We can do something about gun deaths in Cumberland County and NC. We must.
Once a month, the organization that I lead holds a public vigil for peace and nonviolence in the city of Fayetteville. The purpose of the vigil is to raise social awareness, promote peace and build a resilient and communal consciousness against the overwhelming and depressing wave of gun violence that has plagued our city and society.
As fate would have it, the vigils are held in front of a mural of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — a man who advocated national and international nonviolence, but one who also opined that the choice would eventually be either nonviolence or nonexistence.
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I do not want to be the bearer of bad news, however: I’m afraid that if we don’t find a way to mitigate our public rage and do something to prevent more guns from being sold, legally or illegally, then there’s probability that Dr. King’s pronouncements still ring true.
As a pastor who has eulogized and provided support to numerous families and victims of gun violence, it’s heartbreaking to see so much tragic and avoidable death. Many of these circumstances were interpersonal conflicts which could have been resolved without death had there not been a firearm involved.
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At a time when violence has reached crisis levels, we must use every tool we have to protect every life we can. In addition to our very effective campaign for social peace, one such tool is the Pistol Purchase Permit system, which the N.C. General Assembly voted recently to repeal as part of a gun bill SB41. This system requires that everyone who buys a handgun must have a background check, no matter where they buy it — even from a private seller online or at a gun show.
The bill also allows gun owners licensed to carry a concealed weapon to do so on church grounds even when a private school is located there, which is currently prohibited, if it is not during school hours.
Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, but the Senate voted to override his veto on Tuesday — a day after a mass shooting at a Christian private school in Nashville, Tennessee, claimed the lives of three, 9 year-old students and three adult staff.
I call on all lawmakers who represent Cumberland County to sustain his veto in the House.
Permit to purchase laws are one of the most effective policies to reduce gun homicides and gun suicides. Twenty-two years after Connecticut’s permit to purchase law passed, their firearm homicide rate declined 28% and their gun suicide rate declined 33% compared to rates expected without this law.
In contrast, nine years after Missouri repealed a similar law, the state’s firearm homicide rate increased 47% and their firearm suicide rate increased 24% compared to the rate expected had they not repealed their law.
Following Missouri’s example would be catastrophic for Cumberland County and other communities around our state. If Gov. Cooper vetoes this bill, I call on all lawmakers who represent Cumberland County to sustain his veto. Lives are literally on the line.
In Beloved Action, the Rev. Floyd Wicker
The Rev. Dr. Floyd Wicker is an adjunct professor at Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh. He is past recipient of the Fayetteville Cumberland Human Relations Commission’s Religious Leader Award.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: We can do something about gun deaths in Cumberland County and NC. We must.
