Black Gun Owners
Courtesy NAAGA

Still, many black folks are not boastful gun owners—even in states where they can openly carry.

“Black people still aren’t very social about their firearms,” [firearms instructor Mel] Atkins told The Daily Beast. “Our state (Michigan) allows me to walk around with a firearm on my hip or strung across my shoulder as long as it’s visible to everybody. Black people never do that. Only damn fools and maybe some Republicans ever do that. And black gun owners are very quiet about it, because historically a black gun owner could get in trouble for it. There’s that stigma attached to it, that I’m going to get hassled by law enforcement for the mere possession of a firearm.”

NAAGA chapters have tried to battle the stigma and raise the visibility of black gun ownership in the wake of protests over the death of George Floyd. In Minneapolis, Louis Dennard, president of the Twin Cities NAAGA chapter, led a team of six armed members to patrol and protect blocks with a church and black-owned businesses after the recent curfew was imposed. A little over a week ago, Stephen Alexander, president of the Lansing NAAGA chapter, gathered with 50 other members from Midwestern chapters. They stood, armed with a diversity of guns outside the Michigan state legislature, just a couple of weeks after a group of armed white men gathered to protest the governor’s Stay at Home orders.

“What happened to George Floyd is symbolic and demonstrative of what happens to us,” Alexander said. “We wanted to send the message that if we can’t look to the police to protect us, we have to understand that our personal safety is our personal responsibility.”

– David Dent in These Terrified Black Americans Are Packing Heat

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

78 COMMENTS

  2. The greatest threat to a young black mans life is another young black man. All this crying about police, Trump, “systemic racism”, “privilege”, and shit that happened 160 years ago is just a bunch of smoke and mirrors by well funded and well organized Maoist community looking to destroy the United States. They need to destroy law in this country under the guise of “criminal justice reform” or “police reform” to replace LE with a new federalized police or a new criminal Brownshirt-esque org. They need to destroy private property because that’s a core tenet of American society. They need to destroy your sense of heritage, history, pride, and patriotism, so you lose faith in the constitution and your countrymen. This is their “cultural revolution”, and their end goal is the exact replication of what occured in China, down to the mass graves.

    • No. I highly suggest you brush up on China’s civil war and subsequent 30 years. Because that’s exactly what the left is trying to recreate here. It’s play by play Mao Zedong.

      • Ron- do you really believe their are Maoists trying to do that? I’ve never met a Maoist in my life- and I went to UC Berkeley and live in San Francisco.

      • You went to Berkeley and never went to the Communist bookstore (Revolution Books)? Don’t believe you.

      • “I know a victim of Mao’s purge…”

        The same.

        Well, her parents got the fuck out just in time and missed the ‘fun’…

    • It is eye-opening, even to an old Colr War anti-commie such as I, how insidious and pervasive the ChiCom influence is on modern US society.

      The number of colleges being busted for undisclosed acceptance of ChiCom money – and professors at colleges being busted for similar undisclosed income from the ChiComs. The ChiComs are dropping money all over the press/journalism sector of the US as well. The antics of the NBA and other professional sports leagues to conform to ChiCom ideas and censorship is disgusting, and we always knew that Hollywood is a nest of communist vipers – they’ve just changed from being pro-Soviet to pro-ChiCom.

      The CCP has quickly, and quietly, become a major threat to the US.

      • To say nothing of the industrial espionage and blatant IP theft you personally experienced with Huawei.

        They are playing for keeps, and we’re mostly blind to it. One of the worst is when they broke into a government server and got full copies of every US citizen’s classified clearance details. What a wonderful thing to have when blackmailing someone with a classified clearance…

      • To add on to what Geoff stated, the South China Sea incident’s a plenty that have seen a massive uptick over the last decade. From artificial island building complete with fresh new military installations, to encroachment into other national sovereign waters. With outright overt political & military pressure on the governing bodies thereof. Africa is the newest influence battleground in which they’re making inroads. Inroads, scoff’s at the term. Superhighways is more appropos.

        That the UK parliament is right now reconsidering it’s anti-Huawei stance on their hardware in 5G & other networks, despite what has been found by their own intel services. I’m standing beside myself in disbelief, unreal. Anyone else regretting sending our tech sector over there to be produced copied and improved upon yet? Because you should be.

