"Accessibility to guns is the root of the violent crime in the United States and the territory," in the view of St. Thomas therapist Alice Hamilton, who participated in the Million Mom March in Washington, D.C., on Mother's Day.
In contrast, she said, "When persons get into an altercation in Europe, they tend to ‘duke it out' with fists instead of firing off a fatal shot. Here, where guns are easily available, anger results in fatalities."
As executive director for the first 10 years of Women's Resource Center (now Family Resource Center) on St. Thomas, Hamilton had frequent experience dealing with the tragedies of violent crime. As a therapist in private practice now, she is assisting the family of the victim of Tuesday's Main Street shooting.
Hamilton's niece, a physician in Ann Arbor, Mich., invited Hamilton to join her in Washington for the march. "It was a very moving experience to be with so many people who are concerned about the welfare of others," Hamilton said. "It is too rare that people take action and give witness to a call for meaningful change."
It was not known whether any other Virgin Islanders took part in the march. The office of Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen in Washington had no information on any other participants.
Donna Dees-Thomases, a mother from New Jersey, led in organizing the Million Mom March. Like Hamilton, she has not lost a child to gun violence, but she agonized for the many mothers who had, and she felt a great need to make an impact for change.
As Dees-Thomases watched one more gun tragedy on the nightly news last August, she scribbled plans for a demonstration on the back of an envelope. The next day she reserved the Washington Mall, contacted several anti-gun groups, ordered an 800 number and went to work, taking a leave from her job as a CBS Entertainment publicist. The result was the gathering of hundreds of thousands of women, along with children and men, on May 14. (Organizers put the number at 750,000; while seasoned Washington demonstration observers said it was less than that, it was without question by far the nation's largest-ever protest against gun violence.)
A longtime advocate of gun control, Hamilton remembers a significant conference on violence that she attended in the late 1980s, presented by the federal government in Charlotte, N.C. "At that conference the main theme was that guns were a major factor in violent crime," she recalled. "The New York Sullivan Act was touted as the way to go. It is a law that has a mandatory prison sentence for illegal gun possession." She noted, "The relationship of gun control to the reduction of crime is not a new idea."
"The points emphasized by the many speakers at the Million Mom March included requiring gun manufacturers to put safety locks on all guns, enforcing gun registration laws already on the books, and particularly taking the time to thoroughly research the background of the applicants to see if they have a criminal record," she said.
Hamilton said strong enforcement of gun laws is desperately needed in the Virgin Islands. "Police should stop cars to search for guns and be more vigilant about enforcing minor laws before major crimes are committed," she said. She said there is no doubt about the connection between guns and drugs and believes that smuggling is a major problem.
She will continue to advocate for stronger gun control laws so she doesn't have to comfort dear friends like the parents of promising young men like Jason Carroll.
