Two Places, Two Realities

Last night in Memphis, at the corner of Union and South McLean, citizens and police confronted one another over the issue of gun violence against black Americans.

“Hands up! Don’t Shoot!” went the chant of those who demonstrated. By now, that is not a new slogan. Memphis is by no means the only place this has happened in our divided nation. Far from it. The trigger for this particular demonstration was the death of a black man - George Floyd - while he was held in police custody, far away in Minneapolis.

This week in Nashville, near the intersection of Charlotte and Fifth, a legislative subcommittee gave its blessing to a strange new bill making it just fine to carry a gun without even a traditional firearm permit anymore. Governor Bill Lee had proposed this extreme policy. On the day he announced it, Republican members of the legislature could not gather around him fast enough for the photo op. It was important, you see, for the NRA representative (who also attended) to see them there and take note of their support.

The Memphis Crime Commission and the Memphis chief of police separately have spoken out forcefully against this loosening of standard civil controls of firearms. So have other law enforcement professionals. But the central issue on Capitol Hill is never about gun safety. It’s about politics and elections, and everybody knows it.

Are these two scenes, in two very different circumstances, technically about the same thing? No, the hair-splitters will say. Will the supermajority point that out? Of course, they will, if anyone has the temerity to ask them to explain.

But are the two somehow connected nonetheless? Yes. Of course, yes.

Our nation is long overdue a thorough review of the causes of violence, along the lines of the Kerner Commission of 1968. That report concluded, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal.” Observing the fraught intersection in Memphis last night, and how policy is nowadays made up in Nashville, you might conclude the Kerner Report got it right.

I suggest it’s time for a new look - at our country - and a new conversation that takes in the big picture of the culture of violence, what causes it, and the culture of too many guns. The only questions in my mind this morning are who ought to convene it and how quickly can it begin.

© Keel Hunt, 2020