CNN sees increase in African American gun ownership

[ATLDave]

As much of this growth is likely in urban areas, is there a corresponding increase in places to shoot?

10 years ago there were zero shooting ranges inside the perimeter (I-285) in Atlanta. Now there are at least three state of the art indoor facilities that attract a very diverse clientele. This started before Trump, but recent visits suggest that the trend has not slowed.

 

[old lady new shooter]

Now hold on a second. One of my friends had to leave work to pick up her daughter from day care...because the day care was at a Jewish Community Center and the center had just received a bomb threat. One of dozens of such threats against JCCs in the past weeks. I think it's really unfair to say that whoever called in that threat did it because people, including myself, have criticized the Trump administration. People always criticize presidents--it was true with Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, etc--and you don't normally see people threatening to blow up community centers full of children and the elderly over those criticisms. It's not a normal and expected response to criticism of the federal government, which is a fundamental part of American society.

There's a big difference between criticizing a president's policies or even how many vacations he takes, vs constantly comparing him to Hitler.

 

[roscoe]

There's a big difference between criticizing a president's policies or even how many vacations he takes, vs constantly comparing him to Hitler.

Unless you are arguing the president is a foreign-born Muslim intentionally working against American interests. Then you might call him "Osama" instead of his real name.

That is my point - some folks felt threatened under Democrats, and so bought guns. Now some folks on the left feel threatened and buy guns. It is an interesting twist.

 

[SouthernBoy]

Well since the African American population in this country is very small, as in very, very small, this almost seems to be of little concern.

 

[roscoe]

Well since the African American population in this country is very small, as in very, very small, this almost seems to be of little concern.

?????
37 million or 12% of the US population seems like a pretty important demographic. And they obviously are quite large voting blocks in some states.

 

[Browning]

To me it kind of depends on why a segment of the US suddenly feels the need to arm itself (if the article is even actually correct. It may not be, wouldn't be the first time the mainstream media has made stuff up).

Is it because they've suddenly realized that no one is really going to look out for the interests of their family except them? Certainly not the government. They just want what's best for their kids, to smell their hair, work, earn a living, beer and ball games and not be jacked with? Great, cause I won't be bothering them or anyone else.

Are they suddenly coming to the realization that there's something of value in the US Constitution and they've just decided to exercise their right as citizens and to be armed? Doubly great?

Do they just want to be able to repel home invaders, to be one of those rifles behind a blade of grass in case a foreign power gets froggy, to hunt deer and ducks, shoot clays or competition shoot? Stupendously great, especially when paired with what's above.

Or are they buying into CNN and MSNBC's assertion that people who voted for 'T' instead of 'H' are the modern day equivalent of Nazi's and they're gearing up to get ready for some self fulfilling prophecy and endtime battle? Because once someone labels their fellow citizens who voted for the other guy or gal to be 'Nazi's' there's not too much in the way of morality to stop them from shooting their fellow citizens. Not so great ... like, at all.

I'm not just going to hear that they're black and suddenly buying guns and automatically that they're all like Colin Noir and say that's swell based solely upon those two items of reported news. One of the main draw's towards Mr. Noir's YouTube channel in the beginning was that he was young, well spoken, black and that he could never be mistaken for getting his degree from Berkeley.

He was also saying things that only a black man could say without being labeled a racist since there's a pretty big double standard in the US as well as much of the Western world when it comes to speaking the truth.

So when I hear more then I'll decide whether it's a good thing or not.

 

[.308 Norma]

So when I hear more then I'll decide whether it's a good thing or not.

Me too.

 

[old lady new shooter]

Unless you are arguing the president is a foreign-born Muslim intentionally working against American interests. Then you might call him "Osama" instead of his real name.

That is my point - some folks felt threatened under Democrats, and so bought guns. Now some folks on the left feel threatened and buy guns. It is an interesting twist.

There's a difference between internet jockeys alleging things and mainstream politicians doing it.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I'm not saying your run-of-the-mill Trump supporter is a white nationalist.

I'm not going to delve into the political stuff here, except to say that you have bought the narrative of the left, which attempts to conflate an innocuous, even positive trait (nationalist) with a malevolent one (supremacist).

Let me help you get your head straight about that one:

na·tion·al·ist
ˈnaSH(ə)nələst/
noun
noun: nationalist; plural noun: nationalists
1.
a person who advocates political independence for a country.

A nationalist can be of any race, creed, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, political affiliation, et al. And you bet your gluteous maximus that we are. That's why we voted for him; we want this nation to remain a sovereign, powerful country, want nothing to do with UN globalist NWO garbage.

