By Marc Morial (President and CEO of the National Urban League)
“We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change. We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law — no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world, or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society. But that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely, we can do better than this.” – President Barack Obama, Sandy Hook Interfaith Prayer Vigil, 2012
One of the more unsettling revelations about the tragedy in Dallas is that the mentally unbalanced gunman was rejected, after a background check, for membership in an extremist group, but was legally able to purchase a high-capacity assault rifle.
According to media reports, Micah Johnson was labeled “unfit for recruitment” among a network of extremist groups, including some designated as “hate groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Yet within months of that rejection, Johnson was able to meet in a parking lot with a gun seller he contacted online, and take possession of a military weapon designed to slaughter human beings as quickly and efficiently as possible.
In what kind of a world do we live when hate groups that actually encourage violence against law enforcement officers are more circumspect than our current firearm safety laws?
The man who sold Johnson the AK-47 said Johnson appeared normal during their 15-minute meeting – as though dangerous mental instability is written across someone’s face.
“It’s my belief he would have passed a background check,” the man said. But it wouldn’t have mattered, not in Texas. Federal law requires only licensed gun dealers to conduct background checks. Millions of guns are sold each year online or at gun shows through private sellers. Felons, domestic abusers, the violently mentally ill are able to acquire firearms and the law does nothing to stop them.
More than 90 percent of Americans support universal background checks. Legally-required background checks have blocked more than two million gun sales to dangerous people since the system was instituted.
Maybe Micah Johnson’s background would have slipped past the system. Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people and wounded 17 on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007, was banned from buying guns because a court found him severely mentally ill. But he passed a background check, because his records never made it into the system. And if the current system wouldn’t have deemed Johnson’s bizarre behavior a red flag for a gun purchase, it certainly should have.
The background check database must be complete, and the types of incidents that warrant prohibition must be thoroughly examined.
Prior to the attack in Dallas, each mass-shooting incident in the United States has prompted a bizarre chorus calling for even more guns in our society. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” as the saying goes. Setting aside the impossibility of distinguishing a “good guy” from a “bad guy,” there were plenty of people with guns at the scene of the Dallas massacre and not one of them was able to stop the sniper. The police were armed. About 30 of the marchers at the demonstration where the attack took place were armed. Not one of them managed to stop Micah Johnson with a gun.
Every modern study concludes that more guns equal more crime. Right-to-carry laws are associated with significantly higher rates of aggravated assault, robbery, rape and murder. American children are sixteen times more likely than children that live in other high-income countries to be killed in gun accidents, with as many as 100 children dying each year.
Our firearm safety system is broken – tragically, fatally broken. Lobbyists for the firearm industry hold our lawmakers in an almost literal death grip, blocking common sense reform at every turn. Call your U.S. Congress members and demand action on gun violence. Learn the truth about gun violence in America and educate your friends and family. And work for a nation that puts the safety of its citizens ahead of profits for the gun industry
First of all; just because Micah Johnson was rejected by “extremist” groups and then committed a tragic act does not mean that he was necessarily crazy. Nor does being crazy necessarily put a citizen in an unsual category – in this country. Insanity or insane behavior is not taboo in the U.S.A. Some of our most popular “leaders” have been deemed to be crazy. Who? Try Abe Lincoln, or Andrew Jackson, or Nat Turner, or Dallas County DA Susan Hawk…As a matter of fact, some folk say there are more crazy people walking the streets everyday than can be found in the insane asylums.
Of course, we can at least partially credit the Republicans/Ronald Reagan and the privatization movement with the current situation. I remember back in the eighties when the Republican thing was SAVE GOVERNMENT MONEY by cutting back on social services. Public services that helped the insane or rather the mentally challenged – crazy people – were discontinued. Crazy folk had to (all of a sudden) leave the care they were getting and get out on the streets. Churches, community organizations, and mental health practitioners were supposed to drop what they were doing and take up the slack. There was supposed to be no problem when it came to fixing those who needed mental health help. Of course, now – anybody who is sane knows that we need some type of nation wide effort to repair the the large numbers of mentally ill people.
And this takes me back to the question of origin – the national problem of citizens killing citizens with guns. I suggest to the world; guns are not the problem. I don’t say this because I like guns that much. But, a crazy culture which creates crazy people who kill people is the problem. True enough, fewer guns would mean less killing. But fewer guns would only be a band aid on the problem which is people who want to kill people.
If we want to fix the killing problem (which is not a gun problem) we need to fix the culture and hearts and minds of the people.
Now; what politician or preacher or teacher (etc.) can do that? That is who I want to vote for and listen to and support.