Shamefully, the Rev. Jesse Jackson has revved up the blame game against law-abiding, federally-licensed firearms retailers in the suburbs of troubled cities like Detroit, where he somehow hopes to convince people that the legal sale of firearms is the cause of urban violence.
At protests he encouraged last Saturday at firearms retail stores and with characteristic rhetoric, Jackson and leaders of the Rainbow PUSH coalition did nothing less than pillory law-abiding firearms retailers—those same retailers who want as much as anyone to see violence curbed in their regions.
This scapegoating was called out by Action Impact Gun Shop owner William Kucyk, of Southfield, Michigan, whose store was the site of one protest and who was quoted in a Detroit Free Press article, saying “I guess I’m disappointed because if you come in my store, I have wonderful customers. I have families in my store. I have serious good, sound functional customers in my store. I have students in my store to learn gun safety. So why you would think this would be a symbol for that protest is unwarranted.”
The lawful sale of firearms does not cause crime. This is demonstrated by the continuing rise in lawful firearm sales coinciding with a continued drop in violent crime nationwide. At the same time, this increase in firearms sales has supported at 30.6 percent increase in jobs between 2008 and 2011, keeping thousands of workers off unemployment lines and homeowners off foreclosure lists and making the firearms industry a bright spot in the U.S. economy.
We sympathize with the citizens of Detroit on the issues of urban unemployment, poverty and criminal misuse of firearms, but persecuting lawful, taxpaying business will do nothing to solve the difficult problems that so vex that community.
I live in Livonia, MI which is about 2 miles west of the city of Detroit in the same county. I have lived in this region for my entire life, I have worked in Detroit, and I have friends that work in Detroit (one who is in law enforcement) so I have a pretty good idea about the situation there. The problem that Detroit is facing (like many other cities in this country right now) is that the city government is broke. The loss of tax revenue from both income taxes and from many businesses closing in the city has caused the problem. After the economy collapsed back in 2008, the city had a mass exodus of people moving out of Detroit to various regions in the south to find employment. The last census back in 2010 stated that Detroit had less than 800,000 people now and is no longer considered a major city anymore. Now you have a city with a lot of people who can’t find employment, and since they can’t make ends meet by conventional means (a.k.a. getting a job), they resort to crime. Add to that the fact that we have far fewer police in the city due to the budget shortfalls, and you have a recipe for disaster.
For example, the Detroit Police Dept. has just informed citizens that if it they call 911 because they have had a crime committed against them and it is after normal business hours, the police will not bother coming to the scene unless the crime is actually still in progress. To clarify, that means if you have just been carjacked and the bad guys are driving away with your car but you are in no immediate danger at the time you are making the 911 call, the police will not even bother coming to the scene. Instead they want you to file a police report via a phone hotline. Also, many police precincts in Detroit simply close their doors after normal business hours due to the lack of fund needed to keep the doors open.
As you can see, only someone who is out of touch and uniformed would try to blame this situation on legitimate businesses who serve their community. I would love to see the statistics on violent crime in Detroit and see how many of the weapons used to perpetrate those crimes were actually legally owned firearms (not that you could prove much either way right now since most of the crimes committed in Detroit are not investigated due to a lack of manpower).
bessey jackson is nothing more than a commercial protestor. You look in to his primary business and you will see this. He and his paid protestors will show up anywhere and protest anything for the right price. I wouldn’t be surprised if he protest comrade Holders Contempt of Congress.
F— Jessie Jackass and everything he stands for which is nothing.