[caption id=”attachment_137744″ align=”aligncenter” width=”4896″] Democratic presidential hopeful former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley in New Castle, N.H., Saturday, June 13, 2015. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)
[/caption]
Former Gov. Martin O’Malley believes “white racism” is to blame for the lack of new federal gun control measures.
“One of the sad triumphs of white racism is the degree to which it has succeeded in subconsciously convincing so many of us, black and white, that somehow black lives don’t matter,” O’Malley said on Sunday at a U.S. Conference of Mayors gathering in San Francisco, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“If the thousands of young men killed by gun violence every year across America were young, poor, and white,” he continued. “Rather than young, poor, and black. it is hard to imagine that our Congress would continue to block common-sense measures to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.”
There are many flaws in O’Malley’s statements.
Thousands of poor whites are killed by gun homicides every year. According to Pew Research, about 25 percent of the 11,078 victims of gun homicides were white in 2010.
He also fails to realize that despite Congress not passing new federal gun control laws, gun homicide rates for blacks has been cut in half since 1993, according to the same poll.
The former Maryland governor is polling far behind in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. These statements were likely a desperate attempt for O’Malley to gain traction with black voters more than a focus on facts and reason.
