Erecting Death Shrines/Memorials: Unified Sympathetic Fatih Responses Gunning for Empathy and Compassion in the Second Amendment Debates

Abstract

This paper discusses the ordinariness of death shrines/memorials in African American and Latinoa Communities in the City of Milwaukee from May 2013 through October 2013. I focuses on the Second Amendment debates, noting that the history of automatic legal gun access and ownership was prohibited by African Americans and Native Americans until 1960s. Only White citizens had the constitutional right to own guns. Homicides from gun violence is responded to by many African Americans and Latinoas with the erection of death shrines/memorials. The artifacts or symbols contained within these shrines can be examined through the lens of Black spirituality and the Black spirituals including lament for the purpose of political imagination, healing and liberation essential aspects in redressing the ethical issue of gun violent homicides.

The ecclesial community has a role to play pastorally and theolically in reflecting on these shrines as tools for social healing and political transformation.