Red's Wrap
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Orbiting Zorkon: Gun Violence in Milwaukee
The parts of our city where all the shootings go on has become another planet. We orbit reluctantly, wishing that something sunnier was our gravitational force. Not violence and death and children dying on playgrounds because two young men made each other angry.
Today a 10-year old girl who was just playing at the playground in her neighborhood in the middle of the day on May 21st died from gunshot wounds suffered when she somehow got caught in the crossfire between two young, very angry men. If there’s a sadder story than this one with the bereft parents, the young men certain to live their lives out in prison, and a long summer with an empty playground, I can’t bear to hear it.
I’ve lived and worked in Milwaukee for forty years and I’ve never been afraid to go anywhere, never felt threatened, and have never been treated badly or even rudely in any of the neighborhoods that demographers would label ‘at-risk’ or ‘economically depressed.’ I’m a white woman in a highly segregated city. When I drive up to an agency and park my car, I’m likely to be the only white person in sight. But for years, what’s worked for me is I act respectful, I get respected.
Now I think it doesn’t matter how I act. It isn’t about me. Or this child on the playground or really anyone who gets shot these days. Nothing that any victim does can explain the consequence of getting shot.
There has been much talk lately about how gun violence is a public health issue and that, in order to fully understand its epidemiological dimensions, we need to do a dissection of each incident to determine the precipitating factors, the relationships, why and when the shooting occurred, get to the reasons that will explain the violence, the thinking being, I guess, that if we can figure out the reasons, then we can address the reasons and reduce the violence.
I don’t think there are reasons.
I think there are guns.
There are guns everywhere. Everywhere. You better believe it. Right now, in Wisconsin, people are walking around with guns in holsters like this is the O.K. Corral. The folks who went through a $50 concealed carry class walk around in a haze of superiority because their gun lust got sprinkled by respectable fairy dust. Two sides of the same coin to me, the guy who takes a class so he can put his new gun in a fancy holster and parade around town, his jacket artfully arranged so everyone can see that his gun is ready, real ready and the guy whose second or third hand stolen gun is wedged in the lowdown of his pocket; it’s a dick festival in either case. Call it what it is.
The phenomenon of the dick festival is responsible for a lot of human agony. Tell me right now while you’re reading this how many world wars were started by women? How much insane oppression has been propagated by women? How many mass shooters have been women? Still counting on the fingers of one hand, aren’t you? By the middle of June of this year, there were 30 children who had been shot in our city. One of them died today. She was hit by two young men who were having a mad shootout in the neighborhood.
Our mistake is in our devotion to the analysis of gun violence as if we can just figure out the wrong turn on the decision tree, we can fix everything. We can’t. We can’t because we can’t change how young men see the world. We can’t change how immature they are or for how long or how impulsive they are and unable to think through the consequences of their actions. Not all, but many. Most. If you are the mother to sons, you know that it is one long holding one’s breath from the time they are 18 until they reach 30. In between they are boys in men’s pants and it’s scary as hell. Pray that in their craziness, they are unarmed and their friends are unarmed and everyone survives to grow up and join a bowling league.
I miss my city. I miss thinking that if I act respectful, I’ll get respected. I miss thinking I can go anywhere and be with people and talk to them about things that matter. I miss not worrying about getting shot. And that’s crazy. And I guess I also miss leaders who will say what needs to be said.
It’s not about the reasons.
It’s about the guns.
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#36/100: 36th in a series of 100 in 100
7 Comments on “Orbiting Zorkon: Gun Violence in Milwaukee”
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
“…until we have federal legislation that is truly leak-proof, …”
You mean like our drug laws which are so “leak-proof” despite over a quarter of century of trying that illegal drugs are now more available than ever, and cheaper too? Or the experiment back in the 1930s to create “leak proof” laws to keep alcohol out of the hands of American civilians?
When you legislate against something people truly want, then all you create is crime and opportunities for criminals. When you legislate to make it very difficult for law abiding citizens to own firearms you for the most just disarm them in the face of criminals, and criminals in government.
Thank you for both paying attention and drawing attention to the issue. The means and access to it matters. And until we have federal legislation that is truly leak-proof, more innocents will continue to pay the price for what others call freedom.
Two sides of the same coin to me, the guy who takes a class so he can put his new gun in a fancy holster and parade around town, his jacket artfully arranged so everyone can see that his gun is ready, real ready and the guy whose second or third hand stolen gun is wedged in the lowdown of his pocket; it’s a dick festival in either case. Call it what it is.
Given that many states, like Texas, track convictions of those licensed to carry concealed, I would be interested in knowing how you came to equate the two.
See, in Texas at least, convictions of those legally carrying concealed have never been over 0.5% of all the convictions for all crimes.
It’s about the guns.
Amazing conclusion given there are an estimated 50 to 80 million gun owners. The Bureau of Justice Statistics last report showed 427,000 firearm related violent crime out of 6,000,000 violent crimes. Even if every firearm related crime was committed by a different gun owner that means (using 50,000,000 as the low end) 0.854% of gun owners in a single year were guilty of a crime.
Guess the true agenda of anti-rights cultists is being displayed here – it isn’t about ‘reducing crime’ it is about getting rid of guns.
Bob S.
“it’s a dick festival…”
So all those ladies – quite a few actually – I have seen taking concealed carry classes are just looking to get themselves a “dick”?
I thought of making a longer reply, but basically I just think you are full of it, and I haven’t the time right now.
My guess,lwk, most women taking those classes are motivated by fear and by living among others who think the best way to end disputes is with a bullet. Are they adopting the whole dick-sizing thing (mine’s bigger than yours: I’m more powerful/better than you)? I don’t know. Some, probably. Others are getting nods from the people around them who are doing the same thing, or have learned to disbelieve the fairy tale that someone else, a man, will protect you. Meanwhile, I’m remembering the days when police officers bragged about their talking-down skills and their ability to manage situations without drawing their guns.
“My guess …most women taking those classes are motivated by fear and by living among others who think the best way to end disputes is with a bullet.”
You betray your bigotry in your own words. You think that many people who own firearms for self-defense think they are a good way to solve disputes, probably for the same reason you are so focused on “dicks.” It is a truism in psychology that people obsessed with something, usually something they won’t admit publicly about themselves, often spend a lot of time accusing others of being obsessed with the same thing.
So the many people who seem to obsesses about gun owners thinking their guns are dicks, are probably very concerned about dicks themselves, and project that concern and obsession on others.
Just for the record the gun owners I know don’t think guns are the _best_ way to end a disupute. However they recognize that sometimes a firearm is the _only_ way to walk away from a confrontation still in one piece when the other guy is violent and can’t be reasoned with.
The record shows that the vast majority of people who _do_ use a firearm in self defense never fire the gun or actually shoot anyone. In the vast majority of cases they demonstrate to the bad guy that they can inflict lethal injury and the bad guy suddenly decides to go somewhere else.
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“(mine’s bigger than yours: I’m more powerful/better than you)?”
Again, it is the anti-gunners who are obsessed with dicks, and their size, far more so than people who actually own guns.
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“…the fairy tale that someone else, a man, will protect you. ”
Perhaps you ought to read this:
A Nation of Cowards
by Jeffrey R. Snyder
Quoting:
“Insofar as the police deter by their presence, they are very, very good. Criminals take great pains not to commit a crime in front of them. Unfortunately, the corollary is that you can pretty much bet your life (and you are) that they won’t be there at the moment you actually need them.”
http://free2beinamerica2.wordpress.com/a-nation-of-cowards/
Leaders who not only say what needs to be said, but DO what needs to be done. All of could do with a bit more of that…