Missing a Connection

February 26, 2015 was the third anniversary of the death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of an armed, Neighborhood Watch, volunteer; the shooter would be acquitted thanks in part to Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law. 

Trayvon was but one in a long list of well-publicized shootings; Tuscon Arizona, Aruora, Colorado, Ft. Hood Texas, Newtown, Connecticut, etc.  There have been more mass shootings since Newtown, and there will likely be more.

But there has been another development since Newtown, incidents of people of color being killed at the hands of police officers.  The shooting of Mike Brown and the strangulation of Eric Garner seemed to fill Twitter with the hashtags of "Hands Up--Don't Shoot" and "Black Lives Matter". 

There would seem to be an opportunity here to bring this movement and the movement for common-sense firearms laws together.  I am sure there have been informal or coincidental connections, but I have yet to see a group like Moms Demand Action sit down officially with the Million Hoodies Campaign. 

Now I realize the two groups goals do not precisely match up.  Moms Demand is concerned with keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous individuals, while Million Hoodies is more concerned with police and justice issues.  But they do have one common thread, they are trying to protect individuals.

Forming an alliance would have a another advantage.  It may take one of the main criticisms that the "Redneck Taliban" have about groups like Moms Demand.  That they are little more than suburban soccer moms with little better to do.  Never mind that I hear little about the National Rifle Association reaching out into urban areas.  Perhaps that dates back to the Mumford Act, or that the birth of the NRA as the political wing of America's insurgents seems to follow from race riots and the rise of the Black Panthers.