This is an opinion column.

As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin’
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)

And his mama cries
‘Cause if there’s one thing that she don’t need
It is another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)

People, don’t you understand
The child needs a helping hand
Or he’ll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me
Are we too blind to see?
Do we simply turn our heads
And look the other way

No one can’t say y’all don’t care. Certainly, some folk in and around Birmingham believe the city’s plague of gun violence is their problem, not mine.

Some look the other way.

That’s easy to do in our fractured region. Easy to wear heartless blinders when most homicides don’t touch you. When they happen in places nowhere near you. When they are confined to a few areas, areas you’ve likely never been.

Of last year’s 123 homicides—a 6.25% slide from 2022—66 percent (81) bodies fell in the West and North precincts, according to my colleague Carol Robinson’s tally. Easy but not acceptable. Looking the other way. Not acceptable.

When a life is lost senselessly and violently, grief should pierce us all, our veins should simmer with anger.

Thankfully, many of you do care—as suggested by responses to my column last Sunday, where I shared solutions to gun violence proposed by various citizens, not elected officials.

Gun violence that still rears unabated in 2024: 103 as of this writing.

Those solutions were offered after I asked this question: If you were Birmingham’s king or queen for a day with the power to make almost anything happen by royal decree what would you do to stop gun violence?

Ideas (some of which are already being implemented) generally fell into six categories: police/law enforcement, youth/parenting, jobs/economic development, guns, infrastructure/neighborhoods, and faith.

I asked if there were more ideas; a new wave emerged.

Caveat: Many viewed the question as an opportunity to vent and blame. Not interested, thank you.

Here are a few of the new proposals, even a few Draconian ones (along with my thoughts):

• Stop the sale and service of alcohol at midnight. (Naïve, and way too late.)
• Require anyone over 21 to take a gun safety course, then require them to open carry a firearm (Uhhh…), then sentence anyone committing a crime with a gun to a mandatory life sentence. (Next, oh king, fix prison overcrowding.)
• Bring Leader in Me to elementary schools. According to its website, the program provides “a model and process that addresses common challenges that are unique to students during these formative years.” Said reader: “I participated in this program as a teacher. The school documented low behavior and increased test scores. The program was removed when teachers who didn’t want to work so hard lobbied the [school] board to remove the principal and program. These lazy teachers were successful [lowering] test scores and [increasing poor] behavior.” (Ouch) “It is an expensive program,” the queen continued, but less expensive than funerals and incarceration.” (Truth.)

• Stop publishing the murderer’s name. Don’t make them famous. Refer to them as “the murderer”. (Alas, they’re already publishing names, faces, and confessions on social media.)
• Hold property owners/management companies accountable for tenants who endanger their neighbors with guns. (I like this.)
• “Activate 10,000 National Guard troops in full riot gear, send them into the highest-crime neighborhoods in armored vehicles, arrest every single criminal, and fire the first judge that tries to let them out,” a reader shared. “Then the rest of the criminals will straighten up and quit killing each other.” (What “rest” of criminals? I thought they were all arrested?)
• Put parents in jail for their child’s crimes. Or on probation. (I see some of y’all noddin’. I’ve written something similar, and it’s happened.)
• Teach kids how to shoot at school. “Maybe then they would understand that guns are not toys.” (This isn’t crazy; okay, maybe not at school, but learning weapons and weapon safety at an early age might stem some of the “cool” vibe of owning a gun.)
• Ban the sale of toy guns. (Activist Frank Matthews proposed such an ordinance in 2014.)
• There were myriad calls to “change the culture” in various ways. (No argument here, but no one offered how to do so.)

“Have you ever heard the song written by Mac Davis and recorded by Elvis called ‘In the Ghetto?’,” one reader asked. “Gun violence is an old problem that won’t be solved quickly. We have struggled with it for well over fifty years. It just continues to get worse.”

Well, the world turns
And a hungry little boy with a runny nose
Plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)

And his hunger burns
So he starts to roam the streets at night
And he learns how to steal
And he learns how to fight
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)

Then one night in desperation
The young man breaks away
He buys a gun, steals a car
Tries to run, but he don’t get far
And his mama cries

As a crowd gathers ‘round an angry young man
Face down on the street with a gun in his hand
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)

And as her young man dies
(In the ghetto)
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin’
Another little baby child is born
In the ghetto

And his mama cries

Watch Elvis sing it…

Check out our Birmingham Times/AL.com joint series “Beyond the Violence: what can be done to address Birmingham’s rising homicide rate.” Sign up for the newsletter here.

I was raised by good people who encouraged me to be a good man and surround myself with good people. If I did, they said, good things would happen. I am a member of the National Association of Black Journalists’ Hall of Fame, an Edward R. Murrow Award winner, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary. My column appears on AL.com, and digital editions of The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times, and Mobile Press-Register. Tell me what you think at [email protected], and follow me at twitter.com/roysj, or on Instagram @roysj.