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Clarence B. Jones
My first personal involvement with gun violence occurred 55 years ago on April 4. My friend, mentor and confidante, Martin Luther King Jr., was shot down outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
Too often, we avert our eyes from the carnage guns cause. So let’s make it clear: My friend – an American icon – had his face blown off, and he bled out on the cement floor of the balcony walkway. The cement wasn’t the asphalt of the streets of America, but for the purposes of nightmarish metaphor, it was a suitable substitute.
All these years later, gun murder has traveled throughout this country and right back, just last week, to Tennessee, with the tragic Covenant School shooting in Nashville. Full circle, you could say.
Violence was part of Martin’s world, but even he might not recognize the America of the 21st century, with its schools and workplaces and neighborhoods littered with bodies and brass bullet casings.
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People of color are most often victims of gun violence
But one thing would be familiar to him: Though the terrible mass shootings like Covenant and Parkland and Newtown grab the headlines, the vast majority of the slaughter afflicts the impoverished and people of color. In fact, to the chagrin of many of my contemporaries, I insist on referring to “Black killing fields” of Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland, Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Portland, and on and on.
To remember Dr. King on the anniversary of his assassination is to ask: What nonviolent actions must be taken to force change, and who should lead those actions? Politicians will only do what they are made to do by the strongest forces.
After Martin and Robert F. Kennedy were gunned down in 1968, Congress yielded to popular demand and passed the Gun Control Act, which defined certain groups of people (like felons) who would be barred from possessing firearms.
But in the decades since, with only a few exceptions, the voices of the gun lobby and Second Amendment absolutists have been the loudest, framing the debate and stifling progress.
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Where are our religious leaders? Where are our political leaders?
Where are the religious leaders who should be taking up the cause of the Rev. King and demanding compassionate justice? Joel Olsteen, T.D. Jakes, Paula White, Rick Warren: You all must use your platforms to change the game and apply the pressure on Capitol Hill.
Where are the elected officials with the courage to buck their constituencies and do the thing that is both morally right and politically hard? President Lyndon Johnson, a white man from the rural South, ignored his former allies and helped muscle two great civil rights bills into law.
In Dr. King’s memory, I call on religious and lay leaders to step up. Give us the laws we need to stem the terrible tide of bloodshed.
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Close the loopholes in the background check system that make it all too easy for criminals to get guns. Ban weapons of war such as the AR-15-style rifles and high-capacity magazines – no civilian should have them. Crack down on the gun traffickers who flood our streets with semiautomatic handguns, which account for most of the bloodshed in the inner-city killing fields. Get rid of the shameful shield Congress erected to protect gun manufacturers from liability for the damage their products do. Rein in 3D-printed guns and “ghost guns” that criminals can use without being traced.
Equally important, give poor kids of color hope and a vision for the future that does not come through a gun sight. We need training and jobs programs for our at-risk youth. We need options for better mental health care and other underfunded social programs.
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Expensive, sure. But less than the money we throw at warehousing Black kids in prisons. Less than the wrongful death lawsuits and police overtime and all the collateral damage of the endless cycle of senseless murder. Solving social ills costs money. But isn’t that what money is really for? Isn’t it a tool to help a society thrive? We seem to be doing the opposite. We don’t complain about the price of highway guardrails, even though most of us never use them.
During his speech at the Mason Temple the night before his assassination, Dr. King told those assembled that he had been to the mountaintop and had seen the promised land.
Regrettably, much of that land today is running not with milk and honey but with rivers of blood.
On this sad anniversary, in the name of my friend Martin King, let us pledge to take the first steps to damming those rivers and damning gun violence.
Clarence B. Jones was personal attorney, adviser and speech writer for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Jones is credited as a co-author of King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. His memoir, written with Stuart Connelly, “The Last of The Lions,” is available for pre-order.
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