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17,250 people were murdered in America in 2016. Mass shootings, which are shooting incidents in which four or more people are injured or killed, took place 136 times in America in 2016. That’s an average of one mass shooting every 2.68 days. Of the scores of murders that occurred last year, 70% of them were murder by gun.

The gun is a very important instrument in American history. You could say that America was fashioned by the gun, long rifles and muskets were no doubt in the hands of the earliest American pioneers as they ventured into the New World. The Native American never stood a chance against their new neighbors, knives and arrows were never a match for the powerful combination of metal and gunpowder. The slaughter of an entire nation of indigenous people was made possible by the gun, the entire North American territory cleared out by murder and capture.

Perpetual wars followed the immoral seizure of this land. Out of the 241 years of American history, America has been at war in 224 of those years. The first mass gun manufacturing plants opened in Springfield, Massachusetts and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia near the end of the 18^th century. Remington, Deringer, these names are synonymous with the American gun industry, a vital industry borne at the dawn of this nation, created to protect all that the pioneers had stolen, and to steal all that the world hadn’t protected.

The gun is at the center of some of the most important points of American history. In 1804, Aaron Burr, who was a sitting US Vice President, shot and killed former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel. The West was won with the gun. The gun nearly tore our nation in two during the Civil War. The gun was used to assassinate President Lincoln, and then to kill his murderer John Wilkes Booth. Prohibition, World War I, World War II and America’s inevitable ascension to superpower all made possible by the gun. In plain terms, America is a nation built and maintained through gun violence.

Last Sunday night, 59 people were killed and another 500 injured when a 64-year-old retiree named Stephen Paddock took aim from his window on the 32^nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and reigned terror onto a crowd of unsuspecting attendees at a country music festival. Narrow-minded revisionist historians who choose to forget the massacres at Wounded Knee and Black Wall Street will say that this is the deadliest mass shooting in America’s history. Conspiracy theorists will speculate on motive and the ability of an elderly man to fire a military-styled automatic weapon out of a broken window for 10 minutes straight. Regardless of perspective, the tragedy in Las Vegas speaks to the acute disease of gun violence in our nation. Whenever a mass shooting happens, our politicians and talking heads choose sides on the issue of gun control. And while I agree that there needs to be stricter laws with regards to the sale and distribution of guns in our country, the climate and environment that is the catalyst for gun violence isn’t solely the blame of gun manufacturers. Every aspect of American culture accepts gun violence. The movies and television shows we watch accept gun violence. Our music accepts gun violence. Every night, we as Americans sit in front of the television and watch the evening news. And every night on that news we hear of Americans who have been gunned down. 17,250 murders in 2016, 70% of them murder by gun. The math says that’s 12,075 gun murders last year, 33 gun murders a night displayed on the various evening news shows while we eat our dinner.

And yet, we continue to eat.

We do not get sick to our stomachs and vomit from disgust because gun violence is germane to America, as normal to Americans as baseball and sweet potato pie.

In 1963, responding to a question about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X made his famous chickens coming home to roost quote. His point was more karmic than cynical. He was saying that the hate that you put out will always return. Whether we like it or not, there are energies that our nation holds onto that only serve to corrupt and damage us. And while we seek to place the blame on each other, or to deny that a problem even exists, our chickens just returned home again.

If only we could send them back out into the world with love and respect instead of with hate and division.

By Elisha Amadasu –

Young chess player Hamilton Shillingford is one who has a true interest in the game. He started learning when he was 4-years-old from his mother, and when he started getting better than her, he started getting taught by his dad. He developed a liking for chess and he didn’t really know why, but his interest continued to grow from there.

Hamilton has had the opportunity to practice with a stellar chess club in New York, the Marshall Chess Club. Names such as Brooklynites Alex Lenderman as well as Irina Krush have gone there to play in tournaments (nytimes.com).

The club, named after GM Frank Marshall, also has a foundation which has a goal to stimulate the love of learning and studying by young people through educational programs and lectures. They often have age-skill level tournaments as well. Also, where appropriate, the foundation supports the chess community through scholarships and direct financial support to those in need. You can visit them at marshallchessclub.org.

While interviewing Hamilton, I asked him about his very notable achievement, winning this year’s New York State Scholastic Chess Championship as the Elementary State Champion in Saratoga Springs, NY. When asked how he felt when he received a remarkable 6 out of 6 score, he said it felt good and exciting to receive such a score.

When he was about to play in the final round, there were only two players at 5-0, top-rated Tyler Tanaka from Quebec and 15^th-seeded Hamilton. He had just defeated 5^th-seeded Yassamin Ehsani in round five to set up the championship game.  Even though Hamilton was over 400 points lower-rated, he won the game finishing in a clear first!

It is also evident that Hamilton had people to support him in his chess growth at the Dalton School, and when asked how it felt to transition from elementary to a new school, Hunter College High School, as well as perhaps changing teams, he replied that it was not that unfortunate.

It will be nice for him to continue and practice with those same people as before as he continues to grow as a chess player.

Finally, Hamilton has proven to have a significant fondness of Bobby Fischer, the first American world champion who reignited American chess. On Hamilton’s Web site, fishingforfischer.com, he writes Bobby’s quote, “Chess is life”, and when asked why he agrees with the statement, he replied that chess is something that helps you focus/concentrate, and chess is full of calculation, as is life, what to do, how you do it, as well as how there are ups and downs in both life and chess, and you just have to learn from them.

Bobby Fischer also impacts Hamilton personally, as Hamilton has studied many of Fischer’s games, he also has a book of his games and he believes studying Fischer’s games will help him grow as a chess player.

When asking Hamilton about whether he would want to continue chess as a career, he said he wasn’t sure if he would want to pursue it as a career, but rather just as a hobby. However, with his 1774 rating and the amazing interest he has for chess, as well as just the overall advice he gave for others, it shows that he is hardworking and that he may not only prosper in the field of chess, but other things as well. I do not doubt that we will be seeing a lot from this young man.