#WearOrange Is the New Abandonment of Black Communities

 

orangeThursday was Gun Violence Awareness Day, and its proponents encouraged people to #WearOrange as a show of support for new gun control legislation. What legislation, they don’t say. They take it as given, though, that guns are the problem. That reducing gun ownership is the way to reduce gun deaths.

Violence isn’t morally worse when committed with a firearm; murder is just as much an outrage and tragedy, regardless of the weapon used. But, for the sake of argument, consider the gun-control premise that “gun violence” is a meaningful distinction as we investigate some facts. There are about 32,000 firearm-related deaths in the United States each year (the total has been declining), of which approximately 21,000 are suicides and 11,000 homicides. But there is more to the story: American homicide and suicide rates differ greatly by race and sex. Among whites, 77 percent of gun deaths are suicides; among African Americans, 82% of gun deaths are homicides. If my math is right, black men are nine times more likely to be the victim of gun-related homicide than white men, or women of any race.

And we know some things about these homicides. First, most of them are intraracial. According to DOJ statistics from 1980-2008, 84 percent of white homicide victims were murdered by whites, and 93 percent of black victims were murdered by blacks. Second, there are racial disparities in the circumstances of homicides. For example, blacks constitute over 60% of drug-related homicide victims and nearly two-thirds of perpetrators. And third, much of the violence is concentrated in our large urban centers. Drug-related and gang-related killings are overwhelmingly urban phenomena, and guns are used disproportionately in gang-related homicides (see DOJ link above).

It’s difficult to find current data on gun-related homicide rates by city. However, as of 2006-07, New Orleans (60.2 percent black in 2010) had 62 gun-related homicides per 100,000 residents, 15 times the overall US rate of just over 4 murders per 100,000. Detroit (83 percent black), had 36. Baltimore (64 percent black), 30. Oakland (28 percent black), 27. Newark (52 percent black), 25. St. Louis (49 black), 24.1. Richmond (51 percent black), 23. Washington, DC (50 percent black), 19.

A public official who wants to reduce gun violence, and save black lives, should know where to start: The lawlessness in our inner cities. That’s where the gun crime is, that’s where the victims are.

But Obama’s Department of Justice has not made enforcement a priority. According to statistics compiled by the National Rifle Association, federal gun crime prosecutions have fallen 40 percent under his presidency (well outpacing the overall decline in gun crime); this trend has even been acknowledged by Mother Jones. Or consider that, while gun control advocates blame the carnage in Chicago on straw purchases in states with looser gun laws, prosecution of straw purchasers is exceedingly rare. BATFE officials admit that “charging straw buyers falls towards the bottom of federal prosecutors’ priority lists”.

Indeed, instead of stepping-up enforcement, Obama’s DoJ has racialized what should be individual justice, using the spurious logic of “disparate impact.” In the wake of organized mob violence in Ferguson and Baltimore, the DoJ has elected to scrutinize police departments that deploy resources in predominantly black neighborhoods, and blamed racism for higher black incarceration rates. The administration has backed the end of New York City’s “stop and frisk” policy, designed to take illegal guns off the street, because blacks were searched disproportionately. As President Obama has been pursuing an initiative to grant clemency and pardons to “non-violent drug offenders,” the beneficiaries have included quite a few convicted of gun crimes.

Predictably, destigmatizing criminality has led to an increase in violent crime. But this then puts the Left in a quandry: Whom to blame? They have recast the actual perpetrators as victims of a white power structure. This leaves them in the silly position of assigning responsibility to the guns, which have no agency. Rather than do the hard work of prosecuting violent individuals, Democratic politicians — including our nation’s chief law enforcement officer — resort to cheap words. They blame the NRA and lawful gun owners, and preen about the need for unspecified new laws even as existing laws go unenforced.

Meanwhile, inner city gangs and predators kill more black victims, catching both other criminals and innocents in the crossfire. And no amount of orange clothing or hashtag activism will make them safer.

Published in Culture, Domestic Policy, Guns
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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    So, short version is that Obama’s not having done his job has disproportionately affected minorities.

    • #1
  2. Eeyore Member
    Eeyore
    @Eeyore

    You might want to edit the above such that every time the word “urban” is used, it should be modified by some form of “Democrat-controlled for generations…”

    And, of course, Federal Firearms prosecutions are down. This article by Christian Adams, who tried to bring the lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation but had it quashed, describes the Justice Department’s active and stated goal to avoid minority prosecutions.

    • #2
  3. DocJay Inactive
    DocJay
    @DocJay

    Eeyore, it appears getting guns away from gang members isn’t their goal.