I'm an American nationalist and danged proud of it.

 

[SouthernBoy]

?????
37 million or 12% of the US population seems like a pretty important demographic. And they obviously are quite large voting blocks in some states.

I would bet the figure is probably less than one million. I have only known three African Americans in my life. And one of them was white.

 

[old lady new shooter]

I would bet the figure is probably less than one million. I have only known three African Americans in my life. And one of them was white.

You sound like the lefties who couldn't believe Trump won because in their enclaves they didn't know anyone who voted for him.

 

[roscoe]

I would bet the figure is probably less than one million. I have only known three African Americans in my life. And one of them was white.

Um - say what? There are more than 1.5 million African Americans in Virginia alone.

And if a substantial proportion become pro-gun, those votes will count.

 

[roscoe]

There's a difference between internet jockeys alleging things and mainstream politicians doing it.

I mean, I guess Trump is not a mainstream politician, but he is the President of the US:
"He doesn't have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there's something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim," Trump told Fox News in 2011. "I don't know. Maybe he doesn't want that."

And to keep this on-topic, I argue that is one of the reasons conservatives felt anxiety in 2008. It was not the only reason for gun-owning anxiety, since he was a Democrat, but it certainly added to it.

 

[old lady new shooter]

I mean, I guess Trump is not a mainstream politician, but he is the President of the US:
"He doesn't have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there's something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim," Trump told Fox News in 2011. "I don't know. Maybe he doesn't want that."

And to keep this on-topic, I argue that is one of the reasons conservatives felt anxiety in 2008. It was not the only reason for gun-owning anxiety, since he was a Democrat, but it certainly added to it.

In 2011 he was a private citizen, not even running for any office. Last week a gubernatorial candidate in NJ made a speech comparing Trump to Hitler.

 

[roscoe]

You are getting way off topic here, but do yourself a favor, look up the Wikipedia page on the "Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories" and read it carefully. Mike Huckabee is probably the most prominent politician, but there are plenty more, and not all are right-wing radio hosts. The anti-Obama rhetoric was virulent (and personal) during the election and during his term. You may not have personally felt that there was a Muslim Kenyan in the White House, but many expressed that view, and it drove anxiety. To say that what is going is on right now is not analogous, but on the left, is to be in the bubble, I am afraid.

And, while generally I do not like to discuss personal circumstances in general online, I personally know two liberals (one a minority, one LBGT woman) who have decided to purchase firearms for protection in the last two months, and it is because of the sense of anxiety post-election. I recommended a 3" SP101 in both cases, loaded with standard pressure wadcutters as a good place to start.

 

[Pilot]

I agree that this is largely slanted to the left, and is a result of the continued baiting of the so-called "race war" both sides have claimed is brewing.

What is different, though, is that, when it was conservatives (read: "white guys") buying guns during left-leaning political tensions, those buyers were ridiculed, vilified, and excoriated in the media. Today, this newest group of buyers is apparently commended, not for merely exercising a right they could have been all along, but for doing it for political reasons, essentially the same ones conservatives were.

I disagree. I don't see our side baiting a race war. The reason we bought so many guns under Obama was not raced related, but for fear of more gun restrictions, and bans like the AWB, and other more restrictive gun laws. Remember, under Obama, Pelosi, Schummer etc more first time gun owners, and women bought guns more than any time previously.

I agree about the media. Totally biased, and now just a mouthpiece for the Democrats, anti (legal) gun left.

 

[Berger.Fan222]

It would be mostly unlikely that any facts about marijuana in P.Castile's system would come out in a trial over the shooting. They wouldn't be relevant. The officer couldn't have known that information at the time and, even if he had, his actions in firing at Castile would only be judged based on whether a fair and impartial jury felt that they were reasonable, in that moment, based on what the officer saw and what Castile did.

I hear a lot that a criminal's confirmed drug use won't help a lot at trial, but I don't buy it. The fact is, as soon as the police officer cites suspected evidence for drug use as among his observations leading up to the questioned shooting, any corroborating (or contradicting) evidence is likely to be admitted.

And even if a detail like that is excluded from trial, it is still relevant in contradicting the narrative portrayed in the liberal media that the victim of the shooting was an innocent, law-abiding gun owner. Marijuana use disqualifies one from legal purchase, ownership, and possession of firearms in most jurisdictions.

