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The day after the Charleston shooting, Jelani Cobb wrote in the New Yorker, “We periodically mourn the deaths of a group of Americans who die at the hands of another armed American. We periodically witness racial injustices that inspire anger in the streets. And sometimes we witness both. This is, quite simply, how we now live.”
Five years later, it is, tragically, still how we live. As we remember the Charleston Nine today, we continue to grieve the senseless loss of more Black lives, stolen in acts of state-sanctioned violence both with and without a gun.
The story of white supremacy and violence against Black and brown Americans is older than our country itself. But it is one we have the power and responsibility to change.
We can, and we must, take action to disarm hate by closing the so-called “Charleston loophole,” which allowed the Charleston shooter to get the firearm he used to carry out the massacre without passing a background check. Under federal law, anyone purchasing a gun from a licensed dealer must undergo a background check. If the FBI doesn’t complete that check within three days, the dealer is allowed to proceed with the sale without a background check.
Every year, the FBI fails to complete hundreds of thousands of background checks within this three day period, allowing thousands of guns to fall into dangerous hands. Last year, the House of Representatives passed a bill to close the Charleston loophole by increasing the time permitted for a background check from three days to 10. But the Senate has refused to vote on this lifesaving legislation.
Join us in honoring the victims of Charleston, and all victims of gun violence, with action. Demand that Congress close the Charleston loophole.
Together we can build a future where each and every one of us is free from the threat of gun violence.
Renée
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