Gun Violence

Preventing Gun Violence in Our Nation

By Neera Tanden, Winnie Stachelberg, Arkadi Gerney, and Danielle Baussan | January 13, 2013

After last month’s senseless shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut—in which 20 children and 6 adults were shot and killed—we need to immediately address the gaps in our current law that enable mass shootings, as well as the everyday shootings that on average claim the lives of 33 Americans each day.

In this issue brief we recommend 13 legislative proposals and executive actions to prevent gun violence in our nation.

These actions are targeted in the following three key areas:

• Better background checks 
• Taking military-grade weapons off the streets and out of criminals’ hands 
• Better data, better coordination, and better enforcement 
•  We discuss these actions in further detail below.

To read the entire report click here.  

A little boy, a mom and the first day back

I'll admit it.

I'm a sentimental fool when it comes to children and the markers in life.

So, this morning on my way to the office I pass a little boy, he looked to be about six-years-old. He was holding his mother's hand as they walked toward our neighborhood school for the first day of classes in this new school year.

For some reason seeing that little guy made me think of all of the other children, young and older who'll make a similar trek this morning.

Of course, I thought of my own grandchildren as my eyes called in a tear or two. All three of them will go back to school today.

I remembered the many "first day of school" days I experienced with my own daughters.

It's an exciting time. A good time. A nerve-wracking time.

It's not easy being a child today.

I offered up a simple prayer as I drove past that little fellow and his hopeful mom. It was a prayer for every child on this first day of a new school year. A prayer for mercy, hope, opportunity, courage, fairness and safety.

Our children are treasures, every single one of them.

I'll be thinking of him, my own grandchildren and all of them today.

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"All my adult life in South Dallas"

Wow!

Janet Morrison is right. She has lived all of her adult life in South Dallas! I hired her in 1995 and she has been making things better for this city ever since, with no sign of letting up.

The comment about where she has lived since moving to Dallas to begin her "adult life" appeared in a great Op-Ed piece that The Dallas Morning News published on Friday, October 24, 2008.

Here's how Janet begins:

Ever wonder why people in our inner cities are angry?

Since the slated demolition of the Turner Courts housing development in South Dallas, my office and our After-School Academy have moved to Roseland Townhomes, a Dallas Housing Authority property in the City Place area.

As I left my new office at 7 one Friday night, 30 to 40 people rounded the corner of the recreation center, running toward a fight. My co-worker quickly called 911 and, before I could even leave the apartments, her call had produced an immediate police response.

Within five minutes, one police car had blocked off traffic while two others jumped the curb and sped across an open lot. As I drove off, yet two more police cars rapidly approached from another direction and a police helicopter hovered overhead.

I know I should be elated by the quick response of our very capable Police Department. Instead, I was extremely angry, and my blood pressure rose each time I heard another siren.

Wonder why she was angry?

Read the entire article here.

Janet understands.

Your reactions are welcome, as always.

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AR-15. . .Second Amendment rights, market profits and community

Did you hear the news report about the effect of the Presidential election on the price and sales of AR-15 assault rifles?

It seems that people feel that Barack Obama will be the winner in next Tuesday's election and that he will extend the ban on automatic assault weapons that President George W. Bush allowed to expire.

The rush to buy is motivated by several factors. People who want such a weapon fear that they will not be able to purchase one after Obama takes office. Others evidently are in the market feeling that the expected new policy will drive up the price of the weapons, making them a good investment.

Automatic assault weapons, military grade, designed to kill human beings. This is no sport weapon. We can debate the original intention of the Constitution's second amendment another time (for my part, I know Jefferson would be appalled!).

But, I'm thinking of my community just now.

The presence of AR-15 assault weapons on our streets doesn't make sense and cannot be justified by any argument, at least not if your goal is to improve and sustain community health, public safety and human well-being.

Why does anyone need such a weapon? How does the availability of these weapons help anyone.

Whoever is elected Tuesday, I pray the ban is extended. . .permanently.

What do you think?

