U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Killers’ voices are missing from gun violence conversation,” New Prospect Baptist Church pastor Damon Lynch III asserts in a Tuesday opinion piece for Cincinnati’s The Enquirer. He’s referring to “the recent rash of shootings and murders in the city of Cincinnati over a three-day span, leaving 21 shot and 4 dead.”
As it turns out “Four of the people shot were connected to New Prospect Baptist Church, and two of those four died.” It’s fair to ask “Why?”
If we are to listen to Rev. Lynch, it’s due to a lack of “systemic solutions – housing, employment, and education, none of which have been adequately addressed.” But the fact is, “systemic solutions” already exist, just not the kind of fixes that are very popular to point out in “progressive” circles.
You want housing, you get a job. You want a job, you get an education and you demonstrate the proper demeanor that makes your being around an asset rather than a liability. You want an education, well, school is “free” for K through 12. To dismiss the entire experience as worthless is an insult to those students from urban environments who discipline themselves to study, and who graduate and go on to productive and successful careers.
True, many public schools have become indoctrination centers infested with leftist administrative and public union incompetents, but the blame for that is on the “progressives.” The charge that it’s because they are given the short end of the stick on money simply does not hold up to a basic examination. Cincinnati public schools come in with a shameful district grade of “D.” By comparison, the school district where I live gets an “A.” Both receive the same amount of spending per pupil from the state, and while my district spends nominally more, that is dwarfed by the federal funding going into Cincinnati.
Revealingly, per an Education and the Public Interest study:
“Public schools spend, in dollars adjusted for both region and inflation, more than Christian Association Schools (CAS) and Catholic schools … $7,743 for Catholic schools, and approximately $5,727 for CAS. For public schools, the comparable average spending figure was $8,402.”
These aren’t the kids the urban weekend death toll headlines are telling us about.
So much for Rev. Lynch’s first three scapegoats. Where he goes next, though, is a real forehead-slapper.
“When the questions are raised on how we stop the violence, I think there is a voice often missing from the conversation,” he says. “But the voice never heard is that of the killers.”
“We need psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and researchers to go into the prisons and speak to those convicted of taking a life to ascertain the deep hidden ‘why’ of violent crime,” Lynch concludes.
Why? There’s nothing deep about it, and as for being hidden, that’s on those deflecting from the truth for political gain. These moral defects are not whole. Whatever answer they would give would be useless, or worse, an invitation to spread finger-pointing, excuse-making, and blame-apportioning.
That’s reminiscent of nothing so much as some lyrics from West Side Story:
“Hey, I’m depraved on account I’m deprived!”
How about they kill because they are indoctrinated, amoral, entitled, unable to control themselves, and thus unfit to move freely among those who are? How about because remorseless murderers are evil?
You’re not going to get into their skulls and then use that to give therapy to an entire population raised under the very “progressive” policies that have resulted in the nonstop ruthless murders Rev. Lynch laments. The truth about urban violence is it’s not about guns (or the made-up political term “gun violence”), but about the inevitable fruits of “progressive” fraud that keeps charlatans in power through an endless cycle of dependency and manipulation. Yes, race is a factor—not as a cause of violent crime, but as an indicator of populations most influenced and ultimately victimized by a continuing history of destructive collectivist controls over the economy, over education, and over the lives of those who never escape the trap of a corrupt system.
It’s not a Bill of Rights culture and if that does not change, things will only get worse. Everywhere.
The real voice missing from the conversation Rev. Lynch invites is that of black “conservatives” trying to tell their communities the truth. Instead, they’re thanked for their brave efforts by being put down as race traitors, or as Joe Biden puts it, they “ain’t black.”
Case in point, meet Kim Klacik, running for Maryland District #7’s Congressional seat:
“American people have the right to protect their families against criminals and unwell individuals who may seek to harm them,” Klacik asserts on her campaign website. “Business owners have the right to protect themselves and their establishments. Constitutional Concealed Carry reciprocity is strongly supported. Access to firearms is ‘essential’ in times of crisis.”
How many urban black “leaders” do you think will listen to her voice?
How many do you think would be responsive to the slogan “Blessings of Liberty Matter”?
Also see: “Giffords’ and Democrat Mayors’ Plea to Congress Can Only Make Urban Violence Worse”
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
I see the problem with the inner city shootings and general violence starting at home with the lack of a father figure in most of these young adults life, they are raised by a very young mother or maybe a grandmother but no father in the picture, he was only there long enough to get mom pregnant. The kid is allowed to run the streets at an early age and gets hooked up with other fatherless kids and trouble soon follows with the gangs, drugs and stealing because it’s easy money and they have been told they are owed because… Read more »
The issue is not poverty. Economic deprivation. The issue is all about culture. When you rip the heart out of a culture and replace it with avarice and exploitation you end up with the current conditions of urban America. Family, faith, church, work ethic and all of the institutions that build those character traits have been in the sights of progressive public policy for over 70 years. The war on poverty was a war on the nuclear family. The war on women’s “exploitation” ended up in far more women’s exploitation. The war on drugs became a war on neighborhoods and… Read more »
My late mother was born and raised in Baltimore in the late 1930s’-1940s’. According to her stories It has been a shit hole for more than 75 years running.
thank you David, succinct and on point
BLACK VIOLENCE MATTERS!
It’s time to stop ignoring the reality of the situation.
It’s time to stop denying it and calling it “GUN VIOLENCE”!
David, I am a therapist and a social worker. The one thing you forgot to add is the absent father syndrome which has huge implications and affects the children of the fractured family system. There are attempts to have an extended family system help in the raising but it doesn’t always work. If a male child/youth lacks a father there is a great chance that the male will have to find other males, such as a gang in order to find a father figure. This doesn’t end well. The great Jungian Therapist Robert Johnson told me years ago, that without… Read more »
All that is described are Symptoms not the illness. Rampant crime, murder, no father figure at home etc. These are symptoms. The real issue started in 1959. That year, Kruchev gave his speech to the U.N. The very first of his take downs was to get rid of religion, specifically Christianity and Jewish. Within a few years, prayer was removed from school and government. Without the foundation, the house crumbles and falls. Our nation is founded upon sound, righteous, BIBLICAL law, commandments, preceps and mandates. Righteous government cannot stand without acknowledging there IS a GOD and HE outranks everyone and… Read more »
Well, THAT is as well put as anything I’ve heard lately! Thanks Mr. C.
lovaduck, there are obstacles for everyone in life regardless of color. How is it that the Central and South American immigrants (non-whites) are so well employed? Why do they get jobs over Black Americans? Is it because they are harder workers who show up on time, take pride in their work and build a life, or is it because they’ve got money, privilege and education?
This guy purports to be a pastor. Perhaps he is.. but he is a DERELICT pastor at best. He is preaching and teaching from the wrong book. He’s embraced Marx, Alinsky, the psychobabble of the communist/marxist psychologists and sociologists, and left out the one Book that contains the solution. How’s about he pick THAT one up, open it, and learn what it says in there? THings like “if a man WON”T work (note wel, it does not say “can’t”, it says WON’T._ DO NOT feed him. It says “I am Gd honour ME and no one/thing else It says FATHERS… Read more »