It's not the gun culture, you dolt.

It's the thug culture.

From the comments on this story comes this gem:

Churchs + MLK = let the stereotyping begin... they grow up so quickly! probation dad's giving their 13 yr olds guns for christmas.

(Church's, for those not in the know, is a fried chicken place.)

My friend Shantillia erroneously linked this to our Freedom March, which we have every year, and which has long been the largest MLK Day march in the nation. While it did happen near the end of the parade route, it happened at least two hours later, going off the news reports.

The story on the march has the real story on the shooting:

Several hours after the march was completed, three people were wounded by gunfire near the park. Police said the incident, resulting in at least one arrest, was gang-related.

(Emphasis here is mine, of course.)

As she said, though: "How can people celebrate the life of a man who taught non-violence by indulging in violence?"

I've been worrying quite a bit lately about how to revive the East Side, but this is what we're up against. Teenage thugs who think the way to respect is through a gun.

As Mike W said in the comments section of Erik's blog a short while ago:

As Oleg Volk used to use in his photos it's the old "Thug Culture" vs. "Gun Culture" disconnect. They are not in any way the same thing, and the relevant variable between the two isn't the presence of guns, it's the people weilding them, their actions, and their attitudes.

(Emphasis, again, is mine.)

Now, I'm not gonna deny we've got a ways to go still in this country in terms of equality (and like any good conservative, I mean, equality of opportunity, not of outcome), but we have made HUGE leaps in terms of race relations. That march today consisted of thousands of people of all races, religions, and economic strata--and, apparently, some baby gangstas. There are folk in this city--and I number myself among them--who want to change the East Side for the better, but this is what we're up against. This thug culture that is so amazingly entrenched I can't even tell you exactly when it started.

The guns aren't the problem. The people using them are the problem. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but somehow I doubt there are "probation dad's (sic) giving their 13 yr olds (sic) guns"--most of these boys have absentee fathers. I'm not entirely sure what the answer is, here (and frankly, I think there are a lot of folks who just won't be saved, no matter how much education and opportunity we throw at 'em), but I know what the question isn't.