Article: Pegasus News
Guns and their connection to youth violence is the subject of a month-long exhibit on display at DeSoto Town Center.
To acknowledge the 39th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, organizers of the event spoke during a reception April 4 at city hall.
DeSoto TODAY The story you are reading was originally published in DeSoto TODAY.
Be sure to check out the TODAY Newspapers Online for more in-depth community news coverage.
Peter Johnson, with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said there are plans for the exhibit to be displayed in Lancaster after its stay in DeSoto. The exhibit consists of sculptures made of guns removed from the streets of Dallas through a gun buy-back program.
Johnson said DeSoto has been wonderful to work with on the project.
“We had originally talked about having the exhibit on display for 10 days and then moving it to Lancaster,” Johnson said. “But once the city manager and council saw the exhibit it was decided to extend the exhibit throughout the month of April.”
He said there are two reasons the exhibit is being shown.
“It provides an opportunity for children to see it and reiterates Dr. King's legacy of nonviolence,” Johnson said.
He is meeting with representatives with the DeSoto Ministerial Alliance soon, since the exhibit bares some religious undertones, he said, to consider organizing programs to make children aware of the growing incidents of violence in their communities.
“We also want to organize a gun buy- back program in the southern sector,” Johnson, who worked with Dr. King's organization as a teenager, said. “There hasn't been one in any of the four cities and we'd love to do one.”
April 4 marked 39 years since the civil rights leader had been gunned down in a Memphis, Tenn., motel.
“The increase in violence of video games, music videos and movies and the accessibility of hand guns is a deep concern of ours and one of the reasons we decided to bring this exhibit to the area,” Johnson said citing the recent killing of a Dallas-area taxi cab driver by two 16-year- olds armed with a Saturday Night Special handgun.
“It costs taxpayers between $65,000 and $75,000 when a gunshot victim is brought into Parkland Hospital,” Johnson, who also referenced the killing of Dallas Police Senior Cpl. Mark Nix in March with an AK-47, said. “So if you have 10 gun incidents a weekend, that's $750,000 to Dallas taxpayers.
“It's a growing problem,” he said. “Even though the technological advances has helped in terms of the number of people who die from these incidences, the number of the incidences is up.”
He said this is a problem society has that needs to be addressed and fixed.
“We want to develop some programs to influence the entire southern sector,” he said.
The exhibit is being shown in cooperation with Dallas Common, ROTOR and the SCLC in a joint effort to curb gun violence.
“There is a culture of violence that is ingrained in the day-to-day experiences of many of our young people,” organizers said. “The problems of guns and violence are at epidemic proportions. Television, cartoons, video games, movies, the toy industry, ‘hip hop' music and many other influences contribute to this culture.”
Artist and Executive Director of Dallas Common, Joel Pugh, said he hopes to raise awareness of this violence in today's society through the sculptures on display in DeSoto City Hall.
On April 4, Pugh, Johnson of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Zakee Iddeen of ROTOR joined DeSoto city officials to unveil the exhibit.
To acknowledge the 39th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, organizers of the event spoke during a reception April 4 at city hall.
DeSoto TODAY The story you are reading was originally published in DeSoto TODAY.
Be sure to check out the TODAY Newspapers Online for more in-depth community news coverage.
Peter Johnson, with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said there are plans for the exhibit to be displayed in Lancaster after its stay in DeSoto. The exhibit consists of sculptures made of guns removed from the streets of Dallas through a gun buy-back program.
Johnson said DeSoto has been wonderful to work with on the project.
“We had originally talked about having the exhibit on display for 10 days and then moving it to Lancaster,” Johnson said. “But once the city manager and council saw the exhibit it was decided to extend the exhibit throughout the month of April.”
He said there are two reasons the exhibit is being shown.
“It provides an opportunity for children to see it and reiterates Dr. King's legacy of nonviolence,” Johnson said.
He is meeting with representatives with the DeSoto Ministerial Alliance soon, since the exhibit bares some religious undertones, he said, to consider organizing programs to make children aware of the growing incidents of violence in their communities.
“We also want to organize a gun buy- back program in the southern sector,” Johnson, who worked with Dr. King's organization as a teenager, said. “There hasn't been one in any of the four cities and we'd love to do one.”
April 4 marked 39 years since the civil rights leader had been gunned down in a Memphis, Tenn., motel.
“The increase in violence of video games, music videos and movies and the accessibility of hand guns is a deep concern of ours and one of the reasons we decided to bring this exhibit to the area,” Johnson said citing the recent killing of a Dallas-area taxi cab driver by two 16-year- olds armed with a Saturday Night Special handgun.
