Art
by
Maya Campbell
GUN CONTROL IS NOT THE ANSWER Maya Campbell “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” This is a common talking point of conservatives when defending less restriction on gun laws. Although most liberal people quickly refute this point, it has more validity than most people realize. Gun control has long been considered a liberal, fair and progressive policy that helps underrepresented groups and harms oppressors. However, gun control’s true nature is not a pretty one. Gun control has inherently racist origins, and to this day, it continues to perpetuate racism towards Black Americans. However, most Americans, both conservative and liberal, either refuse to acknowledge this or are ignorant of it
entirely. Most liberal people fully support strict gun legislation. Still, gun control is not effective enough to be widely used throughout the U.S. Instead of focusing on restricting guns, we should put our energy into prevention measures such as mental health and welfare services. While gun control is not inherently racist, its enforcement is where the racism comes in. ‘Stop and frisk’ policies have disproportionately affected Black people for years, and in a 2019 NYPD report, 69% of people stopped were Black. More Black people being stopped means that statistically, more Black people are charged with carrying a weapon, resulting in higher rates of black arrests. “If you have a white, upper-middle-class guy carrying a gun versus a Black, inner-city young man carrying a gun, which one is going to be
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