When you think back on your adolescence what do you see? The playground, your elementary school maybe even your favorite toy? While that idea and perception of childhood are ideal it is not necessarily a reality for us all. Had you grown up in less fortunate home memories from your adolescent years probably were not as fond. Perhaps you have memories of getting into fights, stealing or even gang-related activity. Often these violent delights have violent ends and in lower class neighborhoods such as Harlem or Jamaica, they are all too common. But what is the root cause of this violence within these communities and what can be done to remedy the streets from running red? To understand one must first acknowledge that violence is a response to some kind of stimulant or specifically the lack thereof. Due to the lack of recourses available to youths in these neighborhoods, it is one of the key factors that lead to increasing gun violence within lower-income communities. These acts of violence then lead to fear, fear from other members of the community that they are unsafe and they to need to protect themselves by taking matters into their own hands further perpetuating the cycle of violence.
To truly understand the problem of gun-related violence in lower-class communities the phrase “walk a mile in my shoes” comes to mind and this exactly what the reader does in Fist, stick, knife, gun a personal history of violence in America by Geoffrey Canada. In this book, Geoffrey gives a first-hand account of his experiences in Harlem and brushes with street violence. The book starts off with the opening phrase “America has long had a love affair with violence and guns. It’s our history, we teach it to all of our young.”. In that instance, you realize a nasty truth most cannot bear to stomach, that from a young age we introduce our youth to weapons capable of taking lives within a second. Many parents without a second thought purchase toy guns for their children and action figures with guns. This not only familiarizes children with weapons but takes away any sense that guns pose a real danger. It is no wonder that the dark markets of the streets have guns that are so easily accessible when we as a society see guns as nothing taboo. If children are desensitized to the true threat that guns pose within these communities more senseless deaths of our youth will occur. Canada also goes on to discuss his own personal experience of growing up in the south Bronx and finding a knife. In his account, he Finds an old K55 a type of knife commonly used in street fights. Once he restores the knife he remarks that it allowed him freedom and mobility in the streets stating “The knife was my passport. As I approached a group my hand would slide into my right pocket to position my knife, so it could be immediately opened.”. While it is unfortunate that Canada at this young age would have to carry a knife to give him a sense of safety when traveling throughout his neighborhood many people still have this same experience. The reason he mentions this story is because it stems from an early age where he was a victim and that same knife he cherished maimed him for life. While practicing warding off potential attackers the knife blade closed on his finger cutting down to the bone, but these are the lengths children are willing to go to when problems they cannot go to adults.
Once children are exposed to these problems which they cannot solve on their own and they cannot resort to adults for help matters must be taken into their own hands. This leads to children arming themselves like young Geoffrey did and once that has happened the battle is only uphill. Many methods have been employed to make the streets a cleaner and safer place for the youth, but most have been laughable attempts by the government just trying to appease parents. Canada references this writing “We will never convince them [children] to give up their weapons with fancy television jingles or with marches alone. What these children need is a sense of safety, a certainty of surviving as they go to school or to the store.”. Here he shows how little is actually required to actually help end violence in the community, If a child feels safe in all aspects of his life what good will a gun do him. At its heart, a gun is a tool like any other it has its purpose but once fear is removed from the equation the gun losses all purpose and ceases to be useful. The media also has negative effects on violence often promoting it through movies, shows, and songs. For example, In the Movie good fellas the gun is seen as a symbol of power which the main character Henry Hill hands the gun to his future wife only for her to remark “I got to admit the truth. It turned me on.”. This corresponds well with Canadas statement on trying to get guns off the street to stop violence all the while more guns are being pushed into the hands of young adults, “Here I was dealing with children dying every day and trying to solve the problem on the streets, and other Americans were sitting in offices designing new and more effective ways to entice children to use handguns.”
Raising a family under these conditions where you are fearful to walk out on the streets due to the very real threat of violence such as senseless shootings, stabbings, and merciless beatings add another layer of difficulty on life no one should experience. In communities like this parent are there children’s only line of defense trying their best to keep them safe on and off these streets. As a result, it was not uncommon at the time nor is it today to have a conversation with your children about how to avoid being killed or hurt. Canada goes into detail about his own personal drill one that his parents told him and his siblings habitually. “Before Robert left we went over the drill for what you should do when someone might be trying to kill you. The drill was a collection of do’s and don’ts learned over the years by the mistakes others had made, often costing them their lives:…I’ve gone over this drill too many times with too many kids.”. Being a parent and having to tell your kids what to do in a situation in which someone is attempting to murder them is hard as it is, On top of it all knowing it is a very real possibility in lower class neighborhoods such as Harlem or Jamaica must be a tough pill to swallow. Children that do come into contact with this destructive lifestyle of street violence also become trapped in it another worry to their parents. In a study by William Schwabe, and Julie H. Goldberg entitled How Youthful Offenders Perceive Gun Violence they interviewed 36 youthful offenders who had committed previously committed violent crimes. Almost all had experienced some form of violence prior their crime and many expected to be arrested, victimized, or die in the next year. A large group of the men also voiced that even if they were to stop “gang banging” and using guns they doubted the police would protect them from being shot. This further reinforces the fact that fear and violence go hand and hand even if the offenders did stop using guns they still would have to live in fear of violence themselves.
Now some may say that guns are not a bad force within the community and that it isn’t the guns that kill people it’s people that kill people. To that, I posit the question what a person dies from when shot? Do they die from the feeling caused by the other person? No, they die from the physical trauma they have endured as a result of a foreign object penetrating and entering their body. Ultimately while the person did make the decision to pull the trigger is the actual bullet and gun that does the damage enabling the person to commit such a crime. If the gun is removed from the whole equation altercation shifts from a few seconds of fighting till someone pulls the trigger to an environment where people don’t have that option anymore and should something arise law enforcement can Arrive before anyone is hurt.
In closing, this cycle of violence must end and we are the only ones who can change that. The youth should be educated on the dangers of guns and more resources have to be introduced into lower class communities to help aid in this violence. Instead of chastising deaf ears we need to move towards making the streets a safer place getting handguns off the street. Stopping the perception of guns as cool and sought after to what they actually are tools used for killing people. So that young those young children don’t have to have memories of a loaded Glock 9 but instead of a playground loaded with toys.
Works Cited
Canada, Geoffrey, and Inc Netlibrary. Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun a Personal History of Violence in America. Boston : Beacon Press, 1995.
Cook, Philip J. “Gun Violence.” Bookdepository.com, Oxford University Press Inc, 1 Dec. 2000, www.bookdepository.com/Gun-Violence-Jens-Ludwig/9780195137934.