Gun Violence and America's un-Civil War

Updated Post (6/5/2014): Sometime ago, I wrote a form letter to IL Senator Dick Durbin (D) as part of an assigment our government class were doing.  There'd been an increase in gun violence in Chicago over the course of the year, and gun deaths are still a pervasive problem; especially amongst our youth.  I wanted to understand Senator Durbin's platform on guns, gun safety and 2nd Amendment rights.  I wanted to understand what Congress was doing to help curb the violence.  The following is that letter and Senator Durbin's response.

----------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

711 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 2051

Dear Senator Durbin,

My name is Michael Lee Carter, and I am an educator in the northern suburbs of Chicago. I am originally from Detroit, having moved here just over ten years old. We challenged our government class to address their senator or congressman about a policy issue or piece of current legislation that concerns them. The goal of these letters is to teach our students that they have a voice in the democratic process and that their voices matter.

Certainly in recent years, let alone recent months, both of our hometowns have had a considerable amount of national and international attention. Plenty of positive stories are happening in Chicago and Detroit from art communities, church organizations and other non-profits endeavoring to help save the Motor City to everyday people in Chi-Town working hard to improve schools, neighborhoods and others' lives. Some of it has been negative, though, and has garnered more public scrutiny. Between bankruptcies and pension crises, both cities are embroiled in publicity surrounding gun crimes that have led to more tragedies than inspirational narratives.

The Cornell Square Park incident in Chicago's Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood is the latest example of the crisis besieging Chicago, Detroit and other urban centers. However, the inner-city is not alone. From Newtown, CT to Aurora, CO; from Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of the Tucson incident to most recently the Navy Yards shooting involving a mentally compromised reservist, America is at war with itself. It is a “civil war” with people standing on different sides of the issue: Do tighter gun control laws ensure the safety of citizens, or do they encroach on a Constitutional right to legal gun ownership? Laws such as “Stand Your Ground” don’t seem to help, especially when it seems to only polarize our nation over issues of race, equality and fairness under the law. Though I am an advocate of the Constitutional right to gun ownership, I believe that the laws governing unlawful discharge of guns, illegal ownership or distribution of guns, the breaking of inter-state laws in terms of purchasing guns to be distributed unlawfully in other states (a federal violation), and the carry or use of a gun in the process of a crime (felony or not) should have stronger sentencing guidelines that are fair across the board.

There has to be equal guidelines defining use of a firearm in self-defense that are clear and fair as well. Legal gun ownership in states with conceal and/or open carry should stipulate that gun owners have insurance for each firearm purchased and kept in the home that is separate from home insurance. This would add one more layer of accountability and ensure families are taken care of in the event that people are injured or killed in firearm discharge. If I have to register ownership of each car in my possession, carry a legal license to drive and have auto insurance for each driver authorized to drive in my family, then it makes sense that the same should be true of a gun owner. In the same vein, guns and alcohol do not mix. Drivers who drive under the influence suffer penalties for DUI’s across different states. Vehicles involved in DUI are often confiscated depending on the situation and one’s license can be revoke depending on the system in one’s state. If it is found that a shooter who discharged a firearm was under the influence of alcohol or mind-altering drug, then there should be stiffer penalties also.

Much has been said about diagnosed depression, emotional and mental disabilities and the use of firearms by those who live with these issues. The names Jared Lee Loughner, James Holmes, Adam Lanza and Aaron Alexis has put mental health and gun access in the spotlight. Sensible people understand that not all people who suffer from depression or some form of social emotional disorder or mental disability have a propensity to kill. Yet for every 100 inner city instances of gun violence it seems there’s at least one kind of gun massacre that stands out. Whether it be Columbine or VA Tech, serious discussion must be had about protecting the civil liberties of people with disabilities while at the same time addressing access to firearms by the same population.

