P O S I T I O N S T A T E M E N T
April 10, 2023
Louisville Urban League’s Statement on Another Mass Shooting
Louisville has suffered an immense tragedy today. On the 100th day of the calendar year, Louisville is the site of the 145th mass shooting of the year in the United States. The local news has reported a past or current employee of Old National Bank shot and killed 5 people and injured another 8. There have been more mass shootings in this country than calendar days of the year. The people of the US are living under low-grade terrorism where you can be shot anywhere–a movie theater, an elementary school, a grocery store–and your neighborhood bank. Even as we were writing this response to the first gun violence incident today, another was reported to have occurred outside of Jefferson Community and Technical College with one person dead and another injured. But the prominent solution being offered in the Commonwealth and other states is to increase the access to, and proliferation of more guns.
According to the Giffords Law Center, there was a 183% increase in high-fatality mass shootings and a 239% increase in deaths from such shootings after the federal assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition ban lapsed in 2004. Astonishingly in this divided country, a Gallup poll shows that 57% of polled Americans are in favor of stricter gun laws. A majority of Americans believe in more gun control including red flag laws, bans on assault-style weapons, closing gun show loopholes, and background checks.
We cannot pretend there are two parties trying to end gun terrorism in our daily lives. One side is completely unwilling to do anything logical to solve this problem. While people are dying, Republicans in the US Congress are wearing AR-15 pins and state Republican lawmakers are making statements that they are unwilling to address stricter gun safety measures. In the most recent session of the Kentucky General Assembly, the Republican-controlled body passed legislation to make Kentucky a ‘2nd Amendment Sanctuary’ state, automatically rejecting any federal restriction on guns, should one ever pass. At the same time, bills that would create an office to study and track gun violence around the state; would allow for local governments to destroy abandoned, confiscated, or forfeited firearms; or would have made it a crime to unlawfully store a firearm; were not even heard.
Some of our elected representatives would rather watch our country disintegrate into chaos than enact common sense gun reform citing dubious interpretations of the US Constitution, conspiracy theories, anti-government rhetoric, and plain old fear. Six families, and counting, are wrestling with the unimaginable today and that number will climb. Nowhere will be safe until the people of this country demand gun reform at the state and national levels.
No other developed nation in the world lives like this. We do not have to live like this. We choose to live like this and we can choose differently.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
[email protected] | (502) 808-1056
About the Louisville Urban League
The Louisville Urban League assists African Americans and those at the margins in attaining social and economic equality and stability through direct services and advocacy. For more information, go to lul.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@louisvilleUL), or Instagram (@louisville_ul).
