AR Times: “William Graves — who, if you know him, you know him as Uncle Willie — doesn’t want a gun. Not at all. An ex-felon who spent more than 30 years in and out of prison and now mentors, mediates and does whatever else he can think of to keep people from following his path, Graves is banned by law from owning firearms. Which is fine by him for lots of reasons, one being that his arthritis would make it hard to even pull a trigger.
So it agitates Graves that he could get a gun so quickly and easily because that’s proof that anyone else could, too. Lately he’s been frustrated by Governor Hutchinson’s plan to drop $100 million on new prison cells, which Graves said won’t deter anyone from anything.
“A 500-bed prison? That’s not the answer,” he said.
Walking, talking proof that it’s never too late to turn things around completely, Graves proselytizes against pessimism. He aims to make believers out of the fatalists, the ones who think guns and fighting are entrenched and there’s nothing to do but stand armed and ready for it.
“A lot of people won’t believe this, but one of the reasons the crime rate and violence goes up, comes down, goes up is because there’s not enough concerned citizens getting involved,” he said. “You ain’t gonna never stop violence, but you can break the cycle.””