The numbers are staggering; thousands of families each year suffer from the effects of gun violence. That is why the Music with a Message band has dedicated it’s 2013 season to focus on gun violence in inner-city communities. With so many national stories focusing on the growing issue of gun control, MWAM will do it’s part to educate on the community level and spark a much needed conversation through music.
A short piece about gun violence, written by band member Melissa Merry Hernandez, age 18:
When people talk about gun violence they always seem to get political but ignore the simple fact that PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE. Should we be careful whom we give guns to? Yes, but the problem goes far beyond that. I can prove that. Did you know that California and New York have some of the strictest gun laws in the country? Oh, but I forgot to mention that they also have the highest rate of gun-related murders in the nation. Isn’t it ironic that even with government regulation these two states alone manage to rack up 1,800 deaths in the past year due to gun violence? If you go nation-wide, the number of gun-related murders jumps to 16,000. The question that remains is, why? Why do we have a fiveyear-old boy shooting his baby sister? Why do we have a fifteenyear-old being shot in the head on his birthday? Why do we have teenagers buying semi-automatics and shooting up schools?
Honestly, I don’t have an answer and I don’t think anyone does because everyone always seems to have a different motive or a different heartache that motivated him or her to kill but we as a people shouldn’t allow gun-violence to take place. The Music with a Message Band realized this and decided that we weren’t going to wait for change and rather become the catalyst for it. We decided to write three new songs about gun-violence and as we were writing and recording, there was a shooting across the street. A man was driving by and shot into a grocery store. The irony in that is unbearable. That alone was just more motivation to finish the songs. The songs that we have created about gun violence aren’t meant to make anyone angry but were rather made to raise awareness and hopefully to change a couple of minds and hearts. Hopefully one of our songs can touch someone so much that they throw away the gun they’re hiding at home or change their mind about ever getting one at all. If we can inspire at least one person or change at least one life, then our work will have been worthwhile.
