Today’s Edition of “Really, America?! Is this what we’re doing?!”
Hi, there! Thanks for stopping by my blog! Today’s post is focused on a specific area of gun control no one seems to want to talk about, and that’s the way in which African Americans are never considered when people want to argue in favor of more permissible gun laws. The NRA has seemed to only argue for the open-carry rights for white men and now white women. Have you ever witnessed the NRA stand up for a black person trying to carry a weapon in public? I’m going to answer for you and say, “No, you have not.” It’s always the white male who is seen as the ideal gun owner. And yet, when there’s a mass shooting, the culprit is almost always a white male. Do you ever wonder what our gun laws would be like if it were black people arguing for the right to own an AK-47? Of course, you don’t. You know why? Because we have all already assumed that the prospect of that is ridiculous. “Black people don’t need guns” is what we have all subconsciously told ourselves. But why? Why don’t we have a right to protect ourselves and families in the same way that white people are deemed good enough to do so?
Truth be told, I’m not a fan of permissive gun laws, and I believe it to be wrong for all the reasons most other people who oppose military-grade weaponry being made accessible to the general public. People are dying in mass shootings, and every time it happens, it’s horrible, and yet it keeps happening, which is just stupid. But my main reason is that it’s a racist double-standard. I’m supposed to be gung-ho about all the white people owning guns, but then be okay with the way black people are criminalized and often murdered for this same gun ownership? Either we can all have them or none of us can have them. The Black Panthers wanted to arm themselves to protect the black community, and the government came out with a bevy of restrictive gun laws to prevent them from doing so. (Also, the FBI made it their personal mission to destroy The Panthers despite their only goal being to uplift the black community, but I digress.) If you think the prospect of a black man or woman owning an military-grade rifle is the recipe for disaster, but have no issue with all these white guys at these gun shows in Omaha or wherever stocking up on guns, I would beg you to look deeper into this double-standard and see how your own opinion reflects the biases of our society.
I don’t always enjoy Adam Ruins Everything, mainly because, well, he ruins things I would prefer to not have ruined (it’s like stealing a security blanket from a baby, which Adam would totally do). But he makes some pretty good points here. And I know some might be annoyed with the “whitesplaining” of it all, but it’s unfortunately true that most people won’t acknowledge something as being true until a white person says it, and I appreciate white people who have taken note of that and advocated for spreading truth on our behalf while we actively fight for the agency to speak for ourselves in a way that results in the same impact.