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John Oceguera is a member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe, and is the first Native American to serve as Speaker in Nevada history.
The news cycle often defines the political story. So instead of a thoughtful conversation about climate change, or a vote in Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or even guns and violence, we turn on the television and terrorism dominates our discourse. This is where the narrative of fear trumps the data.
This is Trahant Reports.
Yes, terrorism is a problem. And It’s frightening. But it’s hardly the most pressing (or deadly) one that this nation faces. Vox World (before the San Bernardino massacre) pointed out: “More than 10,000 Americans have been killed every year by gun violence. By contrast, so few Americans have been killed by terrorist attacks since 9/11 that when you chart the two together, the terrorism death count approximates zero for every year except 2001. This comparison, if anything, understates the gap: Far more Americans die every year from (easily preventable) gun suicides than gun homicides.”
That is certainly true in Indian Country.
A recent study by the University of North Dakota found that firearms are used 41 percent of the time in suicides, a significantly higher rate than with other ethnic groups.
But that’s not a message Congress will consider. Right now, even funding studies about gun violence is seen as biased and anti-gun. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been blocked from research for more than two decades. “The amount of money available today for studying the impact of firearms is a fraction of what it was in the mid-1990s, and the number of scientists toiling in the field has dwindled to just a handful as a result,”The New York Times said. “No other field of inquiry is singled out in this way.”
Instead Congress is eager to spend billions of dollars on military operations that’s don’t solve terrorism and, in the case of Daesh, or ISIS, it was the war effort itself that clearly fueled the group’s rise to power.
John Oceguera, a candidate for Congress in Nevada, made national headlines by renouncing his membership in the National Rifle Association. He said, “I am law-abiding gun owner, and have been a Life Member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). I grew up in a family of hunters.”
Oceguera is a member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe. He said this country can no longer ignore gun violence. He said the NRA opposes any legislation that would help keep guns out of the hands of terrorists, criminals and the mentally ill, and others whose hands they shouldn’t be in … Therefore, I resign my membership in the NRA, effective immediately.”
This is not an easy issue or debate. People in Indian Country own a lot of guns. (In general people living in rural areas own guns at higher rate than those in cities.) On top of that, we know how culturally important hunting is to most Native Americans.
Perhaps, that’s one role for Native politicians. It might take leaders who own guns, those who are lifelong hunters, to rip up their NRA membership cards, and then propose reasonable firearm policies and restrictions.
I am Mark Trahant reporting.