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"Deregulating" toward fear and darkness in neighborhoods

Yesterday, I was in Austin, Texas working with leaders of our project there.

We call it Urban Connection--Austin. Dean Smith, our Executive Director, spends his days weaving new connections in one very challenged neighborhood north of downtown. We are very fortunate to have found Dean to lead this effort.

Like our work in San Antonio, I know what is happening "on the ground" in Austin will pay a huge return on investment in the lives of thousands who live in the shadow our state capitol.

During my trip, I met Anthony Williams .

Anthony is the president of the local homeowners association and extremely involved in work to improve his community. He joined us for a presentation to the leaders of the University Avenue Church of Christ, the church that has done more to support our move into Austin than any other.

Anthony sketched a very graphic and helpful picture of the kind of havoc that "slum lords" often wreak upon a neighborhood.

Largely unregulated by the city, these outside, usually absent landlords continue to collect rents while putting little, if anything, back into their properties. Leaking roofs, sub-standard plumbing and electrical service, landscaping and general upkeep go begging. Meanwhile, tenants have few real rights. Those who complain or call for help from city officials end up being evicted.

"Our neighborhood is characterized by fear and darkness," Anthony informed the group.

Property rights are an essential element in the social contract of our nation. But, like everything else, when unattended and allowed to go unregulated, people suffer and grow hopeless.

Ironically, when this happens, the rest of us tend to "blame the victims" for the shoddy appearance and upkeep of inner city neighborhoods. The real culprits aren't anywhere to be found, which is a huge part of the problem.

Think about it. If I am renting from a totally unresponsive property owner, why should I invest my hard earned, but limited funds to address a problem that I didn't cause and that rightfully belongs to someone else?

Deregulation at the street level turns out to be the genesis of lots of very real, day-to-day problems among the urban poor.

Anthony Williams is working hard to organize his neighbors to do something constructive in response. I'm glad he's on our team in Austin.

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Success story from Turner Courts!

Needing some good news?

Check out Janet Morrison's recent post about a real victory for the Turner Courts housing development located in the Rochester Park neighborhood in South Dallas: http://janetmorrison.blogspot.com/2008/05/slow-down-breathe-deep-and-let-bus-come.html.

To get more of a sense for how the victory feels at the community level visit Ms. Sylvia's blog at: http://www.lovethyneighbors.blogspot.com/.

Community leader, Michael Davis also posted some good words at his blogspot: http://www.dallasprogress.com/.

Sweet, sweet progress!


Thanks to Dallas City Council Member Dwaine Carraway for his involvement and leadership and to the neighbors at Turner Courts who refused to give up about bus service into their community at night.

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Crime, Fear and Community Reality

Crime in the streets unsettles a neighborhood.

We've lived in inner city East Dallas since 1999. For the most part our eclectic community has been free of crime, especially the violent sort. A few petty thieves, the normal run of drug mules and low-level dealers, gangs in the park--that sort of crime.

But now we have a ring of thugs who are smashing in front doors when people are at home. The latest wave of crime is very violent, incredibly brazen and very disturbing because of what appears to be the desperate nature of the criminals.

A couple of nights ago we observed the latest, and by far the clearest, evidence of the serious nature of what's going on here in our neighborhood. A block over from our street the police set up a check point. I don't think I've ever seen one in a residential neighborhood here before.

They were stopping every car and pedestrian moving up or down Fitzhugh Avenue between Junius and Worth Streets. Their purpose: to establish a visible presence in our neighborhood to send a clear signal to the "bad guys" that they needed to go away.

I'll have to admit that it made me feel good seeing them out there in full force. Must have been 6 or 7 squad cars and a full contingent of officers stopping cars, talking to everyone and letting everyone know they were here to stay, at least for a while. What we observed was obviously a well-planned "operation."

As I thought about it, my mind turned toward another neighborhood located in far South Dallas.

It is a very poor community. Crime has been widespread and expected in this area for a long, long time. The neighbors are working hard these days to turn out even a fraction of the police presence we observed in our area this week. I know because some of my friends and work associates are deeply involved.