        • No surprise there. China has its own imperialist ambition, so they view the South China Sea as their “backyard” just as the US sees the Caribbean.

    • Agreed. The sad part is a large percentage of African Americans believe they will be singled out for carrying. The reality is it’s no more than anybody else who would carry. If they are that worried about it, conceal.

  3. By the title, I thought the “Stigma of Black Gun Ownership” meant the stigma of owning an AR.

    • Is that a 60° offset micro red dot on the AR in the top pic? Never seen that before. Offsets are typically backup iron sights for the primary glass. Interesting.

      ****
      Tom Arnold (who has been scrambling to remain “relevant” and in the public spotlight ever since Roseanne dumped him long ago) tweeted that “it’s f—ing time for us white liberal men to stand up for our brothers & sisters. Borrow our dad’s hunting rifles & go nose to nose with Trump’s gang of misfit tools. Let’s do it,”

      https://twitter.com/TomArnold/status/1269455538120568832

      He’s pretty much admitting that liberal soi bois don’t have guns in the first place because they hate them, remember? So now they’d have to “borrow” Dad’s hunting rifle? You think their assumedly more conservative fathers will just hand over their rifles to angry Junior and expect good things? Will Junior know how to use the rifle? Is Tom recommending that Junior snipe cops with it?

      • Yeah Tom, and your liberal buddies in Cali made it illegal to “borrow” a gun in that state (I assume most Hollywood types live in Cali). Oh wait, I guess there won’t be any police to arrest you so it’s now okay. What a hypocrite.

      • Just watch Red heat with Tom and Ahnold for a look at how tough Tom Arnold really is.

        Not.

        • Ah NO…Jim Belushi was in Red Heat. Arnold & Arnold were in TRUE LIES. Tommy was the comic foil. And village idiot😏

  4. Everything on TTAG is about blacks or women or liberals with guns.

    What about white Christian men who have guns?

    “Black owned business” outside a boarded up window. So what- it’s ok to loot whites?

    • They’ll do like all good conservatives and cuck as hard as they can and virtue signal endlessly about how much they love women and minorities and gays. They’ll keep doing this right into the camps.

    • Do a little research of who owns TTAG now and you’ll have your answer….
      Plenty of pandering, cucking, and virtue signaling on deck…..

    • Hasn’t stopped the Army of Free Shit from stealing everything but the walls.
      OTOH a cocked and locked rifle seems to work better than dialing 911.

    • ” What about white Christian men who have guns? ”

      Not any more. Tragic boating accidents. All gone.

  5. My question is, is the stigma really still institutional, or is it part of a victim complex?

    • White people are totally NEVER stigmatized for carrying guns. They are never falsely labeled as domestic terrorists simply by carrying a gun. That’s what you call white privilege.

      On the flip side, conservatives would NEVER welcome a black person carrying a gun. They would never approve of black people defending themselves or their businesses. That’s a totally alien concept.

      /sarc

  6. When I saw the headline, my first thought was to stop choking on coffee.

    Then I read slower. Then thought, a different acronym might help.

    • I have to believe it’s deliberate, and probably a play on that term in culture, as frequently as it is used…

      • Definitely, always causes a double take on my part. It sure gets the attention, perhaps counter productively so in some eyes. That said, I should note that splintering support down racial, hunter vs. MSR, or what-have-you lines, isn’t helping on the whole.

        At least solidarity in toeing the baseline, regardless their other personal views is what it’s going to take to save the day. No need to be one faux happy family. That we are all under the same roof the opposition is intent on bringing down on top of all of our heads, needs to be enough.

    • Geez, now that you mention it, yeah, they should ask for their money back on that one.

      • Say it three times, fast. (Or…don’t.) I missed it, too. First thing I thought of was NAGR, which I stopped following because they nagged me to death.

  7. “Iesha Williams wants her son, Cayden, to learn how to shoot and safely handle a gun when he turns 10.”

    Now *that* just has to make Leftist heads detonate like a multi-stage thermonuclear weapon.

    All that effort they have been expending in trying to frighten their supporters so they never touch a gun, and this woman is placing one in her 10 year-old’s hands. (This mother is a realist!).

