Tragedy, Opportunity, and Facts

BY MICHAEL REISIG –

I can’t imagine a single soul in this country not being psychologically brutalized by the massacre of nine African Americans in a Charleston, S.C. church last week. Not only does it bring the horror of mentally corrupt mayhem home to each of us – the terror and the arbitrary possibility – but it rends the fabric of our society once more, in a time where race and violence perch at the top of our national dilemmas.

Dylann Roof, a self-proclaimed “white supremacist” once again reminded all of us of the heinousness and horror that can live in the soul of man. But perhaps even worse, he has rendered the tenuous fabric that holds the racial tensions in this nation intact, and he has given the proponents of gun control new and fresh ammunition with which to destroy the second amendment.

Anyone who thinks that racial animosity and vehemence are fading in America hasn’t spent any time in Ferguson, or Chicago, or Detroit, and the repercussions from these locals reverberate throughout the U.S. There seems to be an odd phenomenon in this nation that few people will admit to. White America owns the majority of guns in this nation by far. But it seems to be a rarity (proportionately and statistically) for them to use weapons on each other, or any other race for that matter. Yet it appears (statistically) that they are more inclined to go off the deep end and use weapons in specific mass killings. It’s as if the Caucasian nature is to not react violently as often, but to bottle up the inertia until it simply erupts.

On the other hand, there is absolutely no question (proportionately and statistically), that African Americans use guns and other devices to kill each other (and other races) far more consistently than any other race in America. Our cities, our news agencies, and our nation in general have sadly grown accustomed to blacks killing each other.

While I’m left in shock at the mayhem this demented Dylan Roof has created, I’m far more concerned with what he has done to America. Our president (applying the “never let a good crisis go to waste” philosophy) has already grasped the reins of opportunity and begun using this incident to, once again, propose legislation to remove guns from the American landscape. “It’s in our power to do something about stopping such mass violence,” he has immediately announced, and no one is confused about what he has in mind. And, given the fact that this was a white man shooting black people, the sense of social indignation is doubled. (I’m sorry, this is something I simply don’t understand – when did any one race become more significant than others? When did the death of any American of any color become more tragic than the rest of the population?)

Here is the truth – and I would direct this to President Obama in particular: You will never stop determined, violence-minded people from getting a gun in this society. Worse, if you should attempt to take the guns away from everyone in America because of the arbitrary act of an occasional maniac, then only the lawless (who don’t give a rat’s posterior about regulations) will be left with weapons.

The “Social Freedom/Pro-Anarchy” elements have already beaten down and intimidated our police in cities to a point that they are almost useless – afraid to act for fear of legal and social repercussions. When the police can no longer help us, and we are no longer allowed to protect ourselves, we become little more than a nation of cattle.

Somewhere in hell Stalin and Lenin are smiling…

About Author

Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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