XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns, talk.politics.misc   
   XPost: alt.military, alt.rush-limbaugh   
   From: nowomr@protonmail.com   
      
   Welcome to another rightwing shithole state!   
      
   Red State citizens live in violence and squalor, another rightwing   
   leadership failure.   At least their using their guns as the Framers   
   intended.   
      
      
   A Navy base put up a wall to ward off stray bullets. Locals say that's not   
   enough to solve gun violence. Gulfport, Mississippi, has a far lower   
   homicide rate than Jackson. But some neighborhoods have seen frequent   
   gunfire, and residents say it takes a toll.   
      
      
      
   June 18, 2023, 8:00 AM EDT   
   By Bracey Harris   
      
   More than 20 shipping containers line the south side of a Navy base in   
   Gulfport, Mississippi. They’re not there to transport goods, but instead   
   stand as a silent marker of the gun violence afflicting the state’s   
   second-largest city.   
      
   The hulking boxes were put in place last fall, after gunfire at a   
   subsidized apartment complex across the street damaged five homes inside   
   the Naval Construction Battalion Center; no one was hurt. The base   
   responded by increasing patrols around its perimeter and making one of the   
   most fortified areas of Gulfport even more so.   
      
   “The optics of that are very bad,” said John Whitfield, a pastor and the   
   CEO of Climb CDC, a nearby nonprofit focusing on workforce development.   
   “The practicality of it, I understand.”   
      
   A spokesperson at the base said the barrier is meant to be a “temporary   
   solution” and that the city had offered assurances that it was addressing   
   the gun violence issue. Still, the Navy is considering building a   
   permanent concrete wall.   
      
   “The force protection of our base, personnel, and families is our highest   
   priority,” Becky Shaw, the spokesperson, said in an email.   
      
   The shipping containers are just one indicator of the grinding toll of   
   gunfire afflicting parts of Gulfport, a vibrant beach town of about 72,000   
   on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.   
      
   Residents and workers in the city’s most impoverished areas detailed the   
   recurring snap of gunshots, incidents in which apartments have been struck   
   by stray rounds, and the increasing frustration of the young and old alike   
   having to scramble for cover when someone opens fire. They also described   
   the dual tragedies of teens losing their lives at the hands of their   
   peers, who end up facing lengthy sentences in prison. Pastor John   
   Whitfield at Morning Star Baptist Church in Gulfport, Miss. John   
   Whitfield, the pastor at Morning Star Baptist Church in Gulfport, said he   
   grieves "every time I hear of a shooting."L. Kasimu Harris for NBC News   
      
   A decade ago, Gulfport, where more than half of residents are white and   
   nearly 40% are Black, reported two or three homicides a year. Since 2019,   
   there have been at least 10 killings per year.   
      
   In a city where about 26% of residents live in poverty, many see a link   
   between economic hardship and gun violence.   
      
   “Some of our children and some of your young people are just helpless and   
   hopeless,” said Sonya Williams Barnes, a former legislator who lives in   
   Gulfport and is the Mississippi state policy director for the Southern   
   Poverty Law Center.   
      
   Gulfport is three hours south of Jackson, the capital, where the homicide   
   rate is more than six times higher than in Gulfport. But while Jackson has   
   had a more visible struggle with public safety, residents and community   
   leaders in this coastal town say they, too, have grappled with gun   
   violence for years.   
      
   Late Thursday evening, two people were injured in a shooting at a birthday   
   party a few blocks from the Navy base's shipping containers, and shortly   
   afterward a 20-year-old man was shot and killed in a separate incident   
   nearby.   
      
   On April 30, a pregnant 16-year-old, JaKamori Lake, was shot and killed in   
   another part of Gulfport; police charged a 15-year-old in her death. A few   
   days earlier, Gulfport police arrested a seventh suspect from a New Year’s   
   Eve 2021 shooting that left four people dead.   
      
   “It may not be as bad as Jackson, it may not be as bad as Memphis,   
   Tennessee, but we’ve got that problem,” said Louis Gholar, president of   
   the West Gulfport Civic Club, who helped organize an upcoming community   
   meeting about violence prevention. “I think not just in Gulfport — the   
   whole coast has that problem.”   
      
   In April, five people were injured in a shooting during the popular Black   
   Spring Break event in Biloxi. Two weeks later, a 19-year-old gunman in Bay   
   St. Louis allegedly shot and killed two teenagers and injured four others   
   at an after-prom party. And in May, a shooting during a Cinco de Mayo   
   party at an Ocean Springs bar left a 19-year-old dead and six others   
   wounded.   
      
   Tia Mosley, whose 17-year-old son, Caleb, was killed two years ago in a   
   drive-by shooting in Gulfport, said that every time she opens Facebook and   
   sees more news of local violence, anxiety washes over her.   
      
   “It makes me not want my daughter to go outside at all,” she said of her   
   11-year-old. “All you can do is pray.” Tia Mosley with her daughter.   
   Mosley's 17-year-old son Caleb was killed two years ago in a drive-by   
   shooting. Tia Mosley with her daughter, Aubrey. Mosley's 17-year-old son,   
   Caleb, was killed two years ago in a drive-by shooting.L. Kasimu Harris   
   for NBC News   
      
   Gholar is troubled that many of the victims and suspects in Gulfport in   
   recent years have been teens. Last October, a Gulfport police officer shot   
   and killed a 15-year-old who officials say was armed; a grand jury   
   declined to indict the officer.   
      
   “We’re losing our young people too fast, too quick,” Gholar said. “They   
   don’t even get a chance to live.”   
      
   Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes, a Republican who is in his third term, agrees   
   that gun violence is a concern. In some cases, issues arise when apartment   
   complexes lack adequate security, his staff said. The mayor’s office also   
   mentioned boys and girls club programs for at-risk youth and said churches   
   have stepped up to offer support.   
      
   But the mayor believes the solution is more a matter of personal   
   responsibility — parents keeping a closer eye on their teenagers and   
   intervening if they discover guns.   
      
   “That’s where I think we start having problems, when we rely on government   
   to solve everything,” he said. “Quite frankly, what I’ve seen and   
   experienced and believe is that it starts at home.” The William Bell   
   apartment complex in Gulfport, Miss. The William Bell apartment complex   
   where shootings have broken out in recent years is in a census tract where   
   42 % of the population lives in poverty.L. Kasimu Harris for NBC News   
      
   In Gaston Point, a historically Black middle-class neighborhood in   
   Gulfport, some say that’s just part of the picture.   
      
   Martha Lockhart-Mais, a retired schoolteacher, said it’s also a question   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)