    Will they condemn her for the stand she takes? Or will their silence be deafening? 🙂

  8. “Only damn fools and maybe some Republicans ever do that. And black gun owners are very quiet about it, because historically a black gun owner could get in trouble for it. “

    Get in trouble from whom for that?

    Republicans?

    No. Republicans, as he pointed out, are open-carrying along with the “damn fools.” Speaking of which, I’ve been seeing far too many Benz and Audi vehicles show up in town. I reckon there’s a bunch of Californians moving into Wyoming. It’s summer, so it’s time for Wyomingites to open carry a 1911 our hips to scare them off.

    Democrats? Ah, now we’re on to something.. The people I’ll bet that most of these black gun owners are voting for are the same people behind the Dred Scott decision, the same people behind the gun control movement to prevent blacks from owning and carrying guns (See Clayton Cramer’s “Racist Roots of Gun Control” for more info) and the same Democrats who gave cover to the KKK for all these years.

    Those Democrats. The same Democrats who claim they want to pass more gun control laws and prevent you from carrying concealed or openly. Those Democrats.

    • Well anybody with an ounce of history context should understand the elitist roots of control and keeping one race down is just an elitist tool. Dems have been pushing black people down overtly for a long time and recently they switched to covert oppression. Welfare isn’t helping anybody besides dem politicians and same with gun control and both of those hurt black people along with any other color.

    • This “woke” black person sees gun ownership as a privilege and not a right. That is that takeaway I get from: “Our state (Michigan) allows me to walk around with a firearm on my hip or strung across my shoulder as long as it’s visible to everybody. Black people never do that. Only damn fools and maybe some Republicans ever do that.”

      If this is the new type of gun owner we are getting it will be over shortly for gun rights.

    • Democrats have just shifted their methods. Now they get their hooks in people with the free samples method so people sign up for their membership card. Then they implement their control schemes, gun control, school boards with school district boundaries, planning and zoning. If there isn’t a board or committee to control behavior, they’ll create one.
      The fake woke soccer moms and pink shirt hair gel dads are easily exposed when a proposal to shift school district boundaries for their kids school comes up or there is a planned low income housing project proposed next door to them, then they show their true colors.

  9. What a load of guano…in blue ILLinois everytime I go to Point Blank Mokena there’s black folks shooting. Double + Indiana. The shop’s & ranges are FULL of brown folks buying GUNS & shooting at several ranges. I can’t legally open carry in ILL. I have seen the occasional open carrier in INDIANA . Occasional being the operative word. A young (white!)guy open carrying at the IN Comcast compelled them to post a BS “no guns allowed” sign. A “safe zone”😏

  10. Stigma of black gun ownership? I guess I’m not leftist enough to think there was one. People are people. You look sketchy and I’ll question your ability to carry a stapler let alone a gun. Skin color has nothing to do with looking sketchy unless you’re blue or green and then I’m seriously questioning your health.

  11. I recently realized the men and women I shoot with have different skin tones than I do. I never gave much thought to it, just enjoyed the comradeship and friendly competition amongst us. I am gonna have to ask them if they noticed skin color.

    I have photos of people I served with over the years, I always thought they were OD green like me. Go figure there were skin tone differences too.

    Can we stop with segregating ourselves based on inherited skin tones and start looking at what is really important? Character, drive and the understanding we won a life lottery by being born in the greatest Country on Earth. We have issues, yet we always seem to square those things away in time. We will again as long as those who cherish freedom work together to protect it.

    • “Can we stop with segregating ourselves based on inherited skin tones and start looking at what is really important? Character, drive and the understanding we won a life lottery by being born in the greatest Country on Earth.”

      Applause!!!

    • Indeed!!,,, thank you Sir for your cogent comment. Now if only our Nation could take it to heart and have us live up to our potential.

      • Perhaps the people of this country do take it to heart. With Chicago Politics running this country and the media being a propaganda arm of the Democratic party, one does not know what the real situation is.

  12. The military wing of the democrat party was the KKK and firearms like restrarants were not on the menu for Black Americans. The democrat slave master still rules Black Americans and no one can change that but Black Americans. They need to study the long despicable racist history of their very own democrat party. Racism that occurred not just in the South like democrat history rewrites want people to believe, history shows democrat party racism happened all across America.
    Frankly it makes as much sense for a Black American to belong to the democrat party as it would for a Jew to belong to the nazi party.

