After the usual hand-wrigning and fear-mongering on open carry, Guns in Your Face – New York Times columnist Gail Collins’ anti-open carry diatribe – takes a strange turn. “Some commentators have attributed the whole open-carry phenomenon to white American men trying to work out their insecurities. We’ve got to stop blaming white men for everything. Really, they’ve contributed a lot to the country. Still, you can’t help but notice that there’s a certain demographic consistency to the people who are making a scene over their right to display arms.” Yup, she’s going there . . .
It wasn’t always that way. California passed its first ban on open carry in the 1960s in response to the Black Panther Party. “The Legislature was debating an open-carry law when 30 Black Panthers showed up at the Statehouse with their guns,” said Adam Winkler, a professor of law at U.C.L.A. and the author of “Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America.”
“The same day Gov. Ronald Reagan made a speech, saying there’s no reason why a law-abiding person should be carrying a gun on the street.”
Maybe the way to turn this debate around would bring new recruits into the gun rights movement. “If open-carry advocates today were Marxist-leaning black radicals,” said [Adam] Winkler, “we might have a very different situation.”
Winkler is the anti-gunners’ go-to “voice of reason.” Who knew that Winkler was a racist? Sorry…who knew that he thinks that gun rights advocates are white racists? To my mind, the fact that Winkler sees racism where it isn’t – click here or on the picture above to view TTAG’s multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-everything gallery of gun owners – indicates that he is racist.
Wait. Is it racist to mis-characterize the rainbow coalition of Americans seeking to defend and extend their natural, civil and Constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms? What is that? Gunist? Anyway, Winkler – of all people – is well aware that the Supreme Court’s pro-gun McDonald decision relied heavily on the oppression of disarmed blacks, from whence cometh ALL American gun control laws.
Shame on him. As for Collins’ arch, condescending comment – “we’ve got to stop blaming white men for everything . . . they’ve contributed a lot to the country” – I’m thinking that indicates that some of Collins’ friends are actually white. In any case, it’s exactly as I predicted: open carry is normalizing guns. Every mainstream media article or TV report bemoaning firearms “flaunting” where nothing bad happens (save liberal whining) is a solid win. Yes? [h/t JP]
Well, apart from the obvious (calling us racists will always be in the top 5 in the antis’ playbook), there’s nothing wrong with attempting to get more minorities and ladies on our side. After all, since gun control is racist and sexist in the sense that women and those in the inner cities are more likely to actually need a gun to defend themselves, we can always improve on getting that message out. Their attack may be misplaced, but we can still work harder to get the message out to those segments so often against us, but who really need the 2A most.
Does any objective person actually read that rag anymore?
The National Enquirer breaks more true stories nowadays.
I see this stupid meme constantly in comments on lefty sites.
I must have missed that debate in the legislature where gun rights advocates tried to get language added to prohibit blacks from open carrying.
The only people trying to keep guns from blacks are the gun control lobby.
^^^ This
IMHO, articles like the one linked have potential to bring even more under-represented demographics onboard with exercising their individual right to keep and bear arms. Even if that potential is unintended by the author (or maybe it was intended), it’s a good thing.
that’s because Democrats can’t seem to get away from their original roots.
Cant help but disarm the blacks at any chance they get.
“If open-carry advocates today were Marxist-leaning black radicals,” said [Adam] Winkler, “we might have a very different situation.”
Some of them are, dummy. The Huey Newton Gun Club is one such group.
And the article conveniently excluded that fact. They were able to bear arms openly and unmolested by government. Imagine that!
Do these people even go to local gun stores to see who’s buying? I’ve sold guns to Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans & women. The only reason I’ve sold more guns to white males is because this is a hunting community & whites are in the majority. If you go to a different community, the demographics are going to be different. I even sold a self defense handgun to a liberal, dyed in the wool anti-gun female. She got threatened with death at work.
“In any case, it’s exactly as I predicted: open carry is normalizing guns.”
