By: Omowale Luthuli-Allen
According to sage Maya Angelou, courage is the indispensable virtue. In street parlance, courage is the result of nuts and guts, testosterone and estrogen, amygdala and cerebellum seizing the reigns in a distressful moment.
The blood of the children and teachers are on the hands of those who continue to sit on their hunches and push back against meaningful gun resolutions.
Let me share this word with you. BESLAN. BESLAN was a mass casualty event in Russia in 2003. BESLAN was a domestic terrorist attack that targeted a school. 1100 people were taken hostage, 333 were killed and 186 of them were children. Wikipedia reports that over 100 people are missing and that 100 were burned alive. Powerful explosives had been smuggled into the school and snipers had been positioned to repel a rescue. The majority of the children were treated for burns, gunshot injuries, shrapnel wounds and mutilations caused by explosions. Some had limbs amputated and eyes removed, and many children were permanently disabled.
Let me share this word with you. Oklahoma City bombing, 2005. American domestic terrorists exploded fertilizer equivalent to 4,000 pounds of dynamite at the Federal building. The building contained a day care center and among the 168 murdered by the terrorists were 19 children. The youngest child to die was 6 months old.
Let me share this word with you. The 16th street Brimingham church bombing swallowed the lives of four girls who were destined for greatness. Unrepentant white supremacists declared a false victory, but they paved the way for the Mother Bethel mass killing of nine saints.
Red Flagg laws are a bare minimum. A red flag law is somewhat like a restraining order. Think of a deranged husband or lover that is bent on retaliating for being dropped. Often these demented souls kill their exes and often any children or family members that were related to the victim. A Red flag law would allow the courts to confiscate weapons that could be used in an attack. The person then loses the ability to carry a concealed weapon and is prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm.
My mind travels a stairway through time to the epic BOYZ IN THE HOOD movie. The little brother’s mindset after he is insulted is that I will tell my brother and he will shoot you in the face.
We should have acted after the 1963 church killings, after Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Parklane, after Sante Fe, after El Paso.
Are Senators waiting on their children to be heinously slaughtered? Pontificating and talking smack time is over. We must ban weapons of war and we can do this without disfiguring the second Amendment, but if we don’t act playing sleep and using back packs to defend against AR 15 bullets, the blasts will disfigure torsos, faces and lives.
People are waiting for God to act, and God is waiting on his instruments to act. Plain and simple, WE NEED COURAGE.