    I dressed like I usually do today.  With a gun in my waist that I was aware of.   No violence though.

    • #3
  4. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    DocJay:

    Eeyore, it appears getting guns away from gang members isn’t their goal.

    I dressed like I usually do today. With a gun in my waist that I was aware of. No violence though.

    Are you becoming a centrist?

    • #4
  5. Eeyore Member
    Eeyore
    @Eeyore

    DocJay:

    Eeyore, it appears getting guns away from gang members isn’t their goal.

    I dressed like I usually do today. With a gun in my waist that I was aware of. No violence though.

    That’s because you’ve trained your gun like you would any aggressive guard dog. If it saw something or someone it knew you didn’t like, it would have leapt out without your having to touch it or even instruct it, spraying death all around you.

    • #5
  6. DocJay Inactive
    DocJay
    @DocJay

    Arahant:

    DocJay:

    Eeyore, it appears getting guns away from gang members isn’t their goal.

    I dressed like I usually do today. With a gun in my waist that I was aware of. No violence though.

    Are you becoming a centrist?

    It’s in the center of my back.

    Man Eeyore, I’d love to live the rest of my life and never pull it except for practice.

    I don’t live near and rarely go near the places SoS is discussing in his post.  Our nations inner cities are a travesty and weapons aren’t the issue.    Nice post. The country needs honesty about where violence springs from, what has worsened it and what are viable solutions.  We have not had that during the Obama years.

    • #6
  7. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Great post, Son of Spengler. This is the kind of tough, principled but reasonable tone needed to reach a public that is understandably torn after all the things they’ve read and been shown.

    • #7
  8. DocJay Inactive
    DocJay
    @DocJay

    Son of Splenger , what are your ideas to change the narrative to allow problem identification ? Eventual solutions ? I fear these problems you’re addressing will only worsen regardless of who wins this fall.

    • #8
  9. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Half the problem is that the Feds are not only not enforcing the laws they are supposed to enforce, but also that they are preventing state and local law enforcement through threats of lawsuits. Spengler mentions this, of course.

    If Trump gets elected, will that continue or be reversed?

    • #9
  10. Eeyore Member
    Eeyore
    @Eeyore

    Arahant:

    Half the problem is that the Feds are not only not enforcing the laws they are supposed to enforce, but also that they are preventing state and local law enforcement through threats of lawsuits. Spengler mentions this, of course.

    If Trump gets elected, will that continue or be reversed?

    That’s like trying to predict the terminal trajectory of every ball on a pool break shot. Trump would presumably immediately put people at Justice (and it’s alphabet agencies) and State who would be more law directed as opposed to social justice directed. But they will go up against entrenched progressive SJWs at all staff levels.

    Accusations will be thrown and enough lawsuits will be filed in the first 60 days to fill the entire Federal docket for several years. Too many moving parts.

    • #10
  11. RyanM Inactive
    RyanM
    @RyanM

    I wish that Wednesday had been gun violence awareness day, because it is 1/2 price lane rental down at the range I go to.

    It’s also my docket day, which is my favorite time to shoot things.

    Last week, I had a casing sneak in behind my safety glasses and smolder on my eyelid before I could knock it out.  I’ve been walking around with a little 9mm shaped burn.

    • #11
  12. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    RyanM: I’ve been walking around with a little 9mm shaped burn.

    Pics?

    • #12
  13. RyanM Inactive
    RyanM
    @RyanM

    DocJay:Son of Splenger , what are your ideas to change the narrative to allow problem identification ? Eventual solutions ? I fear these problems you’re addressing will only worsen regardless of who wins this fall.

    It could’ve changed with Obama, if he had taken it upon himself to be honest about racial issues, rather than perpetuate lies … which also happen to conveniently bolster democrat support.  Funny thing that he chose not to.

    The only thing that can change it now would be for the media to start being honest.  Good luck with that.

    • #13
  14. RyanM Inactive
    RyanM
    @RyanM

    Arahant:

    RyanM: I’ve been walking around with a little 9mm shaped burn.

    Pics?

    I took one at the time, along with my target at 25 yards. Didn’t post to the pit, though, because the upload media stopped working on my phone. And the picture made me look old!

    • #14
  15. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    RyanM: And the picture made me look old!

    I bet you still look a lot younger than McVey or I look.

    • #15
  16. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    This is an actual photo of Pocahontas and me during that big Jamestown-Roanoke meetup a few centuries back:

    Pocahontas tree

    • #16
  17. Eeyore Member
    Eeyore
    @Eeyore

    Gary McVey:This is an actual photo of Pocahontas and me during that big Jamestown-Roanoke meetup a few centuries back:

    Pocahontas tree

    “My eyes are up here, McVey!”

