President Barack Obama (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Saying that black America needs the president's leadership, Michael H. Cottman writes at BlackAmericaWeb that Obama is right to use his second term to help tackle the gang violence "as the black body count continues to rise in cities like Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis."

President Barack Obama is using his White House bully pulpit to speak out against gun violence in America — particularly in black neighborhoods where more young black men are gunning down each other in the time it takes to blink.

As the black body count continues to rise in cities like Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis, Obama is correctly using his second term in office to confront a crisis in the black community where black gang members show absolutely no remorse after pulling a trigger and taking a life.

The black community needs the president’s voice — and leadership.

"We can’t rest until all our children can go to school or walk down the street free from the fear they’ll be struck down by a bullet," Obama said Saturday night during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C. 

Earlier this year, in the president’s State of the Union address, Obama […] shined a bright light on urban gun violence in America which has been neglected by Capitol Hill legislators for decades. Much of mainstream society has ignored crime in inner cities, and, let’s be honest, some black folks generally don’t like to discuss the root causes of gun violence in urban America.

Read Michael H. Cottman's entire piece at BlackAmericaWeb.

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