The Rev. John Beaty decided to follow in the footsteps of advocates of openly carrying guns who walked through downtown Akron on Sunday afternoon.
But Beaty’s weapon of choice Monday was the printed word, not a rifle, aimed at protesting gun violence.
The 76-year-old retired United Methodist minister and community activist began his one-person march about 1 p.m. He started at the corner of High and Market streets, across from the Akron Art Museum.
Beaty’s goal was to follow the exact path of Sunday’s walk organized by advocacy group Ohio Carry and finish at Kangaroo Kutz. That’s the barber shop on East Exchange Street, across from the University of Akron’s football stadium, whose owner, Deone Slater, last week confronted gun rights activist Daniel Kovacevic as Kovacevic openly carried a rifle past his shop. In Ohio, adults do not need a license to openly carry guns.
Kovacevic took part in Sunday’s walk where he and the open-carry group met with Slater at the barber shop. Slater, who is black, previously met with Kovacevic, who is white, on Friday at the barber shop to discuss their differences.
“I was shocked and dismayed by the gentleman [Kovacevic] … that he was carrying a military style, Israeli made, semi-automatic military weapon, similar to the ones used by the Israeli military in the continued occupation of Palestine,” Beaty said.
Beaty’s two signs read “Guns Kill Kids” and “Stop Gun Violence. Save Our Kids.” He also passed out fliers asking people to protest at a gun show Jan. 30 at the Summit County Fairgrounds and asking them to speak out against open and concealed carry of military weapons and other issues before Akron City Council.
Beaty said that as a member of groups God Before Guns and Progressive Democrats Issue Team on Gun Violence, he’s demonstrated against gun violence many times. He also said that gun rights activists have “invaded” some of those demonstrations and try to intimidate him and others into silence “against this overwhelming gun violence in the United States.”
While gun rights advocates say that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun, “the problems is, you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys,” Beaty said.
He also said racism historically has played a major role in gun rights and gun violence, largely involving white people killing black people. And minorities who have weapons are discriminated against today, he said.
“Yes, we do have gun rights. But it’s not absolute,” Beaty said.
Beaty said Ohio has a “giant loophole” that lets people buy guns at gun shows without background checks. Licensed gun dealers who sell at gun shows are required to conduct background checks; private sales at the shows do not require background checks.
“If you have an automatic weapon, I have to assume that you are a bad person. Semi-automatic weapons. That’s the problem,” Beaty said. “We can’t look into everybody’s brain to see if they are dangerous or unlawful or not. But we can control certain kinds of weapons that cause massive damage in the wrong kind of hands.”
Gun violence starts not with shooting a bullet but with people carrying intimidating weapons that can kill “dozens of people in seconds,” he said.
Openly carrying weapons will never be considered normal “because you cannot see inside a person’s brain carrying that weapon whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy,” he said.
“We do not make peace with semi-automatic military weapons,” Beaty said. “We make peace with love. … I don’t need that kind of protection. I’ve got God to protect me. And God is a God of love, not vengeance, not violence.”
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ. His stories can be found at www.ohio.com/writers/jim-mackinnon.