How to solve the problem of “black on black crime”

After the George Zimmerman verdict was announced earlier this year the main stream media suddenly became very interested in "black on black crime". If you believe some of the talking heads that made this a staple of their programs for a few week period, they were genuinely concerned about the number of African American men that were murdered on a daily - weekly - yearly basis. Oddly however that concern seems exclusively tied to the defense of George Zimmerman since the fair and balanced news sources have ironically gone dark on this topic for the past few months.

The reality is that most of the people discussing this issue did so to portray African American men as inherently violent and dangerous since the data shows that "white on white crime" occurs at nearly the same rate as "black on black crime" and that crime is much more associated with socioeconomic status than skin color or heritage.

Regardless of this reality, many media personalities insist we pay attention since statistics show that nearly 50% of all murders were committed by African Americans. Given that blacks make up a much smaller portion of the population these statistics point to an epidemic that must be addressed.

Of course if a small segment of the population being involved in a an inordinate portion of the murders is cause for action it should be noted that only around 30% of Americans own a gun yet guns account for around 67% of murders each year. A far greater percentage of the population has access to knives yet such instruments only represent 12% of the murders per year.

If statistics surrounding “black on black crime” indicates an endemic problem then statistics on gun violence should have a similarly damning affect.

And while many in the main stream media have supported the NRA’s proposed solutions for the disproportionately high number of gun deaths - more guns - their only interest when it comes to "black on black crime" seems to be pointing out as many different statistics as possible to prove murders are really a black problem.

For some reason these ivory tower pundits have never proposed the obvious common sense answer to this dilemma - more guns for black men. After all if black men are more likely to be murdered by a gun and the paragon of safety from gun violence is more guns then the obvious solution to solve the problem of “black on black crime” is to make sure that all black men own guns and are trained to use them properly.

Problem solved!