 

[Sam1911]

I hear a lot that a criminal's confirmed drug use won't help a lot at trial, but I don't buy it. The fact is, as soon as the police officer cites suspected evidence for drug use as among his observations leading up to the questioned shooting, any corroborating (or contradicting) evidence is likely to be admitted.

Ok, so back up a bit. First off, that is not why the car was stopped. It wasn't for suspected intoxication of any sort. And at no point was any mention made of drug use. So introducing that as a factor, after toxicology comes back and says, "by the way, we found some THC in his blood," would be dismissed, and would possibly be grounds for a perjury charge against the officer. (Introducing a brand new "observation" from the scene that doesn't show up in the initial report but just so happens to coincide with a later toxicology screen would be laughably transparent.)

And even if a detail like that is excluded from trial, it is still relevant in contradicting the narrative portrayed in the liberal media that the victim of the shooting was an innocent, law-abiding gun owner.

Why is THAT a good thing? While I don't want to pre-judge the trial of Officer Yanez, from what I've seen there isn't anything in this shooting that seems good or right or acceptable to me. I see someone who appears to have held a license to carry a firearm, who tried to disclose that information to the officer who stopped him, who (again, as near as we can tell) didn't actually threaten the officer, and who was shot dead. While I'm in no way saying that Castile handled himself according with our best practices theories as to interacting with the police while armed, that's not really a responsibility that rests on his shoulders. The officer is the one responsible for everyone's safety when he stops someone, and he ended up shooting someone who was (as far as he could POSSIBLY have known in that instance) legally armed and who very certainly meant him no harm.

So yeah, the fact that he might have smoked a little weed doesn't really put him in the class of lethal criminals who should rightly end up with bullet holes in them. If that doesn't make him a "law-abiding" gun owner, he wasn't apparently any kind of violent criminal, so we need to be pretty careful in attempting to paint him as a member of the criminal set just so we can either avoid putting appropriate scrutiny on the officer, or as a knee-jerk reaction against the "liberal" forces who we don't like for whatever reason.

I see the shooting as something that could have happened to any of us who carry a weapon, and his bit of pot use doesn't separate P. Castile far enough from me for me to feel comfortable dismissing him and excusing his death because he's not like me.

Marijuana use disqualifies one from legal purchase, ownership, and possession of firearms in most jurisdictions.

In ALL US jurisdictions, seeing as that's federal law.

However, it is also a very common "crime" on the cutting edge of a major social change toward legalization, to the extent that some of the states have removed their own laws against it's use. While we understand the concept of the hierarchy of federalism and that the wording of federal firearms law means that marijuana use means you cannot answer a form 4473 truthfully and be sold a gun, this is controversial disputed ground around the nation. At any rate, IF Mr. Castile had said, "Officer I have a permit to carry a concealed weapon and am carrying a firearm now -- AND I want to let you know that I smoked pot yesterday..." that STILL wouldn't be grounds for shooting him, and wouldn't offer support for the necessity of having done so. That information might, possibly, have lead to his arrest, but it isn't an act of violence.

 

[bearcreek]

Well since the African American population in this country is very small, as in very, very small, this almost seems to be of little concern.

I would bet the figure is probably less than one million. I have only known three African Americans in my life. And one of them was white.

You sound like the lefties who couldn't believe Trump won because in their enclaves they didn't know anyone who voted for him.

?????
37 million or 12% of the US population seems like a pretty important demographic. And they obviously are quite large voting blocks in some states.

Um - say what? There are more than 1.5 million African Americans in Virginia alone.

And if a substantial proportion become pro-gun, those votes will count.

Did you folks miss the part where Southern Boy said that one of the African American's that he's known was white? He's talking about true "African Americans", those who were born in an African country but moved to the US. There is no other country on earth where people with central and southern African ancestry, who were not born there, refer to themselves by their continental origin. Nobody calls themselves "African Jamaican" or African Frenchman" or "African German" or "African Haitian". I realize that is not the point of this thread, but it is relevant. "African American" is an inaccurate, polarizing term that needs to be avoided whenever possible.

 

[Sam1911]

Oy. Well, if you really think that re-fighting the battle over weather you call dark skinned people who's ancestors were brought here from Africa, "African American" or "Black" (...or whatever else...) is really going to help bring us all back together ... good luck with that.

But it certainly has nothing at all to do with the article, or our discussion here, which are about black people buying more firearms.


(I suppose a case could be made that some of them are buying guns because there are still white people around who will actually have the boorish nerve to paternalistically opine about what they have the right to be called.)