“It costs taxpayers between $65,000 and $75,000 when a gunshot victim is brought into Parkland Hospital,” Johnson, who also referenced the killing of Dallas Police Senior Cpl. Mark Nix in March with an AK-47, said. “So if you have 10 gun incidents a weekend, that's $750,000 to Dallas taxpayers.
“It's a growing problem,” he said. “Even though the technological advances has helped in terms of the number of people who die from these incidences, the number of the incidences is up.”
He said this is a problem society has that needs to be addressed and fixed.
“We want to develop some programs to influence the entire southern sector,” he said.
The exhibit is being shown in cooperation with Dallas Common, ROTOR and the SCLC in a joint effort to curb gun violence.
“There is a culture of violence that is ingrained in the day-to-day experiences of many of our young people,” organizers said. “The problems of guns and violence are at epidemic proportions. Television, cartoons, video games, movies, the toy industry, ‘hip hop' music and many other influences contribute to this culture.”
Artist and Executive Director of Dallas Common, Joel Pugh, said he hopes to raise awareness of this violence in today's society through the sculptures on display in DeSoto City Hall.
On April 4, Pugh, Johnson of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Zakee Iddeen of ROTOR joined DeSoto city officials to unveil the exhibit.
"Cash offered for guns in bid to end violence"
WFAA/2007
By BOB GREENE / WFAA-TV
WFAA-TV These guns could be the next to take a life, says Johnson. Also Online Bob Greene reports
•Reverend Peter Johnson can be reached on 214-636-7267
Just this week, domestic and random gun violence has either claimed, or at least affected, several lives.
Now, city leaders are hoping cash will help put an end to the crime.
It can be random gunfire or a pre-meditated attack.
The method doesn't matter - gun violence kills.
And it has several times over the past couple of weeks here in North Texas.
A Denton peace activist, a young boy, even that unborn child.
"We must do something about this ongoing bloody problem of guns in our society," said community activist Rev. Peter Johnson.
Johnson, with the help of the city of DeSoto, helped organize a gun-buy-back.
To get guns off the street and out of the wrong hands, like a 16-year-old boy, he remembers.
"Here's a kid with a 45 automatic pistol in his backpack. He didn't even know how to unload it. That's how dangerous it is," he said.
"The easy accessibility and availability of weapons make all of our streets unsafe."
The people here say they're not against all people having guns.
"Everyone should have the right to own a gun, protect their homes, but that's different than putting assault rifles and handguns in the hands of children and people that shouldn't have it," said Claire Stanard of Dallas.
"[That includes] people that have criminal backgrounds, people that are mentally ill."
Like Chambers Nsentip's mother with Alzheimer's.
"Anybody could get hurt. She could use it on my step-dad, when my kids come over," she said.
That's why she brought this gun in today.
While many of the people who should, won't be bringing guns in to sell, Johnson says this is a start because maybe one of these guns could have been the next to take a life.
WFAA-TV These guns could be the next to take a life, says Johnson. Also Online Bob Greene reports
•Reverend Peter Johnson can be reached on 214-636-7267
Just this week, domestic and random gun violence has either claimed, or at least affected, several lives.
Now, city leaders are hoping cash will help put an end to the crime.
It can be random gunfire or a pre-meditated attack.
The method doesn't matter - gun violence kills.
And it has several times over the past couple of weeks here in North Texas.
A Denton peace activist, a young boy, even that unborn child.
"We must do something about this ongoing bloody problem of guns in our society," said community activist Rev. Peter Johnson.
Johnson, with the help of the city of DeSoto, helped organize a gun-buy-back.
To get guns off the street and out of the wrong hands, like a 16-year-old boy, he remembers.
"Here's a kid with a 45 automatic pistol in his backpack. He didn't even know how to unload it. That's how dangerous it is," he said.
"The easy accessibility and availability of weapons make all of our streets unsafe."
The people here say they're not against all people having guns.
"Everyone should have the right to own a gun, protect their homes, but that's different than putting assault rifles and handguns in the hands of children and people that shouldn't have it," said Claire Stanard of Dallas.
"[That includes] people that have criminal backgrounds, people that are mentally ill."
Like Chambers Nsentip's mother with Alzheimer's.
"Anybody could get hurt. She could use it on my step-dad, when my kids come over," she said.
That's why she brought this gun in today.
While many of the people who should, won't be bringing guns in to sell, Johnson says this is a start because maybe one of these guns could have been the next to take a life.