Let’s start off by stating the facts: 2016 has been a terrible year. It’s been six months of bloodshed, anger, double-standards, and poorly disguised racial injustice. We signed off 2015 with one resounding wish: that this year would be better. However, it seems as though a genie heard our wish and granted us the opposite.
Violence has been very prominent throughout these past few years. It’s as though the death tolls keep rising while the spur for change plummets. Politicians are at each other’s throats and in the midst of a seemingly never ending game of hot potato, passing off the blame. Some blame it on gun control, stating that the solution lies in allowing every American citizen the chance to bear arms. Others disagree vehemently, because according to them, the answer lies in gun control. In effect, the country has divided itself into two teams: those in favor of gun control and those opposed. We all know the arguments. We hear them from our family members, flying across the dinner table, discussed inside a classroom, and even used as arguments in high school debates across the country.
The second amendment of the United States Constitution reads: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This is often used as both a weapon and a shield. Conservatives all over the country move to strike with pointy swords at the sight of every single mass shooting. “If all Americans carried guns, the shooter would have been neutralized and there would have been fewer deaths.” Tell me, though. Wouldn’t a mass shooting also be averted if the government enforced a stronger screening system? Making sure to prevent ex-convicts and high-risk citizens from ever owning deadly weapon with background checks and interviews. How about routine check-ups on every licensed carrier? You know… kind of like how every single driver has to be re-evaluated every four years to make sure that they can in fact operate a vehicle? But you know what? Let’s pretend that’s not an option. Let’s play devil’s advocate and pretend that the Second Amendment in fact cannot be amended. (It’s not like the Constitution has never been fixed or altered because times have changed, right?)
So, let’s say that the Second Amendment is in fact untouchable and every mass shooting could have been avoided if everyone had been allowed to carry a gun or armed weapon. What do we do about the millions of yearly deaths that are the product of excessive force from police officers all around the country? Deaths very weakly justified by claims that “the suspect was armed and I feared for my life,” even when the subject was not in fact armed. But wait a minute! Doesn’t the second amendment actually protect every single American citizen and grant them all the freedom to bear arms? Yes? Then why are African-Americans being shot down in broad daylight because “they were armed” even when they weren’t. Better yet, why do we turn a blind eye every single time in these cases when racial prejudice is clearly involved? Why is the officer let off with a slap on the wrist even when the evidence is glaring and indisputable? Wait. Hold the phone.
Could this possibly mean that the second amendment is only used to protect white American citizens?
The evidence sure does point to that! On February 26th 2012, Trayvon Martin, a seventeen year old boy, was shot dead by a volunteer neighborhood watch person in the street after buying Skittles at a convenience store. His shooter, George Zimmerman, was taken into custody and later on released with no charges filed because he claimed it was self-defense. Trayvon Martin was not armed. At 18, Michael Brown met a similar fate when a police officer drove up to his friend and him and then engaged in a confrontation with the boys, opening fire even though Michael kept yelling from his position on the ground that he was unarmed. Michael Brown was unarmed and multiple witnesses corroborated the story. In 2013, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot dead by rookie police officer Timothy Loehmann after a neighbor called 911 and said that the boy was holding a gun that they admitted was “probably fake”. Tamir Rice was an unarmed child who did not even receive medical attention until four minutes after he was shot when two other officials came to his aid.
None of these victims deserved the fate they met. They were unarmed black men and boys guilty of no crimes. Unless being black in the United States is a crime, that is… and as I said before: if it’s not, the evidence sure does make it seem like so.
It’s about time we face the truth. The world is slowly bursting into flames. Politicians are only slowly fueling the fire by disagreeing and arguing. Change needs to be made, and we are the ones who need to fight for it. Now more than ever, we need to face the facts. Racism has not magically disappeared, and no, we can’t make it go away by pretending it’s not real. Racism is present, the judicial system is flawed and needs to change, and racial prejudice is very much alive and coursing through our systems of government and institutions with authority. So how about we start facing the reality that we live in rather than trying to cover up the sky with our hands?
