Jackson visits Newark to press for a change in gun laws
Monday, October 15, 2007
BY CLAIRE HEININGER
Star-Ledger Staff
Even for a city numbed by shootings, the execution-style slayings of three college students in a Newark schoolyard Aug. 4 remains an "open wound" to the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
But the symptoms that inflicted Newark's pain are festering all over the country, the civil rights leader said yesterday, as he visited a city church to call for a renewed national ban on assault weapons.
"It's the drama of that execution that got people's attention. The killing is commonplace, but not just in Newark, all over the country," Jackson said. "No one should find a comfort zone. ... None of us are safe until all of us are safe."
Shaky gun laws play a role in both the drumbeat of bloodshed in urban centers like Newark and episodes of violence on school campuses and in suburbs, Jackson said. He said it is far too easy for buyers to obtain military-grade weapons, and for criminals to skirt the law by using straw purchasers with "unlimited access" to handguns. Gun tracing systems also need to be strengthened, he said.
"We must first challenge some basic laws that deal with the excessive overflow of gun excess and access," Jackson said in a phone interview last night, several hours after delivering his message at Newark's Metropolitan Baptist Church.
By his side on the altar was James Harvey -- the father of 20-year-old Dashon Harvey, one of the schoolyard slaying victims -- who delivered yet another plea from a grieving parent.
"We've got a Mr. Harvey in every town, and that's why you can't just take this thing on locally," Jackson said. "We're connecting various anti-gun movements around the country."
His Rainbow PUSH Coalition already has staged a massive march on gun shops and manufacturers across the United States, and is planning another soon in 50 "major markets" that will include the greater Newark area, Jackson said. He said he is relying on local ministers, like the Rev. David Jefferson Sr. of Metropolitan Baptist, to spread the word, as well as urging politicians to fight for a revived assault weapons ban.
Jackson's visit to Newark came more than two months after three college students -- Iofemi Hightower, Terrance Aeriel and Harvey -- were killed as they socialized in the playground behind Mount Vernon School.
The victims were lined up in front of a wall and shot in the back of the head in an apparent robbery. A fourth victim -- Aeriel's 19-year-old sister, Natasha -- was shot in the head but survived. Harvey and the Aeriels were students at Delaware State University, and Hightower had planned to enroll there this fall.
A group of six men and boys have been charged in the killings, but Jackson said the scars remain.
He likened a widespread campaign against gun violence to the latest chapter in the civil rights struggle.
"We must make that a priority now," he said, calling it "the threat of our time."
To illustrate his point, Jackson said, he asked the audience in the church's pews to stand up if they'd been to a funeral for someone who died because they were lynched with a rope. The worshippers stayed in their seats.
He then asked how many had been to the funeral of a victim of gun violence.
"Everybody stood," he said. "That's just reality. It's not just Newark."
Monday, October 15, 2007
BY CLAIRE HEININGER
Star-Ledger Staff
Even for a city numbed by shootings, the execution-style slayings of three college students in a Newark schoolyard Aug. 4 remains an "open wound" to the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
But the symptoms that inflicted Newark's pain are festering all over the country, the civil rights leader said yesterday, as he visited a city church to call for a renewed national ban on assault weapons.
"It's the drama of that execution that got people's attention. The killing is commonplace, but not just in Newark, all over the country," Jackson said. "No one should find a comfort zone. ... None of us are safe until all of us are safe."
Shaky gun laws play a role in both the drumbeat of bloodshed in urban centers like Newark and episodes of violence on school campuses and in suburbs, Jackson said. He said it is far too easy for buyers to obtain military-grade weapons, and for criminals to skirt the law by using straw purchasers with "unlimited access" to handguns. Gun tracing systems also need to be strengthened, he said.
"We must first challenge some basic laws that deal with the excessive overflow of gun excess and access," Jackson said in a phone interview last night, several hours after delivering his message at Newark's Metropolitan Baptist Church.
By his side on the altar was James Harvey -- the father of 20-year-old Dashon Harvey, one of the schoolyard slaying victims -- who delivered yet another plea from a grieving parent.
"We've got a Mr. Harvey in every town, and that's why you can't just take this thing on locally," Jackson said. "We're connecting various anti-gun movements around the country."
His Rainbow PUSH Coalition already has staged a massive march on gun shops and manufacturers across the United States, and is planning another soon in 50 "major markets" that will include the greater Newark area, Jackson said. He said he is relying on local ministers, like the Rev. David Jefferson Sr. of Metropolitan Baptist, to spread the word, as well as urging politicians to fight for a revived assault weapons ban.
Jackson's visit to Newark came more than two months after three college students -- Iofemi Hightower, Terrance Aeriel and Harvey -- were killed as they socialized in the playground behind Mount Vernon School.
The victims were lined up in front of a wall and shot in the back of the head in an apparent robbery. A fourth victim -- Aeriel's 19-year-old sister, Natasha -- was shot in the head but survived. Harvey and the Aeriels were students at Delaware State University, and Hightower had planned to enroll there this fall.
A group of six men and boys have been charged in the killings, but Jackson said the scars remain.
He likened a widespread campaign against gun violence to the latest chapter in the civil rights struggle.
"We must make that a priority now," he said, calling it "the threat of our time."
To illustrate his point, Jackson said, he asked the audience in the church's pews to stand up if they'd been to a funeral for someone who died because they were lynched with a rope. The worshippers stayed in their seats.
He then asked how many had been to the funeral of a victim of gun violence.
"Everybody stood," he said. "That's just reality. It's not just Newark."
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