Black Americans are stocking up on firearms. It’s their right to do so. Every American has the right to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Period. The reasons behind the spike are not shocking. You can probably guess why, but I really don’t care about the reasons. Black Americans are seeking means to defend themselves, cutting into the tired coastal elitist narrative that shooting and gun ownership is just something that white men do. It’s not. In fact, for quite some time the evidence that nonwhites love guns and are acquiring them for self-protection has been around for years. And now more reports of black gun ownership are surging (via The Hill):
Black people owning guns have gone up 58.2 percent, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) — and gun groups like the "Not F**king Around Coalition (NFAC)" consist of armed social justice advocates who demand justice for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, visibly strapped with handguns.
The Guardian also noted that gun-ownership amongst Black people spiked both when President Trump lost his reelection campaign and when Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger who died after he was inspecting an empty house, was gunned down.
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Similarly, back in 2019, NPR credited Philando Castile's death, who was shot and killed by St. Paul, Minn., police during a traffic stop. The National African American Gun Association (NAAGA), a Black alternative to the National Rifle Association (NRA), saw its membership increase rapidly to about 30,000 members. The organization, which has been in business since 2015, has 75 chapters nationwide.
The publications noted how Trump’s presidency fueled the spike. Again, I don’t care what your reasoning is for exercising your civil rights. And some of these shootings, Philando Castile especially, were outrageous and troubling. Yet, the other side of this trend is the gun control debate. Democrats should know that more gun owners could spell trouble for their confiscatory agenda items since they’ve finally decided to pretty much embrace the end of the Second Amendment as a legislative goal. That’s not going to sit well, especially with more nonwhites and women joining the ranks of those who shoot and own guns.