The gun manufacturers and organizations such as the NRA need to be pushed to ensure that each new gun manufactured in the United States is properly serialized just as vehicles are with a standardized code that is tamper-proof. These standardized codes, as registered with each state, would create a second layer of accountability, enabling law enforcement to track those guns from person to person, entity to entity and state to state. Ultimately, it would allow local and state police, DEA, ATF and FBI to trace a gun back to its owner, seller and manufacturer. 

Gun sellers argue that tougher gun control laws would hurt their bottom-line and prevent “law-abiding” citizens from legally purchasing firearms; that tougher legislation would impede their Constitutional right to “bear arms.” This may be true. However, is the bottom-line more precious than the lives of people loss yearly to gun crime and gun accidents? 

Our love affair with guns have to philosophically end. Responsible legislation regarding gun ownership must begin. No one disagrees that responsible legislation is necessary to stem the tide of gun violence in our nation. Though many fear that stronger advocates are pushing to take their guns away, countries like Japan, Sweden and Norway have an argument with fewer gun crimes because gun ownership is not a legal right. I’m not that advocate. I believe that there is a place for responsible legislation that upholds the Constitution and protects lives. Together, let’s stop the post-modern, American Civil War over our guns. Our class thanks you for your ear and for your kind response.

 Sincerely, 

 Michael Lee Carter

---------------------------------------------

November 13, 2013

Dear Mr. Carter:

Thank you for contacting me about gun violence prevention. I appreciate knowing your views and share your concerns about gun violence.

I am a cosponsor of the Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act which would reinstate a ban on magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The ban on multi-round magazines expired along with the federal assault weapons ban in 2004. I also am a cosponsor of a bill that would reinstate the ban on assault weapons and would expand the definition of assault weapons to close loopholes that allow gun manufacturers to work around the previous ban.

I support universal gun background checks, which prevent the transfer of firearms without a background check by non-licensed gun sellers. I am a cosponsor of “terror gap” legislation that would give the Attorney General discretionary authority to deny gun sales to individuals who are known or appropriately suspected to be engaged in terrorism.

There are 314 million people in our country and about 300 million firearms available for sale or possessed by civilians. While gun legislation may not change the values that shape popular culture, it can significantly reduce the likelihood that innocent children and adults will be the victims of gun violence.

The majority of Americans and the majority of thoughtful gun owners and hunters agree that there must be reasonable limits on gun ownership and weapons. We must institute common-sense limits, such as barring those with a history of mental instability, those with a history of violent crime or who are subject to restraining orders, and those whose names have been placed on a terrorist watch list from owning weapons. Straw purchasers and gun dealers should face firm penalties. There should be limits on how many firearms may be purchased in one month. Those who own firearms that are within the reach of children should have protective locks on their weapons.

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will continue to work for the passage of these and other reasonable gun safety measures to reduce the prevalence of gun violence in our country.

Thank you again for your message. Please feel free to keep in touch.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Durbin

United States Senator

RJD/bc

The Urban Remnant: An Abstract (Part One)

The solutions proposed by our society will not result in the world becoming a better place. – Dr. Jim Lang

If my people, who are called by my name, would humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive them of their sins, and will heal the land.
II Chronicles 7:14

Within the social and spiritual context of the city, what is needful? As it relates to life and godliness, nothing short of the effectual fervent working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of its people by the way of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, through faith by God’s grace, will bring about the needed spiritual awakening and transformation of “da hood”. Beyond popular belief, the harsh, physical landscapes of the inner-city are not a direct reflection of the inner turmoil and emotional conflict of those that live there. No, if that were so, every nook and cranny of the American geographic would be a virtual wasteland of man’s spiritual condition and depravity. However, the effects of sin on our world and in the city are evident, and it takes shape in many different forms, particularly in a large number of communities in the city.

For instance, many predominantly black, inner-city communities in the U.S. are currently experiencing the adverse effects of imminent domain and widespread gentrification more than ever before (Micah 2:1,2). Years of gun violence, drug trafficking and abuse, failing schools, economic injustice, technological divide, racial parity and generational poverty have all slowly plagued many of these communities since desegregation and “white flight”; most have never recovered. Hence, the changing economy of neighborhoods, the lack of viable resources, and the apathy resulting from crime, broken families, job loss, poor housing and lack of education contribute immensely to the blight that we see, as well as experience. All of this, then, is the revealed side-effect of sin at work in the world and in the life of the inner-city.