 

[bearcreek]

Oy. Well, if you really think that re-fighting the battle over weather you call dark skinned people who's ancestors were brought here from Africa, "African American" or "Black" (...or whatever else...) is really going to help bring us all back together ... good luck with that.

But it certainly has nothing at all to do with the article, or our discussion here, which are about black people buying more firearms.


(I suppose a case could be made that some of them are buying guns because there are still white people around who will actually have the boorish nerve to paternalistically opine about what they have the right to be called.)

My goodness Sam, ease up some. I was just clarifying Southern Boy's point. Don't have to get into name calling. Should I talk about people being ignoramuses cause they don't know whether to use "weather" or "whether"? I understand it's not the specific subject of the thread. God forbid we get off on a brief, semi relevant rabbit trail. We never do that, do we?

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I questioned the NRA years ago why they weren't recruting black members
There is no race box on the NRA membership application form.
BTW Roy Innis (6 Jun 1934 – 8 Jan 2017) was on the NRA Board of Directors and I voted for him.
But, since there is nothing on race in the NRA membership database, making racial breakdown of NRA membership is impossible and pointless. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.


(Any more when I see things like "weather" for "whether" I chalk it up to personal decvices with tiny "keyboards" and autocorrect.)

 

[roscoe]

Did you folks miss the part where Southern Boy said that one of the African American's that he's known was white? He's talking about true "African Americans", those who were born in an African country but moved to the US. There is no other country on earth where people with central and southern African ancestry, who were not born there, refer to themselves by their continental origin. Nobody calls themselves "African Jamaican" or African Frenchman" or "African German" or "African Haitian". I realize that is not the point of this thread, but it is relevant. "African American" is an inaccurate, polarizing term that needs to be avoided whenever possible.

Aaaahh - he was trying to be clever. Well that really advanced the conversation! You can be sure you are really going nowhere if you descend into semantics.

But you are not correct that other countries do not have terms for folks of sub-saharan ancestry. In Spain (with which I am reasonably familiar) they are called, and call themselves 'subsaharianos'. In France they are called 'noir' (and is using skin color somehow better?).

 

[Mitlov]

I'm not going to delve into the political stuff here, except to say that you have bought the narrative of the left, which attempts to conflate an innocuous, even positive trait (nationalist) with a malevolent one (supremacist).

Let me help you get your head straight about that one:

na·tion·al·ist
ˈnaSH(ə)nələst/
noun
noun: nationalist; plural noun: nationalists
1.
a person who advocates political independence for a country.

A nationalist can be of any race, creed, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, political affiliation, et al. And you bet your gluteous maximus that we are. That's why we voted for him; we want this nation to remain a sovereign, powerful country, want nothing to do with UN globalist NWO garbage.

I'm an American nationalist and danged proud of it.

Just on the linguistic issue instead of the political stuff directly, there's a difference between "American nationalist" and either "white nationalist" or "black nationalist." The former is about national identity based on citizenship, national culture and identity, etc. The latter two are about conflating race with national identity, and are thus a very bad thing and very different than just being patriotic.

The National Review has written a number of negative pieces about "white nationalism"--it's not just liberals who equate that specific term with racial supremacy. Again, the term "white nationalism" or "black nationalism" is entirely different than "nationalism" or "American nationalism."

 

[Middletown]

I don't watch much Liberal News Media (never CNN) so maybe it has been there I just haven't seen it reported but; Dems went all out on a strong gun control platform with HRC openly supporting AWB, No Fly List ban, magazine restrictions and other anti gun legislation and rules. This is probably part of the behind the scenes autopsy they are supposedly doing and I wonder if this is something they think hurt them but I haven't heard them publicly acknowledge.

The Liberals in power will never abandon their efforts to curtail private firearm use and ownership as much as possible but to be able to do this they have to win elections first and maybe they cannot be honest about their true intentions on firearms as HRC was.

Most that have replied to this thread including me has the opinion we are seeing more women and all ethnic groups at the shooting ranges. I am not sure if any data is being collected but non white males seem to be well represented. This is a good thing for those of us that believe in private firearms ownership and the 2nd Amendment. I don't think there is any one thing that anyone can point to as the reason but making firearms restrictions as a priority for the sitting administration as we had for the last 4 years of Obama (first 4 years don't count since Obama wanted to win re-election) had an impact especially in the middle of the country.

While at the range if a conversation comes up I treat women and minorities just as I would anyone else, never talk down their selection of firearms and maybe let them examine or shoot mine if it seems to be the right thing to do.