    • #17
  18. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    EDIT: You know what? This is too serious a post to keep a joke going, so I deleted my reply. But Eeyore’s joke is funny.

    • #18
  19. Scott Wilmot Member
    Scott Wilmot
    @ScottWilmot

    From the people who tell us that: “abortion is a safe way to end a pregnancy except for the baby“:

    And by placing so many of their abortuaries in black communities, they continue to abandon the people they claim to help.

    • #19
  20. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Eeyore:

    DocJay:

    Eeyore, it appears getting guns away from gang members isn’t their goal.

    I dressed like I usually do today. With a gun in my waist that I was aware of. No violence though.

    That’s because you’ve trained your gun like you would any aggressive guard dog. If it saw something or someone it knew you didn’t like, it would have leapt out without your having to touch it or even instruct it, spraying death all around you.

    Who’s a good gun then? Who is? You is! Oh yes you is!

    upgrade

    Here boy … have a fresh clip.

    • #20
  21. Son of Spengler Member
    Son of Spengler
    @SonofSpengler

    DocJay:Son of Splenger , what are your ideas to change the narrative to allow problem identification ? Eventual solutions ? I fear these problems you’re addressing will only worsen regardless of who wins this fall.

    I’m pretty pessimistic too. However, I think our best hope for improving the discussion (and finding solutions) is to focus on the victims. People need to understand the challenges those living in crime-ridden communities face as they try to go about their lives. They more than anyone else want the predators off their streets and out of their neighborhoods.

    • #21
  22. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    Son of Spengler: However, I think our best hope for improving the discussion (and finding solutions) is to focus on the victims.

    Agree, agree, agree. Thanks, S of S.

    • #22
  23. Concretevol Thatcher
    Concretevol
    @Concretevol

    Did someone say “wear orange”????

    IMG_20141102_133347

    • #23
  24. Concretevol Thatcher
    Concretevol
    @Concretevol

    On a serious note, Obama said that we can’t accept current gun violence as the “new normal”.  Well since gun violence is way down nation wide I suppose he is advocating increasing it?  Turning the entire country into Chicago?  What exactly is he freaking talking about?

    • #24
  25. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    The Chicago Tribune keeps a running total of the shooting statistics for the city. It is a good thing to admit you have a problem, it is another to not do something about the problem.

    I’m not someone who has a PhD in criminal justice or sociology. I don’t write studies for think tanks. I’m just a former street cop who doesn’t buy into social babble.

    There are obviously a lot of people in Chicago, and other urban areas who should be sitting in prison. The DOJ touts that violent crime has gone down so therefore we need to release thousands from prison. Well maybe the violent crime rate went down because thousands of people were in prison where they belonged.

    From the Chicago Tribune

    Jan. 1, 2016 – June 3, 2016 1,523 shooting victims

    Jan. 1, 2015 – Dec. 31, 2015 2,988 shooting victims

    • #25
  26. livingthehighlife Inactive
    livingthehighlife
    @livingthehighlife

    I had no idea so many anti-gun people were this concerned about hunting safety.

    But I do agree with them:  orange is the best color to wear when dove hunting.  It’s important that other hunters be able to see me out in the field.

    • #26
  27. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    Didn’t Trump advocate the deployment of the National Guard in Chicago? Is that what he will do (within the president’s powers) if elected?

    • #27
  28. a Gifted Righter Member
    a Gifted Righter
    @

    I wanted to post something sagacious and thoughtful but my rage and despair won’t let me.

    • #28
  29. C. U. Douglas Coolidge
    C. U. Douglas
    @CUDouglas

    Concretevol:On a serious note, Obama said that we can’t accept current gun violence as the “new normal”. Well since gun violence is way down nation wide I suppose he is advocating increasing it? Turning the entire country into Chicago? What exactly is he freaking talking about?

    Actually several of the DoJ and Obama Administration policies and public stances have done just that. It’s been on the increase as of late.

    • #29
  30. Songwriter Inactive
    Songwriter
    @user_19450

    Scott Wilmot:From the people who tell us that: “abortion is a safe way to end a pregnancy except for the baby“:

    And by placing so many of their abortuaries in black communities, they continue to abandon the people they claim to help.

    Wow. Now there is the very definition of hubris: Planned Parenthood preaching safety concerns over raising children. It goes so ghoulishly far over the line of common decency, one might admire them for their nerve – if one was not so sickened by the realities of their work.

    • #30
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