Here's a Man Asking the Right Questions

As a follow-on to the piece below comes this op-ed from the Pittsburg Tribune-Review:

We should take aim at root cause of crime

By Mike Seate
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, September 30, 2004

My mailbox is empty, but that won't last long. It soon will fill with correspondence, as it does when residents defend themselves with firearms.

I'm a longtime opponent of the National Rifle Association, and its members and supporters seem compelled to remind me that guns have another purpose besides serving as a form of Viagra for the middle-aged. People use firearms, they inevitably tell me again and again, to defend themselves against criminals.

(*sigh*) Another gun/penis comparison.

This time, the gun lovers couldn't have scored a better public-relations bull's-eye if they tried.

On Sept. 13, Ras Saleem-Hudson of the North Side pulled on a ski mask and loaded his 9mm handgun before heading out to suburban Harrison.

Saleem-Hudson, 20, decided to try to rob the home of Eleanor and Leon Cash. He entered the house and demanded money.

During Saleem-Hudson's struggle with the 59-year-old Leon Cash, Eleanor, 55, grabbed the family's 12-gauge shotgun. Taking aim, she shot and killed Saleem-Hudson.

Even those of us not harboring any John Wayne fantasies about heroically defending hearth and home against urban savages have got to give props to Mrs. Cash. She took control, and by snuffing out a dirtbag, she likely saved countless others from looking down the business end of Saleem-Hudson's gun.

Yes, indeed. Yet "gun control" would affect Leon and Elanor Cash long before it would have any effect on Ras Saleem-Hudson. Except that it would guarantee Mr. Saleem-Hudson that his victims would be disarmed.

It's hard to generate any sympathy for a criminal who so thoroughly plays into every stereotype that the gun lobby has about people like him. Saleem-Hudson could've been a character in an episode of "Law and Order."

I don't give a damn if he's an albino Russian. I have no sympathy for anyone who would attempt what he did.

Here's an inner-city thug who intentionally drove 20 miles outside his neighborhood to prey on what he mistakenly thought would be easy targets. The fact that he was black, had an arrest record for everything from drugs to firearms violations and also had a Muslim name seems like a fabricated trifecta for the gun lobby that claims the dark urban masses are only a loaded clip away from attacking white folks in the suburbs.

And he has a point. The "gun lobby" does attempt to frighten the general public in this manner. But, as the saying goes, just because you're paranoid...

Still, I wonder about the whys and hows.

Why does our society create so many people like Saleem-Hudson, young men willing to kill or die for a few bucks? Why did Saleem-Hudson prey on others? Was he just a bad person, or was there some way he could have led a different life?

It's unfashionable to discuss the root causes of crime these days, especially when just shooting or jailing the bad guys is so much easier and more satisfying.

Short of shotguns blasts, how do we stop what seems like an endless supply of Saleem-Hudsons -- guys destined for prison or the graveyard, and maybe for NRA posters?

He's precisely correct there. It is unfashionable to discuss "root causes." It is easier to just jail the bad guys, and attack firearms as the cause of the problem when they are most emphatically not it.

Mike Seate's email address is mseate@tribweb.com if you'd like to drop him a note.