This past Tuesday night police departments across the nation celebrated the 29th National Night Out Against Crime (NNO).
The event has proven itself to be an effective campaign in promoting police and community partnerships joined in an effort to make America safer.
Each year on a specially designated night in August, civic groups, organizations, re- ligious leaders, community groups and private citizens join with law enforcement officials at the local level in 50 states and more than 15,000 communities through- out the United Sates, U.S. Territories, Canadian cities and military bases worldwide for a number of reasons. The goals of NNO are to heighten awareness about crime and drugs, strengthen neighborhood-police connection and send a message to crimi- nals that communities all over the country are fighting back against crime.
The program is a very commendable and crucial one in the national quest to combat crime. The communities in our readership area all hosted events through their indi- vidual precincts, offering services, resourc- es and gift giveaways to their communities and especially to youth and seniors.
It was an especially good opportunity to see such a diverse group of individuals gath- ered to stand behind the common cause of great consequence to each of us—the fight to keep our streets safe.
That fight was tragically reinforced by two separate incidents of deadly gun violence that claimed 18 lives in mass shootings with- in three weeks of each other.
We have seen just our nation lose its col- lective breath upon hearing of the gunman in a movie theater in Colorado who took the lives of 12 innocent victims. With hardly enough time to recover from the news we faced yet another senseless act of violence perpetrated on worshippers in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that left 6 dead.
Although the two incidents remain completely separate they share a common and deadly thread that is at the heart of this lethal situation. Both of the gunmen were able to purchase their weapons of choice legally and use those weapons against their victims not as acts of self- defense but as brutal acts of murder.
The message of NNO and other projects to eliminate societal violence is muffled every time a shot rings out and strikes another helpless victim.
We appreciate the freedom provided forin our Constitution, but what about the need for temperance. For as long as there is no amendment that says psychopathic citizens are disqualified from the right to bear arms, the rest of us remain in harm’s way. Is there no lesson learned in the spilled blood of innocents? It seems not.
If we are to win the war against crime and criminals we best realize that maniacs with guns are not going to rush into the waiting arms of law enforcement officials to surrender them.
Instead it is up to us to take them away. Although it would be naïve to think that stricter gun laws would serve to abolish lunacy, it is insanity in and of itself that we do not at least make it more difficult to put the oppor- tunity to kill into the hands of murderers.
There are thousands of topics of consequence one could chose to editorialize on in this space. How utterly shocking is it that we should be so compelled, so warranted to broach the same subject within the span of just a few short weeks. Hopefully the message is strong enough for all of us to contact our legislators and insist on greater gun control measures.
We can try to do something or we can sit by idly, waiting for the next time. Or per- haps we can continue convincing ourselves that such a thing would never happen to us. I wonder who in the movie theater in Colo- rado thought they may be shot while watch- ing Batman or who among the Sikh wor- shippers thought it would be their last time to pray. We’d take a guess at none of them.
And to the families and friends of the most recent twenty three people who fell victim to violent circumstance and the thousands who were killed in mass shootings before them there is little to say. The fact that we are all very sorry is not all that meaningful if we are unwilling to prevent future sorrow.
On behalf of The Forum, we would like to express our deepest sympathy to members in the Sikh community of Richmond Hill. One of our neighbors there has been forced to face the shock and pain of losing a loved one in the attack.
Our prayers remain with you and with the families of every other unsuspecting citizen who has fallen victim to these heinous acts.
It’s too bad we have more regard for the rights of those that value life so little instead of those who have the gall to go to the movies or their place of worship.
Now that’s a crime.
