In fact, one could easily make the case that the nation has taken giant leaps backward, permitting deranged individuals like Jared Lee Loughner to obtain semiautomatic weapons with extended clips that allow 20 people to be killed or wounded in a matter of seconds. That regression has occurred in the intervening years since Dr. King’s death — despite assassination attempts against Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan by persons wielding handguns.
What would Dr. King think of this country where — as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof pointed out here Sunday — 80 persons, on average, are killed by guns every day and many more are injured? “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy,” Dr. King once said. “Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.”
Dr. King would likely be appalled by the nation’s gun culture — under which any discussion of common-sense restrictions is quickly quelled and members of Congress now talk of arming themselves. He would abhor the gun violence in our cities that has claimed so many young lives, especially in African-American communities. “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation,” he told us. “The foundation of such a method is love.”
Dr. King rejected violence and was the champion of nonviolent protest against societal injustice. He would condemn political figures who cavalierly talk of “Second Amendment remedies” and encourage “armed and dangerous” constituents. Changing society’s ills and people’s lives through nonviolent protest requires patience and moral strength; ending lives with gunfire requires neither.
“Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time ... the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence,” he said. “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”
On this solemn day — a remembrance of a man who forced a nation to look into an ugly mirror and a celebration of a life that literally changed the world — we should contemplate his words and measure the progress we’ve made — or failed to make — since that terrible day in Memphis.
On a conventional map and calendar, Tucson may be 1,400 miles and 43 years away from Memphis’ Lorraine Motel balcony, but they’ll be in the same chapter of our history books.
“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.” Sadly, Dr. King’s words still ring true.