    • If a black man becomes politically conservative and speaks out publically about it, he will be verbally assaulted by the Democrats. Basically, what they are saying to him is this: Hey “Boy”, You better not dare straying off of the Democratic Party Plantation if you know what’s good for you! You get your cotton picking ass back here right now! Ya hear “BOY”!

  13. The best thing they could do to eliminate the stigma of Black gun ownership would be to convince Blacks to stop committing so many crimes.

  14. I dislike articles that use acronyms that are undefined in the article.

    NAAGA = National African American Gun Association.

    Reading their website it appears that their Mission is similar to the NRA’s…education, safety and history of firearms ownership in the USA (particularly as it pertains to citizens of African heritage.)

    I wonder if they allow non-hyphenated Americans to become members?

    • Here’s a black MAGA supporter who identifies as “American” and says he was born here, has never been to Africa, and doesn’t like being labeled as an “African-American” by naive liberals.

      Love the look on his face as he watches Pelosi, Chuckie, and the Looney Leftists take a knee while wearing kente cloth:

      https://twitter.com/i/status/1270121140749348864

      • Because it’s not cultural appropriation when *we* do it.

        The only explanation for this nauseating display is that these politicians think their constituents are utter morons. And they’re probably right. This isn’t really for black people; it’s for the legions of empty-headed progtard NPCs (most of them white) that keep voting these race-baiting grifters into office.

        • The wife and I got some restaurant take-out after church on Sunday, and a “sidewalk protest” was happening within a couple hundred yards at the intersection corner.

          What was expected – about fifty younger people (all under 30) with their BLM signs and their fists raised high as they cheered whenever any passing motorists honked their horns in support.

          We we didn’t expect – only two of the protesters were black. All the rest were white. Um…Black Lives Matters has openly said they don’t need for whites to co-opt their movement, so…

    • Finally read NAAGA’s Membership Standards and Code of Ethics Rules…yes, non-hyphens may apply for membership. They sound like a younger, more robust NRA (without the Fudd connotations)…I wish them the best of luck.

  15. It is somewhat confusing to me about police and black Americans. I must lead a charmed life, because I don’t commit crimes and have no police contact. I think I got stopped about two years ago because my snowmobile trailer had a tail lamp burned out. Very professional deputy stopped me to let me know it wasn’t working. I was respectful, thanked him for making me aware of the issue and we had a positive encounter.
    Very different than how I observed blacks interacting with police. Respect gets respect. Really simple. You are responsible for you, something most of the black communities refuse to accept. In my 50 years on the earth, I have never ever observed a black person accept responsibility for anything and every single one has used the race card in an attempt to get their way, I suspect it is a cultural thing.

  16. NOBODY wants to disarm a discrete group of people without wanting ultimately to enslave or destroy them.

    Look to the history of the Democrat party.

  17. Some of my best friends when I was in Virginia were black and open carried. Both my roommates at the time did, and then many others picked it up as well.

  18. “Only damn fools and maybe some Republicans ever do that.”

    “Don’t judge me based on the color of my skin….”

  22. Here in my secluded corner of MS, the majority of customers I’ve seen in gun stores over the last couple months happen to be of the darker persuasion and on the distinctly female side. One of my good and bad habits is to randomly talk to people in stores, and this was no exception…you’d be surprised at the conversations you can have.

    For instance, one who was equipping an AR15 told me about how she was tired of people rolling up in her yard and beating on the doors and windows at 2AM. Another said she just wanted to be able to get in and out of her house with something to fight back with if necessary. Another was with her dad who was helping her pay for a pistol because of an ex.

    They’re sick and tired of the BS they’ve been forced for whatever reason or another to put up with. And that’s as good a place to start as any.

  23. It’s great if more Americans exercise theirs 2A rights but this systemic racism narrative is nonsense. Black men shouldn’t be terrified of police. 90% are killed by other black men. To think otherwise is not dealing with reality.

  25. Malcolm X was proud of gun ownership. You are not talking about blacks you are talks about expletives that are subservient to whites. I prefer concealed carry but a rocket launcher and ak with 200 round drum is hard to conceal.

  26. How is gun ownership in the black community really so unique that an organization such as NAAGA is necessary?

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