Over the past 25 or more years, epidemic levels of hardship, blight, brain drain and spiritual anemia present in the black community have supplanted programmatic efforts to act on the social gospel of “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. Moreover, the presence of the local church seems to be increasingly inept and impotent in the face of these dire challenges, thus appearing to be “more heavenly minded than any earthly good”. In fact, with the number of mega churches increasing, less bible-believing, doctrinally sound congregations are being planted in inner-city communities. More congregations are moving out of “da hood” into bigger and better facilities located elsewhere. It does not help that most of the membership of many of the local churches that have remained commute to Sunday services from other neighborhoods and surrounding suburbs in the metropolitan area.

Adding worldly insult to spiritual injury, many of these communities have been deemed “hopeless”. School districts have commissioned school closings; city ordinances have made way for commercial building projects as well as housing whose affordability remains far out of reach of the pocket books of families and residents who have long endured. Subversively, local governments change the face of these communities and push the indigent further to the fringes of our already marginalized society (Isaiah 5:8). However, there is hope for the hopeless.

To make matters worse, many churches are preaching a deceptive gospel of prosperity (some out of greed) and a “cheap” kind of grace that speaks only to the love of God and His blessings, but never addresses the deeper heart issues behind man’s spiritual condition within the scope of “da hood”. These false prophets, then, rob the people both financially and spiritually because they do not understand the truth (Micah 2:8,9). Hence, many who live in these broken communities question God’s love and equate “blessings” with God’s favor.

Jesus Christ proclaims, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10) Jesus has taught us that He is Life. Everything else, then, is not life at all. However, the thief has been busy in the inner-city. According to Charles Lyons, pastor of Armitage Baptist Church in Chicago, “Urban evangelism is the biblical strategy to reach the world.” God’s biblical call to reach the world, then, begins at the lights on the hill. Urban Remnant has responded to the call, and like the prophet Nehemiah, we seek to repair the walls surrounding the city and to restore worship to the temple of God. Our mission is to return to the field of our broken communities in order to promote its emancipation from the bondage of apathy, hostility, fear and sin; and to cultivate the transformation of its people into the likeness of Christ. We will accomplish this by the power of God and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, preaching the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and making disciples who will pursue holiness and in turn spread the Word. This call to renewal, then, will spur a sense of urgency to actively rebuild, educate and invigorate our communities in order to bring about financial peace, economic stability, academic excellence and spiritual awakening.

An Urban Remnant

A remnant is defined as the leftover or the small part that remains after the main part no longer exists. About nine years ago when my wife and I still lived in Detroit, we and our friends discussed the growing trend of the city's population drainage. This version of flight appeared to find its effect in a number of factors: increased blight, failing schools, poor city services, high property taxes, etc. As brain-drain increased, we also observed another trend, though alarming to us, that was observable for several years. Increasingly, many of the local churches in the city were becoming hubs for commuter traffic. What I mean by this is that most of the members of these local churches, particular in the large historical congregations and ministries, commuted from other cities or neighborhoods to attend worship services. We saw this trend as the growing barrier to local churches effectively reaching the communities they served with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Essentially, the people of God were not living amongst the people they served.

Our urban communities are changing everyday. The name Urban Remnant concerns itself with the city and the people who choose to remain despite. Its about the Ministry of Reconciliation lived out in the broken places. Its about making disciples, bearing fruit that remains, and positively affecting the spiritual growth of our local communities through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This Urban Remnant seeks to spearhead a forum for discussing these matters and developing biblical strategies to address them.

