Black Guns Matter, a Second Amendment education group with an urban focus, will be featured in and sponsoring SHOT Show, the largest gun show in the world.
Maj Toure founded Black Guns Matter in 2015. The group is focused on providing Second Amendment education and information to urban communities that are plagued by violence.
“I don’t think there’s a black gun culture or white gun culture,” Toure says on the group’s website. “I think there’s an informed gun culture and an ignorant gun culture.”
In their December feature on black gun ownership, Toure told The Huffington Post why gun ownership and education has become so important to him.
“Guys in my neighborhood would get drunk and shoot their guns into the air on New Year’s Eve,” Toure recounted. “Bullets come down though, number one. Number two, you’re wasting ammo. And number three, that’s just not responsible. I had uncles who were in Desert Storm, I got uncles who were in Vietnam. And seeing their understanding of firearms and how they carried themselves, I immediately had what to do and what not to do.”
Toure explained what his group is doing to spread more education about gun safety and laws.
“We give classes free to all on firearm safety, on knowing the law, on how to apply state laws and for different permits, how to get a license to carry in your particular town, who are some trainers that you can work with,” he said. “We work with trainers locally for whatever city, lawyers that know firearm laws, the Sanskrit, the basics, conflict resolution, de-escalation tactics. We give lessons on basics, so in essence it’s a class on the Second Amendment, on human rights, on civics, firearm safety and the cultural differences between communities.”
He went on to address the historical significance of the Second Amendment and his perspective as a black gun owner.
“America would not have even been created without firearms,” Toure emphasized. “Some people say it’s a contradiction for me as an African-American man to have a position: ‘When they wrote the Second Amendment, they didn’t mean it for you.’ I don’t give a f**k who they meant it for. It’s mine now.”
John McNamara, senior director for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) that sponsors SHOT Show, told the Washington Examiner Friday that “the era of cultural divide when it comes to firearms ownership should be a thing of the past, and thanks to the work of Maj Toure and Black Guns Matter, we’re a lot closer to that being a realization.”
“He’s putting his money where his mouth is through this sponsorship, but his real impact will be in the ‘Black Guns Matter: Engaging Urban Communities in the 2nd Amendment Fight’ Retailer Seminar he’ll be conducting,” he said.
SHOT Show will kick off January 23rd at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas.