Amar Alseid is one of several local bodega owners considering getting to gun to protect his business.

Would guns promote safety or violence?

By Paul Bufano

Last August a drunken brawl broke out at Sam’s Mini Market Deli and Grocery on Willis Avenue. At one point someone pulled a gun.  The bodega’s manager Amar Alseid decided he’d had enough. He wants a gun of his own.

Alseid is one of a growing number of bodega owners who want to fight back by arming themselves. They’ve found an ally in Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America.

“When you have a gun everyone in the area is going to talk about it and they’re going to respect you more,” said Alseid. “I want people to be afraid to come in and cause trouble.”

Mateo’s call for bodega owners to arm themselves with legal weapons to “even out the playing field” has met mixed response. While some echo Alseid, others worry about unleashing an arms race and about accidents and mistakes.

“What I fear will happen is that the robbers will say ‘Well if the owner has a gun we’ll have two guns,’” said Freddy Perez, owner of FPJ Amusements on East 156th Street. “What happens if the brave owner sees someone reaching for a phone in their jacket and acts without thinking?”

Mateo has begun distributing gun license applications to store owners. He said he expects to give out thousands.

Calling his push “Operation: ‘Guns for All’ Bodega Owners,” he points to the killing of bodega owner Juan Torres, 54, on Oct. 23 at Lucky Grocery & Deli in Laurelton, Queens. He says Torres’ death could have been prevented if he had had a way to defend himself.

“You come in to rob a bodega and your life can be taken just as easily as you can take a life,” Mateo said.

Guns have ravaged the Mott Haven community, respond critics.

“Legal or illegal, guns still kill,” said State Senator Jose M. Serrano. “In the end, the police are the ones best equipped to own guns and protect the bodega owners. More guns will make the community more like the Wild West.”

“I believe that we are taking a step backwards where people just shot each other to settle their difference,” said Gloria Cruz, head of the Bronx chapter of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. “The problem is that although all gun owners are mandated to go through training, it may not be enough for them to act properly in moments of distress.”

Security cameras linked to local precincts and secret panic buttons are better options than obtaining a gun, said Cruz.

Mateo says he understands such concerns, but he doesn’t believe defensive measures such as security cameras are enough.

“Come and operate a bodega during the wee hours of the night, be disarmed and be a sitting duck and see how safe you feel,” he said. “You can’t fight someone with a gun. You have to have your own weapon.”

Mateo said that although the police are doing the best they can, they can’t put a cop in every bodega or every small business that’s handling cash.

Some residents, like Edna Green, who has lived in Mott Haven for 18 years, are concerned about accidental shootings leading to unnecessary deaths.

“Shop owners are going to get suspicious and act quicker because they’re going to feel like they have the authority to shoot,” said Green.

Armed bodega owners trained to use their guns would know when it’s appropriate to do so, Mateo believes.

“If kids steal a bag of chips or cause some trouble you don’t shoot them for that,” he said,  “but you may shoot someone if they come in wielding a gun.”

“Ruthless murderers” who have made the choice to rob a store and jeopardize another’s life, don’t deserve any concern, Mateo contends.

“I wouldn’t mourn for someone like that,” he said.

Marchers took to the streets of Mott Haven on May 9, accompanied by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., to demand measures against gun violence. (Click image to view slideshow)

Naisha Pearson was just 10 years old when she was gunned downed in Saw Mill Park on East 139th Street. She was playing at a Labor Day block party in 2005 when a stray bullet struck her.

Soundslide by Maria Clark

Her killer, a 20-year-old stranger named Rene Bonilla, was shooting at someone else. He’s now doing 50-to-life behind bars.

In Naisha Pearson’s memory, Saw Mill Park was the starting point for this year’s Mother’s Day walk and rally against gun violence. It was the fourth consecutive year that the anti-gun protest was held on Mother’s Day weekend in Mott Haven, in memory of young people killed by gunfire from illegal guns.

Nearly 400 local residents and family members of slain loved ones gathered for this year’s event. They demanded solutions to the continuing scourge of gun violence in the city.

The marchers walked up St. Ann’s Avenue to St. Ann’s Episcopal Church where a half-dozen parents and other relatives of young people killed by guns shared their grief and pleaded for stricter national gun laws.

“We started this four years ago, and the turnout today is beautiful,” Naisha Pearson’s mother Taesha told the crowd as she fought back tears.

“If we keep on like this, we won’t have a future,” she said. “Our kids will be gone, and then what will we have?”

Other family members spoke out about more recent tragedies. Jamell Woods, 26, was gunned down on May 3.

“I buried him yesterday, and I thought that was the worst thing I thought I would ever have to do,” Woods’ mother Cynthia told the gathering, her voice breaking. “I’m not supposed to be burying my son; he’s supposed to be putting me away. I’m not supposed to be going through this right now.”

Sherard Bates’ brother Shannon, 33, was killed April 27.

“Conflict resolution doesn’t need firearms,” Bates said, addressing the young people in the crowd. “Ones that use firearms, they’re cowards. You’re always gonna have conflicts. How you resolve that conflict is the key.”

A gun buyback in April got 987 guns off Bronx streets (see accompanying story). More is needed, said Gloria Cruz, who founded the annual Mott Haven walk and rally after Bonilla shot Naisha, and who continues to organize the Mother’s Day event every year.

Jackie Hilley, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, which co-sponsored the march, told the crowd to pressure politicians to stem the flow of illegal guns to New York streets, “because these guns that are killing your kids and ruining your families and devastating your future are coming from states where anybody can buy a gun by just going in and handing over the money.”

“We need to close the gun show loophole at the federal level,” Hilley said, suggesting the public log onto the votesmart.com website to tell Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, “We’re tired of going to funerals in our neighborhoods from guns from other states.”

Local politicians agreed.

“We need a uniform anti-gun policy law passed,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who attended the rally along with City Council members Melissa Mark Viverito and Maria Carmen del Arroyo.

Members of the local community group the Black Spades were among numerous civic organizations that marched.

Marion “Tiny” Frampton, 53, a lifelong Mott Haven resident and former spokesman for the group, which was formed by area teens in the 1970s as a way to organize young people to protect themselves from violence in the inner city, said the carnage today is a result of failed local and national policies.

“You got to offer these kids something,” Frampton said. “The government is busy building jails, but we’ve got the raggediest schools,” he added. “They’ve got to do something about the south, because that’s where all the guns are coming from.”

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and, left to right, Bishop Rodney Canion of the New Gospel Temple, Church Of God In Christ; Reverend Jay Gooding of Miracle Revival Temple, and Reverend Calvin Owens of Community Protestant Church and Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson look at some of the guns recovered the gun buy-back

When you subtract nearly a thousand guns from the arsenals of residents, what do you get? Safer Bronx streets, say the organizers of the Fourth Annual Mother’s Day Walk Against Gun Violence.

In April, the most successful gun buy-back since the New York City Police Department and the Bronx District Attorney program began last summer yielded 987 guns.

Six churches throughout the borough – including Immaculate Conception on East 150th Street and Melrose Avenue – served as the drop-off points for residents looking to exchange firearms for $200 cash cards, no questions asked.

Among the firearms turned in were 296 revolvers, 174 automatic pistols, 21 assault weapons, 13 sawed-off shotguns, 242 rifles, 163 shotguns, and 78 others, including BB guns.

Asked why they were turning in their weapons, one man said he participated in the buy-back because “I really need the money right now,” while another man said, “Times are just hard,” and one woman answered simply, “Bills.”

At one point a line formed at the ATM machine in a bodega on Melrose Avenue across the street from Immaculate Conception. Most of those waiting had come right out of the buy-back with their cash cards in hand.

One young man, who asked to be called Shaheed, elaborated on what had brought him to the event: “A gun is for protection, but you’ve gotta have something to protect,” said the 27 year-old from Harlem. “I saw it in the corner collecting dust, and at this time, I don’t have any use for it. Money is more important right now, and I’m gonna pay some bills.”

According to Gloria Cruz, leader of the Bronx Chapter of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, however, more than just tough economic times led so many people to hand in their weapons.

“Money was tough this year,” she said, “but a lot of it had to do with the churches and the community groups involved in the program. The word got out and the people from the neighborhood knew about it. Churches are easily accessible and are a nice private place where people don’t feel they will be judged.”

Cruz, who helped promote the April 25 gun buy-back and also organized the May 5 Walk Against Gun Violence, insists that people are driven by a desire to improve their community and not just by the $200 payout.

“People just wanted to step up and take responsibility by getting guns out of their homes. Changing your community starts with changing yourself. The first part is getting that gun out of your house so people don’t get hurt,” Cruz said.

She believes the gun buy-back could have been even more successful if there had been more time. “Ten hours would have been even better than six hours. The Department of Justice should take a look at how successful this was and make these regular, year-round events.”

Someone thought the gun buy-back was a chance to get rid of even more lethal weapons. Although flyers for the buy-back clearly stated that the program was for firearms only, and not explosives or ammunition, a man attempted to hand in an improvised grenade.

Police shut down the New Gospel Temple Church of God in Christ in Fairmont-Claremont Village for several hours while the Emergency Services Squad removed the grenade.

Since the program began last July, the NYPD has brought in 4,538 guns at buy-backs in churches. Guns from these buy-backs are melted down and turned into wire coat hangers.

“The Bible tells us that ‘wisdom is better than weapons,’” said Police Commisioner Ray Kelly at a press conference after the event. “You might say we are beating swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks and handguns into hangers.”