Local White Man Exploits Hunger to Disarm the Poor
Binghamton’s Groceries For Guns is an idea as bad as it sounds
Wanna hear something scary?
In 1903, Thomas Edison brutally murdered an elephant on Coney Island to demonstrate the dangers of AC electricity.
This is a real thing that happened.
Edison connected the unsuspecting beast to power lines and pumped 6,600 volts through its trembling body, in front of hundreds of horrified spectators, including children. The whole ordeal was documented on film. But don’t worry; he tested this out on a few dozen puppies first, to make sure it would work.
When I originally heard this story, I thought it was #FakeNews, because I can think of 100 better ways to teach people not to play with electricity than hooking Dumbo up to jumper cables. But as it turns out, when white men want to prove how smart they are, bad ideas have a way of coming to fruition.
A more recent example of this is the “Groceries for Guns” program.
In the city of Binghamton, the group Veterans for Peace of Broome County, headed by Jack Gilroy, have organized an event encouraging residents to turn in firearms in exchange for sustenance. Under the supervision and support of the incompetent Broome County Sheriff’s Office and Binghamton Police Department, residents are expected to drop off guns in order to receive food vouchers and gift certificates.
The goal is simply to get guns out of the hands of poor people who can’t afford to eat. If a family shows up hungry, but without a gun, they will be turned away.
The root cause of gun violence in the United States is poverty — more specifically income inequality.
In a country where we have more guns than people, and with hunger reaching heights not seen in decades, it almost makes sense that the next step in American capitalism is to use guns as currency. Similar events have already taken place in cities like Baltimore and Memphis. Veterans for Peace seems to be under the impression that exploiting (rather than addressing) hunger and poverty is a convenient way to decrease gun deaths. But aside from being laughably out of touch and ill-conceived, Groceries for Guns is a bad idea for a variety of other reasons.
For starters, it’s been demonstrated time and time again that the root cause of gun violence in the United States is poverty — more specifically income inequality.
As Mark Kaplan, professor of Social Welfare at UCLA, noted: “[We] hear about poverty, but inequality is another measure of economic well-being. There is a strong correlation between homicide per million and income inequality.” He’s not alone in this observation. Martin Daly, professor of psychology and neuroscience at McMaster University in Ontario boldly asserts that inequality predicts homicide rates “better than any other variable.”
Which is why nations much poorer than the US, but where resources are more equally distributed, “have the lowest rates of gun-related homicides.”
So a more realistic way to address gun violence is to seriously tackle income inequality in our communities. But that requires taking resources from law enforcement and the military, and reallocating them to the poor — something veterans and local cops can’t really get behind.
Nobody who commits violent crime is going to trade their guns for food.
Another problem with Groceries for Guns, aside from the ridiculous name, is that it unfairly targets communities of color. In Broome County, Black residents are almost four times more likely to live in poverty than white residents —with Black people comprising only 4.9% of the total population but 12.9% of those living below the poverty line.
That means Black residents are not only more susceptible to violent crime, but they’re more likely to need access to food. Veterans for Peace thinks capitalizing on this inequality is what’s best for Black people.
And you don’t have to take my word for it:
On May 24th, in front of 100+ Binghamton community members, Veterans for Peace member John Patterson was removed from an anti-racism event while trying to promote Groceries for Guns. On his way out, he declared he was being “discriminated” against because he was “a white guy trying to talk to the Black people to tell them what’s good for them.” That’s a direct quote. Audio of this incident was recorded by WBDY radio station. You can listen to it HERE.
To their credit, Veterans for Peace has acknowledged they do not “have all the answers” for reducing gun violence in Broome County. Neither do I. But it would be nice if they could at least come up with an answer that doesn’t attempt to disempower and undermine Black residents.
And then there’s the obvious problem. Nobody— especially nobody who commits violent crime — is going to trade their guns for food.
At the last event, only THREE weapons were turned in. Three. There are 17.2 million guns in New York State. The streets of Binghamton are not safer, and for all we know it was the Sheriff's mom who dropped off those three guns. In essence, the entire program turned into another photo-op for white dudes with bad ideas.
But the colossal failure of the first event didn’t stop Veterans for Peace from wasting more time and resources organizing another Groceries for Guns event later this month. Wtf?
I wish Jack Gilroy and his veterans would use all this energy to lobby for an affordable grocery store on Binghamton’s North Side, which remains a designated food desert. Or at the very least they could arrange for a firing squad to execute an elephant on Main Street during rush hour. That could potentially feed lots of folks.
If you are opposed to the Veterans for Peace Groceries for Guns program, shoot an email to jgilroy1955@gmail.com (being sure to CC: adrienne@veteransforpeace.org) and tell them you’d like the event cancelled because it’s offensive and exploitive.
And if you want to help address income inequality and tackle hunger in a meaningful way, I recommend donating cash directly to marginalized individuals in your communities. You can also donate $15 to Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT) — who will be hosting a “Groceries for Humanity” food drive and giveaway, June 23rd, right across the street from the next glocks for grub event (be sure to write “food” in the note field). Or donate to The Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse (CHOW), or any number of grassroots social justice organizations in Broome County.
-R.D.
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and are not representative of any organizations mentioned or any affiliations thereof.
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