October 2, 2017: Americans nationwide have been shocked by the Las Vegas massacre committed by Stephen Paddock which left 58 concert-goers dead and 500+ injured.
The Las Vegas Massacre tragedy is being used by major media outlets as an opportunity to further push the agenda of gun control.
This, at a time when more Black Americans are interested in firearm education than we have been in the past 30+ years, makes me want to disillusion Black folk about gun control.
I recently discussed the topic with some close friends and family members and I’ve realized that Black Americans are largely ignorant of, as well as averse to, firearms. This should alarm those of us who are self-aware – guns are the primary weapons being used to “keep us in check” so why would we not want to know more about them?
While the majority of Black Americans hold self-righteous views about anything having to do with guns, it has always been acceptable for people of other cultures to expose each other to firearm training at an early age.
Ultimately, the ability to learn about and own guns is one of the greatest rights that American citizens have. Beyond the obvious benefit of being able to protect loved ones as well as hard-earned property, exerting control over death itself instills a deep respect for life.
We see the constant news reporting on “Black-on-Black violence” (I’ll tackle that ridiculous phrase in a different post) and think that the problem is the guns.
No.
The problem is not the inanimate objects these people are using.
If they weren’t using guns they’d be using something else.
THE PROBLEM IS THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH STRONG, POSITIVE MALE FIGURES IN THEIR LIVES TO GUIDE THEM IN HOW TO PROTECT AND PROVIDE FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES, due to the school-to-prison pipeline and a corrupt criminal justice system. The problem is that they think guns are cool because of the music being pushed by big $$ companies (largely owned by people outside of the Black community) which leads to children who don’t understand the impact and repercussion of firearm use.
Learning about firearms is not just about learning to kill – it’s also about learning self-discipline. As my previous martial arts sensei have taught me, “real strength is about having power and choosing not to use it”.
So again I ask, why are so many Black people “gun-shy”?
I think it’s because of two massive propagandists (whether intentional or not) that have been used to program us:
- God
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Gun Control Is Systemic Racism At Its Finest
I’ve done extensive investigative research on the connections between Judeo-Christian beliefs and White supremacy… you can read more about my opinions on religion in my part 1 article found here. In this modern day context, the suppression tactics of Abrahamic tradition can still be felt in the aversion that Black people have toward firearms.
It’s common knowledge nowadays that early White Americans used passages from the Bible to tell slaves that they should fight violence with kindness and forgiveness. As a matter of fact, the use of drums by Blacks was outlawed. Yes, the musical instrument. A drum was considered a weapon. A cane was considered a weapon. Just about anything was considered a weapon because they feared the massive retaliation that we eventually inflicted on them (ie The Gullah/Geechee Wars).
In order to prevent rebellion, the pastor of each respective plantation would pick from one of the numerous passages that encourages submission like,
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord,”
or, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.”
On the other hand, these same people would go to a different church on the other side of town and be told that their violence toward indigenous peoples was justified by verses like,
“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
150 years later and you might think that we’d have figured it out by now. The entity that killed the ENTIRE WORLD and plans to do it again; the entity that threw petty, jealous fits and decided to annihilate entire nations; the entity that not only allowed the most brutal acts of mankind but often encouraged and emboldened the perpetrators! – this entity is supposed to teach us how to be peaceful?
Right.
Regardless, many Black Americans still operate under this trick. We tell ourselves that owning a gun is pointless and that learning to use one is an affront to our religious beliefs. So when the topic of gun control comes up we are quick to rally behind our White liberal friends in favor of it, as if some supreme spiritual being told us that guns were causing people to use them.
But even after slavery, there has still been…
A Legal Precedent for Gun Control ; The Threat of Blackness
After the Emancipation Proclamation, which we are told is the reason Abraham Lincoln deserves our undying gratitude, free Blacks still faced persecution from every angle when it came to our Second Amendment rights.
The end of slavery in 1865 did not eliminate the problems of racist gun control laws; the various Black Codes adopted after the Civil War required blacks to obtain a license before carrying or possessing firearms or Bowie knives; these are sufficiently well-known that any reasonably complete history of the Reconstruction period mentions them. These restrictive gun laws played a part in the efforts of the Republicans to get the Fourteenth Amendment ratified, because it was difficult for night riders to generate the correct level of terror in a victim who was returning fire. [28] It does appear, however, that the requirement to treat blacks and whites equally before the law led to the adoption of restrictive firearms laws in the South that were equal in the letter of the law, but unequally enforced. It is clear that the vagrancy statutes adopted at roughly the same time, in 1866, were intended to be used against blacks, even though the language was race-neutral. [29]
-Clayton E. Cramer, The Racist Roots of Gun Control
that have been written about this subject, I would like to think that Black Americans should be the first ones to want to own and learn about guns. Alas, many of the people who advocate for the Second Amendment are seen as crazy, radical, communist, did-I-mention-crazy?, Black militants.
This idea has been reinforced again and again throughout national media circuits and even today, plenty of Black Americans are calling for gun control because they think that the people who “love their guns” are the ones that are responsible for these types of crimes. Gun-nuts, in other words.It’s kind of like blaming all of America’s bare-handed murders on martial artists. The lack of understanding makes you equate having power, with using it improperly.
How about let’s get some equal coverage of the people who are trained to operate firearms and use that knowledge to save people, eh?
The Black Panthers Fought For Your Second Amendment Rights
“Most people think King would be the last person to own a gun. Yet in the mid-1950s, as the civil rights movement heated up, King kept firearms for self-protection. In fact, he even applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon. A recipient of constant death threats, King had armed supporters take turns guarding his home and family.”
-Dr. Adam Winkler, Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America
This Martin Luther King Jr., who we are not taught about in school, is the same man who was beaten by civilians, arrested by the state and eventually assassinated by the federal government for your right to vote. His death was used to pass the Gun Control Act of 1968 and ever since, the philosophy he preached throughout one small piece of his life has been used to convince us that, “Guns are bad and only the police should carry guns,” even though King himself protected his family with firearms.
Even amidst the confusion of a Civil Rights Movement led by an ardent supporter of gun ownership, some Black Americans weren’t satisfied with the crumbs they knew we would receive by catering to the amnesty of the U.S. government. They formed what would come to be known as the Black Power Movement, made up of various organizations such as the Black Liberation Army and the Black Panther Party.
If you have not done independent research into the Black Power Movement of the 1960s – 1980s, your only reference to organizations like the Black Panthers may come from a skewed White supremacist perspective which references these groups as racist, socialist, atheist, terrorist cells!!! There are legitimate examples of aggression to pull from which support this narrative; toward the end of the movement, Black nationalist organizations became more violent as they faced violent opposition from the White supremacist police state. But the Black Power Movement included men and women who fought tooth and nail for our right to be treated as normal citizens. They figured that since the Second Amendment was written to allow American citizens the right to challenge a tyrannical government, racist police officers should fit the bill quite nicely.
Black people were being killed by the officers who are paid to protect us, just as we are today.
Black people were being unjustly harassed by police and arrested under false pretenses, just as we are today.
fighting flamingoes 
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