Today is the 53rd anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965. He has a complex legacy when it comes to the debate around gun control.
But I’d like to discuss something he said about activism.
“The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you'll get action.” — Malcom X, 1965
Increasingly, it looks like the sleeping giant of American politics around guns, is awakening.
No single measure will stop all gun violence, but some will do more than others.
"We're going to be very strong on background checks, we're doing very strong background checks, very strong emphasis on the mental health," Trump said at a White House meeting with high school students, teachers and parents, including some from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and educators were killed last week by a former student. — news.trust.org/...
The GOP is trying mightily to make this gun debate about mental health. I’ve got a solution for them that’s laser focused on “mental health”:
Have every gun owner take an annual psychiatric exam and pay for it.
And if they come out of it with any hint that they could turn violent, take their guns away.
But of course, the president is simply using “mental illness” as a foil to distract us from other measures.
Donald Trump’s pro-massacre White House claimed it could not find the photograph of him personally signing an executive order removing gun checks for mentally ill persons. But NPR dug up the image of an unthinking, grinning Trump personally placing more guns into the hands of people he now claims can’t safely possess them.
Today was the first of several planned walkouts and protests by students. It was widely covered in the mass-media and I am optimistic that these young students are finally waking more Americans up. I say that because we’re seeing many gun owners come out in favor of an “assault” rifle ban, like this person who wrote an blog post titled Fuck you, I like guns.
But our broader society, has generally diminished student activism, and we should expect that it will continue to do so.
Meanwhile, a Texas School district is placing some prior restraint on student’s right to protest, threatening to suspend students for three days if they engage in gun control related protests or walk-outs. In Morse v Frederick, the Supreme Court found (on narrow grounds) that an Alaska school had the right to suspend a student for putting up a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” sign at a school event. Part of the rationale in that decision was that the sign could be reasonably construed to be promoting illegal drug use and this was therefore was a school safety issue.
I think the school district is going to have a very, very tough time convincing a court that they’re preventing students from protesting for safety measures, out of concerns for school safety.
Other districts are taking similar actions, including Clark County NV, clearly fearful of student activism.
You can also see this fear of student activism in the White House’s reluctance to engage with student activists who challenge it.
But this opposition will not stall the steady march of generational change.
Meanwhile, the president used and abused his bully pulpit to advocate for guns in the hands of school-teachers, janitors and administrators. The message was clear, more guns good. The only solution the pro-massacre Republicans will offer involves more killing machines.
Thankfully, these asinine ideas are receiving some vociferous pushback from students, activists and citizens.
But one assistant high school principal who survived a school shooting — after loading his Colt .45 pistol, then chasing and detaining the suspect at gunpoint — says the idea is misguided.
“Teachers have to teach, and that’s what they should be doing,” said Joel Myrick, the former assistant principal at a high school in Mississippi. “It doesn’t matter what a pistolero you are, or think you are. You don’t need to be in school in charge of protecting children.”
— www.nytimes.com/...
Let’s leave the last word for the student activists from Douglas High, who continue to impress us with their articulate, forceful presence.
— @subirgrewal