A writer at ‘The Root’ believes that lax gun laws are responsible for the disproportionately high murder rates among black people in Missouri. Can this possibly be true? Let’s take a closer look . . .
‘The Murder Capital for Black Folks? Hint: It’s Not Chicago’
It may come as a surprise to many that the most murderous place for black folks in the U.S. isn’t the big urban centers of New York, Los Angeles, or even oft-maligned Chicago.
No. This infamous honor goes to Middle America, specifically Missouri.
OK. First off, let’s not blame the entire state for this heinous statistic. I bet if we looked at this a little more closely we could narrow it down to two cities that are shoulder the responsibility for this “honor:” Kansas City and St. Louis. If I recall correctly, those are fairly big urban centers.
According to the Kansas City Star, a study by the Violence Policy Center has found Missouri to have the highest rate of black homicide victims in the nation.
And the horrifying designation isn’t new. The state has been No. 1 on this sorrowful list for most of the decade, the news site reports.
But in light of last week’s mass shootings in Ohio and Texas, the reason behind Missouri’s shame, according to experts, will probably come as no surprise: lax gun laws.
Sure. If you say so. I have other ideas which I will express momentarily.
“If you want to hunt an animal in Missouri, you must attend a hunter’s safety education course and obtain a license,” Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith wrote in a blog post, the Star reports. “But recent state legislation has removed any requirements on carrying or using a gun around people.”
“Recent legislation removed any requirements for using a gun around around people?” So you’re telling me that it’s not against the law to commit homicide with a firearm? Why do I doubt the veracity of that statement?
As the Star explains:
“In recent years, Missouri has done away with the need to get a firearms permit or any training to carry concealed weapons.
Lawmakers lowered the age at which a person can carry concealed from 21 to 19.
There’s a slight problem here. The changes cited in the above concealed carry laws didn’t occur until January 1, 2017. Yet, the author states that “The state has been No. 1 on this sorrowful list for most of the decade.” Those laws changed only two years ago. That’s is hardly “most of the decade.” It’s just a small fraction of it. So we can pretty much lay that myth to rest right there.
Legislators approved a stand your ground law and passed a law prohibiting local government from banning open carry.
If one kills someone legitimately under a stand your ground law, that’s not a homicide. It’s a legal, justifiable killing. It’s not a crime so it doesn’t factor into the statistics here! Further, we have open carry here in Oregon too, but somehow black folks aren’t being killed at the rate they are in Missouri. I’m starting to wonder what’s really going on in Missouri.
Gun owners are not required to complete a police report if their guns are stolen.
And if they were required to, would that change a damn thing? The gun has already been stolen. It’s already in the hands of a criminal who will do what he/she damn well pleases with it whether it’s reported stolen or not.
In addition, laws were passed that repealed a requirement that any handgun purchaser must obtain a permit from the local sheriff.”
Again, that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Do you really think the majority of your garden variety thugs with homicide on their minds are going to visit their local sheriff to make sure they can legally purchase from a firearms dealer? Doubtful. They’d rather steal it or buy it from a private party.
The results have had the most deadly impact on black folks, according to the Star.
More than 80 percent of the 90 people killed in Kansas City this year were black, and in Missouri as a whole, the homicide rate per capita for black people is nine times higher than the overall national rate.
The numbers are heartbreaking—and they highlight the need to reduce the opportunity for violence that easy gun access poses. As the Star reports:
Obviously not. We just busted all your “gun laws are to blame” myths.
“Relaxed gun laws mean there are more guns in circulation, especially handguns, said Ken Novak, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Meh! Wrong.
Most gun crimes are spontaneous, opportunistic or retaliatory in nature, Novak said. As the number of guns in society increases, so too does the opportunity for violence, he said.”
“I do not believe there is anything different about Missourians,” Novak tells the Star. “Missourians are not more violent, prone to using guns, but there are more opportunities for Missourians to possess guns, legally and illegally, and therefore more opportunities to use them for criminal activity.”
Dude, believe what you want, but that doesn’t make you any less full of shit.
Let’s cut the crap and be brutally honest about this. It’s blacks that are being killed in Missouri at these astronomical rates and it isn’t the lack of gun laws that’s causing it. I think we can all agree on that. So who’s doing the shooting? I don’t need to look at any statistics to know it isn’t white people killing all these black people. If that were the case it would be all over the news. “White’s Committing Genocide in Missouri!!!” But oddly, I haven’t seen anything remotely like that and I scour the internet for gun crimes almost daily. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why. It’s because this is all about blacks killing their own kind!
Even the NAACP agrees with me! They stated, ““We have to create more opportunities, both educationally and employment-related opportunities for folks in underserved populations who are living in these communities that are more susceptible to violence,” St. Louis NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt said.”
The NAACP advances who again? Colored people. So they aren’t talking about “poor white trash.” They themselves say they live in violent communities. A quick glance at the articles on KSHB’s ‘Homicide Tracker’ website shows who’s committing the vast majority of the murders. It’s people like these:
None of this is about gun laws or lack thereof. Murder is already illegal. That should be enough. But it isn’t. This is about the inability of some people to behave like civilized human beings instead of animals. No amount of gun control is going to change that. It’s up to them to change their criminal ways.
Blame people, not guns.