On the False Belief that Jobs Are the Solution to Spiritual Deficits

Jobs will not fix problems brought on by spiritual deficits. Corruption still takes place in the work place, no matter where one finds himself in the employment totem pole. Though unemployment and the crime rate are high and jobs are needed, the issue for those whose lives "run amuck" is one of the heart. Change the heart and its attitudes, then changes in the man and in his behavior will occur. If I simply change the environment without changing the heart, then I'm only using a band-aid to fix mortal wounds. The bleeding is internal.

By believing that jobs are the solution to fixing criminal behavior by black youths is to assume that all young, unemployed African Americans are at their best subject to criminal behavior and activiy. That's simply not true. We should all work hard to ensure that opportunities toward successful transition into adulthood are accessible to our youth in the city. And there's a wide range of programs, free and fee-based, that help address transition. These programs and opportunites could perhaps aid in temporarily alleviating dysfunction, but all in all, if the deep-ceded, spiritual and moral deficits remain without progressive or immediate changes of the heart, then they've "missed the mark."

The Lawless and the City

1 John 3:4 - Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.

Matthew 24:12 - "Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold."

Romans 4:7,8 - [7] "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN,
AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. [8] BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT."
------------------------------------------------------------
God ordains local authorities to serve and protect its citizens as well as to enforce laws. Although the Law-Giver condemns abuse of power and those who practice injustice, he is NOT in the business of condoning all-out anarchy, or in other words, lawlessness. That said, I am angry about recent incidents in the city; incidents that Chicago police and local news agencies have called "flash mobs," where large groups of young people commit random acts of violence upon unsuspecting "law-abiding" citizens in outdoor locales near or along Lake Shore Dr. I hate to write it this way (and many might say, "Then don't write it"), but these thug, teenaged, thrillseekers are terrorizing people who never accepted the invitation to terror. And unfortunately I have to report (and some may say, "You don't HAVE to") that sadly most of these young people are African American and male. Sadder still is that a few of them have been as young as thirteen years old.

Now I would be naïve to say of such a phenomenon like this, "It is what it is," shrugging it off with nonchalance. As an African American writer, I would be naïve to defend mob action by a few groups of black youths with a veil of excuses (many that enable rather than empower) that point out lacks of opportunity toward transition to productive adulthood. However, someone else's civil liberties have been violated, and the victims have the potential to be as ethnically diverse as is Devon Avenue. These youths' crimes are targeted, yet colorblind. But the violence only further perpetuates the deep-ceded stereotypes of black youths being violent and having no regard for the law; and it gives more fodder for the careless or perhaps racist writers, pundits, spin doctors, and commentators to fuel more fear on top of the terror that seems to already reign on the Magnificent Mile, in the Gold Coast, in Lake View, and mind you, in Englewood where violent crime is never new. But that never makes it right. These writers might write, "Take that back to the South Side. It doesn't belong here." But does violent crime and "lawlessness" ever really BELONG anywhere?

I read a quote in the Red Eye from a heart-broken father about the death of his son, and essentially it went like this: "The police got scared, they over-reacted, and they killed my son;" this in relationship to another recent incident where a teen confronted police after being ordered to drop what was in his hand. It was dark, the youth had reached for the object as he made charge, and, according to Chicago Police, had been warned. An officer shot him dead. The object: a cellphone. In our own disobedience when confronted by God about our own lawlessness, we only kill ourselves because we falsely believe that we can save ourselves from His sovereign presence and authority. We make excuses for our own lawlessness rather than own up, "I was scared, I overreacted, and now I killed myself for disobeying the righteous commandment."

All of us, humanity, by nature practice lawlessness because lawlessness is sin. "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory;" have never met his standard of righteousness (Romans 3:23). Sin has never truly BELONGED. It was never truly God's intention for sinful man to remain sinful, but to renounce sin and be reconciled unto Him. This reconciliation is found through the blood of His Son Jesus who bore our sin and lawlessness and nailed them to a tree. Thieves, like the "flash-mob," only come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. However, Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). And yes, this promise is for everyone, including the thug, teenaged thrillseeker whose lawlessness is just as evident before man and media as our lawlessness is before a holy and righteous God.