Tonz o' gunz, everybody's getting strapped
Tonz o' gunz, got to watch the way you act
Tonz o' gunz, real easy to get
Tonz o' gunz, bringing nothing but death

— Gang Starr, "Tonz o' Gunz"

This garish billboard advertising "Acres of Guns" popped up last week at Jefferson and Cass on my route to work. It's for the National Rifle Association of America's 136th Annual Meetings & Exhibits, a gun show that's coming to St. Louis April 12-15. Lucky us.

Two blocks away, at Jefferson and Madison there's a makeshift memorial for a murder victim who was killed there on March 19.

On December 7, 2006, a man was fatally shot near the intersection of Bremen and Parnell, 1.1 miles from where the NRA billboard is located. As far as I know, the Post-Dispatch never published the victim's name. Like most articles about north city homicides, the paper's account of the shooting was only a few sentences long, in contrast to the gallons of ink that are spilled when someone is killed in Clayton.

Early Monday morning, Rodney P. Jones was shot to death in the street at the intersection of Newhouse and North 22nd, 1.4 miles from the NRA billboard. Rodney was a regular at the weekly Friedens Neighborhood Foundation community lunch and a member of the organization's job club.

Given the history of shooting deaths in the immediately surrounding area, the NRA's choice of location for their billboard is sickeningly insensitive. Of course, sensitivity is not exactly the NRA's strong suit. The group held one of their gun fetish celebrations in Denver ten days after the Columbine tragedy.

Update: Visitation for Rodney Jones will be held at A.L. Beal Mortuary (4746 W Florissant Ave / 63115) on Tuesday, April 3, from 10 a.m. to noon. His funeral will immediately follow.

Posted under Other by Brian Marston on Wed., Mar 28, 2007 at 2:47 PM