With our nation still grieving from the deaths of 10 African Americans who were senselessly murdered while shopping in a Buffalo supermarket on a warm day in May amongst other tragic mass killings, Congress recently passed “The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.”

For 30 years, most of the Democrats have been trying to pass a gun control law.  According to Ballotpedia, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 is a firearm regulation and mental health bill passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on June 25, 2022. Finally, the right to bear arms as the Second Amendment promises us is being controlled to a degree. Maybe the television news programs which showed family and friends crying at the various funeral services of victims of mass murderers was the final straw for these elected officials who passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

Since the 18-year-old murderer, Payton S. Gendron, behind the Buffalo supermarket killing was so young, many people were surprised to see such a violent temperament in him. I was not. History has repeatedly shown vicious acts of violence against African Americans by some in the dominant white majority. Educational institutions need to openly talk about this history.

As a child in school, I was told that the Native Americans taught the immigrant Pilgrims how to plow the land and how to survive.  Yet, the Pilgrims and other colonial settlers choose to steal the land from the Native Americans for their own economic gain. Afterwards they used this land to enslave Africans and treat them in a terrible manner. Then the Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment. 

This principle stated the following idea: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and to bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The writers of the Constitution were John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Benjamin Franklin.  In our history books, these men are called “revolutionaries” who helped design the 13 Colonies into becoming the United States.  Call these men as you wish, but they wrote violence into the fabric of American life. I do think an exploitative history can be overcome. Returning humane treatment to non-white people is long overdue.

In addition, just sending violent murderers to jail will not solve our problem.  Give violent people lifelong counselling and teach them ways to reclaim the humanity they were born with. Those of us who believe in public safety and freedom for all must actively speak up for these values.