Violence is rooted in culture, not the gun

By COURTLAND MILLOY

WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — Not long ago, I brought my gun to Realco Guns for cleaning. It is a vintage, J.C. Higgins .22-caliber rifle that my dad purchased from Sears around 1964. We belonged to a father-and-son club in my home town, Shreveport, La., and this was the gun we used whenever the group went out to shoot at tin cans.

In the middle of so much gun violence, it’s not easy to cling to fond memories of those days.

During my visit to Realco, several young African American men were checking out large-caliber firearms. I asked some of them why they wanted a gun.

“Protection,” one replied.

“You never know who you might run into,” another said.

Nobody mentioned shooting tin cans with Dad.

A protest rally was held this week outside the gun store, in suburban District Heights, Md. Federal data show that Realco is the Washington region’s biggest source of firearms used in crimes. Apparently guns purchased legally from the store have been resold to or stolen by people who aren’t supposed to have them. So several dozen protesters gathered to chant: “Stop the violence! Save the children!” Some even believed that forcing Realco out of business would help accomplish those things.

“Since I became mayor, getting rid of guns and closing down this store have been high on my list of priorities,” District Heights Mayor James Walls told me at the rally. “They’ve got to come to us for business permits, and we’ll be taking a close look at their role in the gun violence that is killing so many of our people.”

FBI procedures

Realco declined to comment, but an employee released a statement declaring that all its firearms sales are legal and follow procedures set by the FBI and the Maryland State Police.

The protest was organized by the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Nearby, gun advocates staged a counter-protest to decry the dropping of murder charges in cases in which witnesses were too afraid to testify.

“Stop bitching and start snitching,” one yelled into a loudspeaker.

Not the best way to make a case for gun rights. But the gun-control folks have their shortcomings, too.

Someone read a statement from Jackson urging “gun shops and gun manufacturers to stop the epidemic of rising gun violence.”

Excuse me, but I just don’t see why any black person would expect gun manufacturers and dealers to help us stop killing ourselves. At Realco, guys pull into the parking lot in big SUVs with tinted glass and spinning rims, like gangbangers from a rap music video. If some gun-control advocates had their way, Realco would reject those young black men as customers because they fit a racial profile. And Realco would be sued for not selling guns as surely as it was denounced this week for selling them.

And go to any major gun show — into the heart of America’s white gun culture — and you’ll find plenty of Confederate flags and supremacist literature. Even if everybody at the show doesn’t subscribe to those views, the people there aren’t offended enough to stay away.

This fight is over not so much guns as culture. Largely rural, conservative whites protect a gun-loving lifestyle because they care more about it than the loss of black lives to urban gun violence. And if you want to fight that culture, you have to have a culture to fight with.

“In my honest opinion, I’m not so concerned about the prevalence of guns,” said Kenny Barnes, founder of Guns Aside, a D.C.-based anti-gun violence campaign. “Violence isn’t the issue; it’s a symptom. It’s the result of too many dysfunctional households, failing schools, drug and alcohol abuse, and a saturation of music that promotes self-destruction.”

Guns in the mix

Daniel Webster, co-director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University, argues that rebuilding a culture, strengthening communities and families, is much harder when guns are in the mix.

“It used to be the case that adults in the community would not feel restrained if they saw teen-agers getting into trouble, doing things that they shouldn’t,” he told me during a recent interview. “Now that doesn’t occur because people are afraid that the youngsters are carrying guns. Guns have taken away what for centuries has been an effective means of social control. You can ask for greater involvement by concerned citizens, mentors, parents and teachers, but that becomes very difficult to do when the person causing the trouble has a gun.”

Unless, perhaps, you have one, too.

X Milloy is a Washington Post columnist.