In Senatobia, the weekend was filled with fun activities.
Crowds showed up to participate and enjoy the area’s annual Five Star City Fest. Beginning Friday evening with participants and spectators turning out for the “Not Yo Mama’s 5K”, through Saturday as event-goers shopped at vendors and ending late that evening as crowds gathered to listen to the band, Senatobia was filled with people.
And no crimes were reported.
That was not the case for the rest of the country.
Over the weekend, our country had nine mass shootings. (A mass shooting is defined as an incident with four or more people killed or wounded by gunfire.)
Now, I attended both days of Five Star City Fest, and saw more people than I could count. I even saw quite a few people with guns clipped to their belts.
Mississippi is an open-carry state. These people were well within their rights to carry their handguns.
Now here’s the deal, I’m well aware the South tends to get the reputation that we’re all a bunch of “gun nuts”. For the most part, yeah, I think we southerners like to go to the wide-open fields and practice target shooting at a bale of hay. Why not? It’s legal, as long as there is no trespassing and it’s not within the city limits. It can be loads of fun.
So with all of our gun-toting “nuts”, ever notice how such a small percentage of mass shootings actually occur in the South? (And honestly here, I’m not including Florida as part of the South because, well, it’s Florida and any true southerner knows they aren’t included in the “cool club”.)
Of the nine mass shootings which took place over the weekend, six occurred in states where open-carry is prohibited and none occurred in the South.
Now, I’m no rocket scientist, but even I must raise my eyebrow at this. Why do we southerners get the bad rap when it comes to guns, yet, overall, our stats point to the fact that we’re safer with our guns. More responsible.
Is it a heritage thing? Do we start teaching our kids to be careful around firearms at an earlier age? Are we taught to respect firearms instead of placing fear and stigma around them?
Obviously, I don’t have the answers to these questions. And I’m fully expecting to get a few letters to the editor from folks pointing out every incident of gun violence that has occurred in the South, but to them, I’ll go ahead and say, “You’re missing the point.”
Yes, there are exceptions to everything. I know the South has seen its share of gun violence, but statically speaking, mass shootings in the states below the Ol’ Mason-Dixon line, tend to happen less frequently.
Here’s my take on the situation, we southerners have our issues with which we’ll have to deal, but when it comes to this particular topic of guns, I think it’s time for the rest of the country to re-evaluate their opinion of us. If we’re all just a bunch of “gun nuts”, why don’t we have mass shootings on the same level as the rest of the country?
Or maybe we should start taking a little pride in that term meant to degrade us. If being part of a state filled with a bunch of “gun nuts” means we put less people in coffins due to gun violence, I’ll take it.
