it definitely comes close to me.”

Her father said he is worried for his daughter.

“I feel the frustration,” he said.  “There are a lot of teenagers here. and I think that speaks for itself.”
Joseph Byler, a senior at his school, said the Florida shooting is what sparked him to attend.

“[I hope] the inability of Congress to pass gun control policies disappears,” Byler said. “I hope after today, we get universal background checks on gun purchases.”

Since the shooting in Florida, President Trump has flirted with the idea of proposing restrictions to purchasing guns, from more intense background checks for gun purchasers to the elimination of bump stocks, the tool the Las Vegas shooter used to kill more than 50 people.

Via Twitter, Trump said, “Whether we are Republican or Democrat, we must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!”

Trump, who received millions of dollars in support from the National Rifle Association in his run for presidency, until now has consistently backed away from any restrictions on guns.

Student protestor Steven Vasquez said his school has armed security and students feel relatively safe.
"But not right now,” Vasquez said. “Hopefully our kids dying will help the government see that they need to do something.”

February 25, 2018

To Be Equal 

Nothing Stands In The Way Of Gun Reform But Lack of Courage and Political Will. The Teens of Parkland Have Both

By Marc H. Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - This is our first task, caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged. And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we’re meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm? – President Barack Obama, prayer vigil for victims of Newtown shooting, 2012.

Nearly 20 years ago, in the wake of what was then the worst school mass shooting, I led a bipartisan group of mayors urging Congress to pass major gun reform legislation.

The Gun Violence Task Force of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, of which I was President, called for reforms including raising the minimum age for purchasing and possessing a handgun from 18 to 21, requiring background checks at guns shows and limiting gun purchases to one a month per individual.

As horrified as we were then, just after the Columbine shooting in 1999, we could not have imagined the next 19 years would bring not reforms, but even more lenient gun laws; another 200-plus school shootings, and more than 122 students, teachers and coaches slain.

The Everytown for Gun Safety coalition, to which National Urban League belongs, has tallied the number of school shootings so far in 2018 at 17. The number is disputed by those who believe accidental gunfire should not be counted, but what a tragic statistic over which to haggle.

Mass shootings garner headlines but gun violence kills an average of 96 Americans every single day. We need reform at every level. The National Urban League supports:

• a criminal background check for every gun sale. States that require background checks for all handgun sales see about half the rate of firearm deaths among domestic violence victims, law enforcement in the line of duty and suicides, and about half as much gun trafficking in cities.

• renewal of the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, commonly known as the assault weapons ban. The AR-15 rifle, used in many of the deadliest recent mass shootings, uses 30-round magazines, allowing a shooter to fire about a hundred rounds per minute.

• keeping guns out of the hands of convicted domestic abusers. Half the women killed with guns in the U.S. are murdered by their partners – about 50 women every month. More than half of mass shootings involved the killing of a partner or relative.

• education, technology and laws that keep guns out of the hands of children. American children are 16 times more likely to die via gunshot than in other developed countries, usually as a result of playing with a gun in their own homes.

• a strong federal trafficking law to crack down on illegal gun trafficking networks. Ninety percent of the guns found at crime scenes in New York City were originally bought out of state and brought to the city illegally. The current law that prohibits “selling guns without a federal license,” carries the same punishment as trafficking chicken or livestock.

For those of us who’ve long been engaged in the fight to reform our nations gun laws, the movement that has arisen in the wake of last week’s Parkland, Florida, shooting has brought both inspiration and hope.  Nothing stands in the way of common sense reform but our own lack of courage and political will. The teenagers of Parkland have both.

Feb. 20, 2018

Those Who Do Nothing on Gun Control Fail Our Children
By Jesse Jackson 

NEWS ANALYSIS/SPECIAL COMMENTARY

Helena Ramsay, 17, was one of 17 who died at the Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The United States is failing in what surely is the first duty of government — protecting our children from threats that they cannot deal with themselves. Voters and politicians are failing our children.

After 17 students and teachers were killed and a dozen wounded on Valentine’s Day by an unbalanced 19-year-old firing an AR-15 rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the students vowed no more as they buried their friends.

Young organizers are reaching out to students across the country to enlist them in a national drive to force action on sensible gun laws. As a first step, they’ve called for a national demonstration in Washington on March 24 called March for Our Lives.

More demonstrations across the country will come. “We want this to stop. We need this to stop. We are protecting guns more than people,” said Emma Gonzalez, 18, one of five core organizers, as reported in The New York Times. “We are not trying to take people’s guns away; we are trying to make sure we have gun safety.” Gonzalez, a student at the Florida school, invited politicians from any party to join, but she warned: “We don’t want anybody who is funded by the NRA. We want people who are going to be on the right side of history.”

In a stunning opinion piece in The New York Times, Christine Yared, 15, a freshman at the school who huddled in a closet when the shooting broke out, wrote that her parents settled in Parkland because the school had a “stellar reputation and because we thought that it was a safe place to live.”

She called on people to “work together beyond political parties to make sure this never happens again.”

People visit a makeshift memorial setup in front of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Monday in Parkland, Florida. Police arrested and charged 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz for the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 people.

She argued sensibly: “If a person is not old enough to be able to rent a car or buy a beer, then he should not be able to legally purchase a weapon of mass destruction. This could have been prevented. If the killer had been properly treated for his mental illness, maybe this would not have happened. If there were proper background checks, then those who should not have guns would not have them.”

A recent study using data from the World Health Organization and the global Human Mortality Database, found that America is now “the most dangerous of wealthy nations for a child to be born into.” Higher infant mortality — high particularly among the poor in states that refused to expand Medicaid — accounts for some of that. Gun violence accounts for much of it.

The U.S. suffers 21,000 “excess deaths” — deaths above the average — for children under 19 every year. As one writer noted, think of that as three Sandy Hook or three Stoneman Douglas shootings a day, every day of every year. We have failed our children.

Yet, President Donald Trump responded to the latest school shooting with “prayers and condolences,” never mentioning the word gun. After he was elected, he went to the National Rifle Association convention. The NRA had spent millions in support of his election.

“You came through for me,” he pledged, “I will come through for you.” There is no more brazen statement of the corruption of our politics. Since 1968, America has lost more lives to gun violence than we have in all the wars of our nation’s history from the Revolutionary War forward.

Our leaders are failing in their duty to protect our children. The NRA and the gun lobby reward politicians who block sensible reforms, and punish those who promote them.

A majority of Americans support sensible gun laws. Yet no progress is made. Politicians fear that they will risk their seats if they oppose the gun lobby. They choose their own political career over the duty to protect our children. After each mass shooting, there is outrage and tears, but no action.

Perhaps the young organizers from Parkland can break through. They can reach millions of their peers through social media. Their passion is clear. It is not partisan, not liberal or conservative, but moral. At 18, they can register and vote in large numbers.

Even now, they can organize marches and demonstrations, do research that exposes who is on the take and who is in the pocket of the gun lobby, run registration and voter education drives. Our leaders have failed our children. Our parties won’t do the hard work needed. The news media will soon turn to new outrages and new stories.

Our children are at risk. Now they are calling all of us to account. Maybe they have the grit and the moral clarity to break through the icy indifference of those who claim to lead us. Christine Yared wrote: “We need to expose the truth about gun violence and the corruption around guns.

Please. If you have any heart, or care about anyone or anything, you need to be an advocate for change. Don’t let any more children suffer like we have. Don’t continue this cycle. This may not seem relevant to you. But next time it could be your family, your friends, your neighbors. Next time, it could be you.” She and her classmates have witnessed the unbearable. Let us heed their call.