Our neighborhood is poor, but not as poor as the South Dallas community I have in mind. Ours is very mixed, diverse in about every way. The South Dallas area is all minority and extremely poor, populated mostly by renters. The crime there is much worse, just as violent or more so than our recent eruption, and enduring to the point of being a community tradition.

The desires of the vast majority of the residents of both communities are clearly the same.

We want safe, clean, healthy, kid-friendly neighborhoods.

A few bad apples attempt to ruin it for both areas.

Sadly, the public response to these problems is quite different from one neighborhood to the other.

These differing responses speak clearly to the sorts of problems we still face here in Dallas.

Unfortunately, race, class, income, property values, home ownership rates and reputation still carry far too much weight in terms of how our city invests its limited public safety resources. And, I'm convinced it is the same in many other aspects of our public life and how we divide our assets.

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Turner Courts

Check out the WFAA Channel 8 news report by Craig Civale that aired last Thursday night near the top of the 10 p.m. news:

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews
/stories/wfaa071207_ac_turner.78b22795.html.

The residents of Turner Courts who were interviewed are our friends and neighbors.

The story about the extremely dark streets without working street lights and the change in DART's bus routes after 6 p.m. came to the attention of Channel 8 thanks to the efforts of our team at Turner Courts.

Janet Morrison, Wyshina Harris and Sylvia Baylor have been organizing neighbors to speak out about basic living conditions and public safety issues in the community where one of our After School Academies is located.

I say "good show" to all those involved in bringing the reality of this neighborhood to the attention of the larger community. I'm looking for future reports of progress and better communitiy services.

Not in our neighborhood—role reversal

Almost twenty years ago, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price caused quite a stir when he began a campaign to drive liquor billboard advertisements out of South Dallas. Mr. Price whitewashed a number of billboards himself as a way to call attention to the inordinate number of such signs in his district. He also pointed out the presence of far too many establishments with licenses to sell alcohol in his part of town. As a minister in far North Dallas at the time, I remember cheering him on, to the chagrin of some of my own parishioners.

More recently, protest efforts, community organizing and legal action have combined to focus attention on the area around and between Lincoln High School and Pearl C. Anderson Learning Center. The area immediately around Pearl C. is home to 10 liquor stores.

Not long ago, one of the stores lost its license to sell alcohol. The community celebrated the decision by Dallas County Clerk Cynthia Calhoun to close Buy N Save Discount Beer & Wine. Unfortunately, her decision was overturned last week by a Dallas County judge who cited “procedural errors” in the ruling and sent the case back to the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission (TABC). The TABC could decide to renew the store’s license or call for another public hearing on the matter.

Since the mid-1990s, neighbors, school leaders and students have been working to get the stores closed due to their proximity to the schools. In 1995, their efforts paid off as the Dallas City Council passed an ordinance that established a 1,000-foot alcohol free zone around specified schools.

Unfortunately, the existing stores were “grandfathered” and allowed to continue business inside the zone around Pearl C.

All sorts of negative activities have been reported and documented as occurring in and around stores like Buy N Save that do business in the Lincoln/Pearl C. area, including prostitution, selling alcohol to minors and drug trafficking. For years, students walking to and from school have been subjected to all sorts of negative experiences, influences and harassment.

Neighbors and school leaders have been vigilant in their protests and watchfulness, but the stores remain.

I’m reminded of Mr. Price’s earlier actions on behalf of some of the same families, and his entire district.

Why should South Dallas be subjected to such influences? Folks in North Dallas wouldn’t put up with such circumstances even for a moment. What's more, they would be heard. Folks in South Dallas don't seem to get the same sort of hearing, attention or responsiveness from public officials as those who live up North.

If you live in Dallas, write your Council Member, as the Council is considering the creation of more alcohol-free zones around other public schools in the city.

[For more details, see “Move against beer store near school reversed,” by Scott Goldstein, The Dallas Morning News, Thursday, March 22, 2007, page 8B.]