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Can
America
break
its gun
addiction?
OpEd
By Jesse
Jackson
For Tell
Us USA
News
Network
CHICAGO
- After
mass
shootings
in
Southaven,
Mississippi;
Dayton,
Ohio;
and
Midland,
El Paso
and
Odessa,
Texas,
public
demand
for
sensible
gun
reform
once
more
soared.
And
once
more,
Republican
politicians,
led by
President
Donald
Trump,
were
intimidated
into
inaction
by the
gun
lobby,
led by
the
National
Rifle
Association.
Remarkably,
it was
America’s
largest
retailer
—
Walmart
— that
exhibited
the
courage
politicians
lacked.
It was
in a
Walmart
store in
El Paso
where a
gunman
armed
with an
assault-style
rifle,
roused
by the
hate-filled
rhetoric
about a
Latino
“invasion”
of our
country,
shot 48
people,
killing
22.
Walmart
CEO Doug
McMillon,
a
lifelong
hunter,
realized
that
they had
to take
action
to
protect
workers
and
customers
in their
stores.
Walmart
announced
that it
would
ban open
carry of
guns in
its
stores.
In
addition,
it would
discontinue
selling
handgun
ammunition
and
ammunition
that can
be used
in
large-capacity
clips on
assault-style
weapons.
This was
no small
step.
The
NRA and
other
gun
lobbies
immediately
called
on
members
to
boycott
Walmart.
Walmart
itself
projected
that it
would
lose
about
half of
its
ammunition
sales
with
this
decision
and also
called
on the
federal
government
to act
to
“strengthen
background
checks”
and to
consider
“reauthorization
of the
Assault
Weapons
ban.”
Walmart’s
action
moved
other
retailers
to act,
as
Kroger,
the
nation’s
largest
grocery
chain,
CVS,
Walgreens
and
Wegmans
also
announced
bans on
open
carry.
(Other
chains
like
Target,
Starbucks
and
Chipotle
have had
policies
against
open
carry
for
years).
The
laws on
open
carry
and
concealed
carry of
handguns
vary
from
state to
state,
but open
carry is
legal in
most
states,
often
without
any
requirement
for a
permit.
Walmart’s
example
should
now lead
to a
broader
nonviolent
movement
to limit
the
carrying
of guns,
even as
citizens
push for
legislative
reforms
at the
state
and
national
level.
In
many
states,
like
Texas,
open
carry is
legal in
churches.
Churches
across
the
country
should
follow
Walmart’s
lead and
post
signs
banning
the
carrying
of guns
— open
or
concealed
— on
church
property.
On
university
campuses,
states’
laws
vary
dramatically,
but most
allow
institutions
to limit
open or
concealed
carry.
Students
across
the
country
should
ensure
that
their
university
has
acted to
limit
guns to
the
extent
the laws
allow.
At
athletic
events,
again
laws
vary.
Generally,
it is
illegal
to carry
guns
into
professional
athletic
events
from the
NFL to
the MLB.
Most
states
also ban
guns
from
high
school
or
interscholastic
sporting
events.
But as a
college
level,
laws
vary.
In
many
states,
concealed
carry is
legal
unless
the
university
posts
signs
banning
guns.
Surely
every
campus
should
act to
keep
guns out
of the
stands
at
athletic
events.
If
more
retailers
follow
Walmart,
and if
churches
and
universities
and
concert
halls
and
movie
theaters
act to
ban
weapons
from
their
premises,
a
movement
for
common
sense
gun
regulation
can
continue
to
build.
When
Dr.
Martin
Luther
King Jr.
called
America
the
“most
violent
nation
on
earth,”
he was
widely
condemned,
but he
was
right.
No other
nation
suffers
the
level of
gun
violence
that we
endure.
No other
nation
fights
in as
many
wars on
as many
continents
as we
do.
Other
nations
savaged
by civil
war or
outside
invasion
may
suffer
greater
casualties
in a
conflict,
but we
have
made
violence
— and
victims
of
violence
—
routine.
King
argued
that we
have a
choice
in the
end
between
nonviolence
and
nonexistence.
The
only
hope for
sensible
gun
regulation
is to
challenge
the
corruption
represented
by the
NRA by
nonviolent
demonstrations
and
action,
enlisting
the
overwhelming
majority
of
Americans
in a
movement
for
change.
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