“Once again, the weekend was marred by another horrific loss of life as a result of racist violence against people of color, this time in Buffalo, NY.  Far too often, with accelerating frequency during the past few years, we have witnessed the mass murder of human beings explicitly because of their race, ethnicity, or religion: in Charleston and Buffalo, it was Black residents; in El Paso, it was Latinx residents; in Pittsburgh, it was Jewish residents; and in Atlanta, it was Asian-American/Pacific Islander residents – and there are so many other instances, too numerous to list.

“We believe it is important to call out the racist motivation behind these killings. Until we tackle racism in our country and our culture, we cannot hope to eliminate these tragedies from our society.  It is also important to call out the fact that most of these murders would not have occurred, or would have claimed fewer lives, but for our national obsession with gun ownership.  In 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, 45,222 Americans died of gun violence – slightly more than half of those by suicide.  Just as we must confront racism directly, so must we actively support measures to remove guns from the hands of those who might do harm to others, whatever the motivation.

“Although issuing a statement is a small thing, we hope MAPC’s words will serve as a small source of comfort and support to colleagues and allies who are suffering in the aftermath of this tragedy.”