Al Sharpton, Spike Lee advocate for national gun violence awareness month
Monday, director Spike Lee, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and a host of politicians launched a push to create a national gun violence awareness month.
Monday, director Spike Lee, the Rev. Al Sharpton and a host of politicians launched a push to create a national gun violence awareness month.
According to the Daily News, Reps. Charlie Rangel (D-Manhattan) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) have both said they’d introduce a resolution in Congress to create the commemoration, which already exists in New York, for June.
“It is imperative as we continue to deal with … violence by police, that we also reiterate we must deal with violence to one another,” said Sharpton who vowed to host “peace summits” around the country if the month is created. “It will be as substantive as we make it.”
Rangel thinks taking this stand would be a first step to “shatter the myth that guns don’t kill people.”
“It’s a moral issue,” he explained. “This is a national security question. We’re talking about saving the lives and the minds of a great nation.”
Spike Lee plans to coordinate an anti-gun violence march after the premiere of his movie “Chi-Raq” Tuesday.
“We’re not having a celebration,” he said. “We’re going to march.”
City Controller Scott Stringer also voiced criticisms of Mayor de Blasio for touting New York as the safest big city in America.
“When you hear the mother of the child that was shot, she doesn’t think it’s the biggest safest city. When you see time and time again children dying because of stray bullets, people in the community don’t think it’s a safe big city,” Stringer opined. “Just put statistics aside and … let’s identify the gun violence that’s plaguing our city.”
