The Progressive National Baptist Convention will host a town hall meeting Wednesday in downtown St. Louis to address public safety in communities of color across the nation.
Faith leaders, gun violence experts and community organizers at the 2 p.m. meeting will discuss ways to reimagine public safety, public health and public policies to prevent gun violence and reduce police violence against people of color. They will also talk about the need to advocate for more restrictive gun control laws to minimize mass shootings.
The Black church must deal with gun violence now, said the Rev. Darryl Gray, social justice director of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
“If we don't address the particular issue of gun violence, then we will continue to bury our sons and our daughters in huge numbers,” said Gray, who is also a town hall panelist. “We will continue to promote a generation of young Black men and young Black women who don't believe that their lives matter.”
Organizers urge convention participants and the public to engage in conversations at the Hyatt Regency at the Arch with lawmakers and community groups about the death penalty, voter suppression and community organizing.
Convention leaders also will recognize the ninth anniversary of a Ferguson police officer’s fatal shooting of Michael Brown Jr. during the conversation. Michael Brown Sr. and Cal Brown, who also are panelists, will discuss the power of community organizing and how to create change locally and nationally through legislation that helps prevent police violence.
According to a recent study by Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Black people in the U.S. die by gun violence nearly three times the rate of white people.
Gray said to combat gun violence in the Black community, people have to show up at council meetings and ask their state legislators to support bills that prohibit guns in public places.
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones signed a bill last week that limits who can openly carry firearms. Gray said since the bill passed, law enforcement must respect the rights of Black people who have permits to carry firearms. That could prevent confrontations between people with permits and police.
Leaders at Amnesty International USA want communities of color to start putting pressure on legislators to enact laws that require people who carry firearms to have gun locks and require gun buyers to undergo mental health checks.
“It's adversely affecting our young people, and we're cutting lives short,” said Earnest Coverson, the gun violence prevention director at Amnesty International USA. “If we don't deal with it, and we just pass the buck, then, we're doing a disservice to our young people.”
Coverson, who is a town hall panelist, said communities must invest in organizations that are doing gun violence intervention work in hospitals or neighborhoods because the organizations are helping many people on a limited budget.
“We have to reimagine how we want to address gun violence, and not just wait for the shooting to happen,” he said. “We have to stay in this fight … everybody has got to be involved in this.”
