How Do We Protect Our Kids: CCW Jr?

How Do We Protect Our Kids: CCW Jr?

By Rev. Rodrick Burton

The saying goes, “April showers bring May flowers,” but this May the showers were that of bullets on the city streets and in county lanes. These showers of gunfire fell on the just and unjust; on the innocent and on the guilty; on the intended and too often on the unintended. The cycle of violence spins like tire on an Indy race car.

Someone is shot in a beef or dispute of an insignificant nature and the desire for revenge and not justice keeps the cycle turning until vengeance is taken which spurs the cycle into action again. Man has advanced through history to move away from blood feuds by the use of criminal justice systems. Ours has proven to be tainted by racism over the years but now more and more conversely disconnection from participation in the system is seen as the way to go. Some solution! We must remember, flaws and all it’s the only system we have.

Regarding this same system, if we say all white juries are sending African Americans to jail then we don’t participate in jury duty how do you not end with exactly the same problem. If we cry out for police to arrest and convict but do not testify or cooperate how can they deliver justice?

If we say all white police forces are problem but don’t support people of color who join law enforcement how is the diversity problem ever to be solved? The opting out of the justice system and choosing to meet violence with violence creates its own injustice and victims. Now we witness a constant stream of kids being collateral damage to this routine violence.

May showers of bullets have wounded kid’s flowering childhood in case after case and now June bears bloody fruits for youth just out of school. While the actual wounded children make the news, those who are psychological injured witnessing brutal violence and experiencing the fear are not even mentioned and too enumerable to count.

The local tough guy or round- the-way gal may grab a gun for protection legally and illegally, but what about the kids? Where’s their protection?  Maybe it’s time for someone to propose a junior CCW for kids who need protection. Hey, it’s a gun culture in this country and State so we could probably get the NRA to back this initiative with massive funding. CCW for kids – Is this what it’s going to come to?

Or can brothers and sisters on the street, in the jails, in the prisons, and on the corner agree that we are not and we will not put children in danger. In the 1994 movie “The Professional” Jean Reno portrayed Leon a hitman who lived by the motto – “No women, no children.”

If we can’t live by the example of the nature world where animals protect their young; and the Bible; and United Nations conventions on human rights; and U.S. laws banning harming of children; could we at least live by the words of a fictional character – “No women and no children” and begin to protect our offspring.

Editor’s Note:  Rev. Rodrick K. Burton, Pastor, New Northside Missionary Baptist Church, 8645 Goodfellow Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63147, www.newnorthsidebaptist.org, (314) 381-5730. The opinions expressed by Rev. Burton are not necessarily those of this website.