What??? Please don’t make me scour the TTAG about-to-be-scrubbed archives for all of your handwringing articles bemoaning Open Carry Texas and their looming culpability for scuttling handgun OC legislation in Texas. No doubt there wil be some in there about OC and normalization of guns, but there are others in there criticizing actual OCers who were among those doing the heavy lifting to get this thing passed.
You can’t argue that OC normalizes guns, while decrying the sometimes abnormal, occasionally irritating tactics that helped bring handgun OC into law in the first place.
In other words, OC legaization precedes gun normalization, and the path to OC legalization was not always smooth and was never free from doubters. Never mind not rewriting history. Let’s not rewrite current events.
Somebody needs to introduce her to the Hell’s Saints OC advocacy group in Detroit.
I have news for the uneducated in California history during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Black and white communist were advocates of open carry of firearms. And also in California $15,000 was raised in community centers to purchase weapons for the deacons for defense and justice, a black southern armed resistance group. This group was successful in gun battles against the police and enemy invaders in some Louisiana communities. The NRA supplied ammunition to the deacons. And I think weapons also.
If you read Adam Winklers book he states it was the action of then Gov Reagan restricting the black panther party for self defense gun rights, that radicalized the NRA members to overthrow the leadership that supported Gov Reagan’s gun restrictions.
Yes the NRA has a history of supporting gun civil rights for black Americans. And no you will not find this in a public school text book.
Ah, playing the racist card again. It is a debating tactic. If you are losing the debate, you call the other a name, and then hopefully, it will silence them. Funny thing, though. It may have worked previously, but it is not working anymore. BTW, I am a light skinned Native-American, and I dare a liberal to call me racist to my face.
Yawn…
And Adam winkler is a douchenozzle. If I have to hear his half assed book plugs disguised as interviews one more time I’m going to send a strongly worded letter to NPR.
What’s her point?
More black people should open carry so white politicians will ban open carry?
Using racism as a fair-weather friend?
What happened in California should have united both parties. It was racism as all get out and a blatant affront to the 2nd. Of course since neither party really has any convictions nobody learned anything.
And California’s Jim Crow throwback is celebrated as commonsenseguncontrol to this very day. Leftists love their racist gun control, they prove it everyday.
Check your privilege, Robert Farago.
How, exactly, does one “check their privilege”? What does that even mean?
I don’t trust Democrats, Republicans, or Libertarians. Gee, that covers about the entire political spectrum. Anarchist?
Anarchist, no. Realist, yes.
I’ve had to elaborate on this picture a few times. A few more certainly won’t hurt. I don’t trust ANY politician. I take anything said by anyone involved in the political process with a grain of salt.
In short I was attempting to insinuate that I think for myself and I don’t follow a list of static talking points or ideology and attempt to apply them uniformly to every conceivable situation.
It does seem that you and I think a lot alike.
It seems we agree on a lot of things. (I’m not an atheist, but I also disagree with the Bible thumpers trying to impose their sense of morality through legislation) And though I generally agree about politicians being scum……………..I cannot think of an instance where a Libertarian has double crossed supporters.
I have sure seen this “logic” before. White liberals that are scared spitless at the thought of a black man with a gun that they think the Armed Intelligentsia must share the same racist fears. It has been my experience that pro 2A people are very supportive of every law abiding citizen to have the right to armed self defense.
Progressives project more often than the busiest cinemas. Projection, cognitive dissonance, and magical thinking are hallmarks of progressivism. They are also indicative of mental dysfunction.
Well, they’re right, but the problem is that they would be Marxists, not that they are black.
Winkler recognized that there was a market for a moderate-sounding anti who actually knows something, admits the RKBA must be a meaningful Constitutional right, but who favors every restriction known to man except confiscation. It guarantees him tons of interviews. But never forget that he is a Constitutional MINIMALIST with respect to the Second Amendment only.
