‘Gun violence has found a comfortable home here in Columbus’

I was was thinking of sliding some cash or a gift card into a Christmas card for my godson, Darryl Smith III. It is hard to shop for teenagers.

At 17, it seemed he was far too old for the remote-controlled toy cars I bought him when he was 6 or so.

It turns out, I have one less Christmas present to give this year.

Like several others, I instead gave his mother – my younger cousin by a few years – money to help pay for funeral expenses after Darryl was murdered one night in April.

It was a gift without joy rooted in something that should not have happened.

“Darryl Smith III of Cleveland died in the shooting, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner. No arrests have been made in the case.

“The shooting happened about 9:30 p.m. Monday on East 63rd Street near White Avenue.

“Neighbors reported hearing gunfire and police found Smith dead in a vacant field,” a story about the case on Cleveland.com reads.

I was not the greatest godmother and did not spend nearly enough time with the boy I assumed I would get to watch grow into a man.

I should have.

My cousin should have her son. We should have years and years. In a flash of bullets, he was gone.

We’ll never see his mischievous smile again. All that is left is should.

Those with the real power to do something about gun violence should do something about it.

State lawmakers can but won’t.

I’ve been told time and time again that they do not have the political will to do anything but pass laws that make it more likely more bodies riddled with bullet holes end up on a coroner’s slab.

My godson was murdered in Cleveland, but as we all know, the rest of the nation is not immune.

The nation’s homicide rate grew 30% between 2019 and 2020 – the largest single-year increase since at least 1905, according CDC information the Pew research Center analyzed.

Firearms were involved in 77% of homicides in 2020. The rate grew 38% between 2019 and 2020 in Ohio. Gun violence has found a comfortable home here in Columbus, where the body count already has smashed last year’s record high.

“Shooting” is repeated nearly 190 times in the “cause of death” column on a spreadsheet of Columbus homicides maintained by a colleague.

They all were someone’s someone – mothers, brothers, fathers, friends, children.

Most of this city’s homicide victims are Black. Most are male.

The vast majority of the dead are adults, but there are far too many kids.

Among the youngest are Serenity Robinson, 5; Londynn and Demetrius Wall-neal, 6 and 9; Raye Fletcherroberts, 14 months; Bryson Brown, 4; Alyse and Ava Williams, 6 and 9; Dayvion Jones, 14; Dayvion Burt, 14; Ty’sean Finch, 16; Jayce O’neal, 17; Joseph Lian, 17; Daymar Carlisle, 14 and Rycheous Mckinney, 16.

“We say no more!” Malissa Thomas-st. Clair, the founder of the support group Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children said recently at a vigil for the Wall-neal children. “Do you understand me? We say no more!”

A Gofundme page was set up to cover the burial expenses for the siblings who were murdered with 22year-old Charles Wade on Dec. 7 in a hail of gunfire inside a car at the Winchester Lakes Apartment complex. There have been no arrests.

“A mother should be preparing to wrap Christmas presents for her child,” Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said. “But instead, she has to figure out how she’s going to bury her children.”

That family, like my cousin’s and far too many others in this nation addicted to guns, should be celebrating the holiday season.

Children should grow up.

They should not die by the gun.

Amelia Robinson is the Dispatch’s opinion and community engagement editor.

@1Ameliarobinson on Twitter.