The news of Conchita Campfield's death really jolted me. Conchita was the 15-year-old Hyattsville honor student who was shot after a party last weekend when a fight broke out between several youths and spilled onto the street. One of the youths pulled a handgun and fired several shots into the crowd. A 20-year-old boy was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Conchita's death.
Certainly Conchita's age had something to do with the anger and depression I felt. Perhaps the news struck home because of my own daughters who are close in age to Conchita. I was horrified that one so young could die so violently under otherwise innocent circumstances in which any teenager could easily have been the victim. I was frightened at the thought that there are few ways to protect a child from the escalating, random violence that has become a defining characteristic of urban living.
I was also angry because I realized that Conchita died innocently -- like so many other young African Americans -- in part, because of easy handgun availability. In this instance, Conchita was killed as a result of the lethal combination of some young man's rage plus the ready access of a high-powered handgun.
At one level, Conchita's death had little impact on public consciousness. We have become impervious to the tragedy of young people dying at the hands of their peers. After all, there has been a 2,100 percent increase in juveniles charged with homicide from 1982 to 1990, so some degree of numbness is understandable. But the question remains: What are we as a nation going to do to stop the steady escalation of gun-related violence?
Unfortunately, the debate over handgun violence has lacked the genuine sense of urgency needed to compel Congress to act. As a result, America is losing its soul to a cancer of violence, but the solutions to the problem are thwarted by the National Rifle Association and mired in political indifference on Capitol Hill.
As I thought more about Conchita, I reminded myself that violent crime is an American dilemma, not an isolated racial issue. Nonetheless, it is time for the NAACP, as the nation's largest civil rights organization, to respond to the growing and disproportionate number of African Americans victimized by crime, as well as the high incidence of African Americans -- particularly young African American males -- ensnared in the criminal justice system. For too long now, the black community has been silent on these issues.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People took a step toward addressing this problem when it recently joined Jim and Sarah Brady in urging Congress to swiftly pass the Brady bill. The NAACP also supports Gov. Douglas Wilder's "one-gun-a-month" initiative, which was recently enacted in Virginia. While we recognize that neither bill will resolve the problem of gun violence, they offer some useful relief.
Gun-related violence is a barrier to the full enjoyment of civil rights. It undermines respect for the rule of law. The NAACP's efforts to promote democratic participation, economic empowerment, educational opportunity and other aspects of a progressive civil rights agenda are compromised if African Americans are not safe in their homes and communities. Even as we pursue these other concerns, we must also seek to reduce the violence.
Modest handgun restrictions such as the Brady bill are a health-related imperative for African Americans. Firearm deaths of young black men have reached crisis proportions. According to a recent study by the Federal Center for Disease Control, homicide is the leading cause of death for black males aged 15 to 24, and firearms were involved in about 80 percent of these homicides. In some areas of the country, it is now more likely for a black male between his 15th and 25th birthday to die from homicide than it was for a U.S. soldier to be killed in Vietnam.
We feel a special obligation to involve young African Americans in the national debate over gun control. In addition to our legislative network, the NAACP will utilize its Youth and College division in a national lobbying campaign in support of the Brady bill.
Young people are on the front line of one of today's most challenging social crises. Their participation in the campaign to pass the Brady bill has two purposes. First, there are few advocates who bring greater moral authority to the debate about gun-related violence than the young people of our nation who are most often victimized and who have much to lose if controls are not enacted. Second, we hope to demonstrate that they are not powerless to affect issues that have a direct impact on their lives.
The NAACP's support for the Brady bill is a reflection of a broader understanding of civil rights advocacy in the 1990s. We urge Congress to act quickly and to enact the Brady bill as separate legislation. We want to avoid the problems encountered last year, when the Brady bill was incorporated into an omnibus crime control legislation. This measure is simply too important to be held hostage to the illusion of comprehensive crime control.
We are too late to save Conchita, but perhaps we can honor her memory through our actions to save other children.
The writer is director of the NAACP's Washington bureau.