I’m glad to see my photo being used! While I am primarily a proponent of concealed carry, I’ve open carried countless times in various parts of Washington state including the East Side which is within close proximity to Seattle. I never had any problems of any sort and the only conversation I ever had with an officer was when he complimented my taste in 1911’s. I never had any fear of being gunned down by a cop with an itchy trigger finger. Armageddon didn’t arrive, the ground didn’t open up and swallow civilization, cats and dogs didn’t live together in harmony and there was no mass hysteria.
I hate being used as a pawn by the grabbers. It’s despicable.
You’re in the #NotYourShield camp.
Glad to see another WA gun owner represent!
The comments in that section are mind boggling. Everything from arguing the second amendment provides for “well regulating” of firearms to it being illegal to yell fire in a theater.
Leftards are afraid of armed blacks (armed anyone, really) because they know that they’re helpless and armed people are not.
They can’t usher in their dystopic Orwellian system as long as enough people still exercise their individual right to keep and bear arms. The higher up the progressive food chain, the more aware the particular useful idiot is of that fact. It simply can’t come to pass as long as we are armed.
Ummm…I can cross the nearby border into Indiana right NOW and easily find black men open carrying. As it should be…
A while back just after concealed carry was passed but before it was implemented in Illinois. I attended a informational meeting hosted by a legislator on the west side of Chicago. The audience was about 80% black and 20% OFWG. At one point the legislator asked for a show of hands for anyone who had carried at some point in Chicago. To my surprise, about half the hands in the room went up along with those of the legislator’s entire staff. (which he didn’t seem too happy about) When the legislator asked why folks felt the need, the response was that the legislator was out of touch if he didn’t realize the need for self defense and the level of crime in Chicago. Basically, “I’m going to do this either way because I have a right to protect myself; I’d prefer a legal route if one is available.” That restored a little faith in humanity.
All you had to say is Gail Collins and left it at that…Collins has constant hard on for guns, Texas and anything that offends her New York City sensibilities, like the concepts of responsibility, accountability and person freedom.
I think it is unfair to label Winkler as a racist. He is correct that the Black Panther open carry demonstration was the impetus of the California “open loaded” ban (although until a few years ago it was legal to carry open unloaded). I think that his comment (“If open-carry advocates today were Marxist-leaning black radicals, we might have a very different situation.”) simply means that the liberal democrats wouldn’t know which way to turn if “their own” started open carrying, contrary to the party line. Look at how the media plays up the “angry Black American” as a latter day hero, fighting for his rights against a corrupt (white) system–and then ask yourself what that same media would think if those same Black Americans became open carry advocates. I think it is a snide remark, not a racist one.
Most black folks (actually, most folks) with thuggish tendencies self-identify to the justice system long before their 21st birthday and so make themselves in eligible to carry a handgun. No worries.
From the linked article:
http://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/open-carry-for-all-heller-and-our-nineteenth-century-second-amendment
I just returned from an IDPA event where 11 of the 42 shooters were black. Strange, no one seemed to inform them that we’re all racist bigots. I don’t think they got the message either because they had a great time and will be back next month, same as the previous two months.
It’s almost as if the left blindly buys into labels because they’re mindless sheep.
“Maybe the way to turn this debate around would bring new recruits into the gun rights movement. ”
An excellent idea!
And when they become gun owners and discover firearm ownership is very much in their interest your little progressive head is gonna explode from a weapons-grade aneurysm that will be visible from low earth orbit…
I don’t know how or where the clear point of this article was…the author is busy talking to himself & name-dropping…the commenters are all busy grinding their predetermined axes…the black/carry point is lost to me…smh
It is just another false narrative, skewed to play to actual bigotry and generate fear of open carry. The open carry I have seen has been somewhat infrequent in CT but nobody seemed to even notice or care. I have seen Black, White and Asian open carry over the last few years.
If the NYtimes was actually interested in the facts, they would be writing articles where they interview the not uncommon law abiding non “OFWG” that open carry and work to promote equality and tolerance between races and gender rather than create scenarios like this that are diversionary and diversionary, and frankly appear to prey on hysteria and irrational fears.
Articles like that in the NYtimes are increasingly out of touch and just embarrassingly deluded.
You know, I often wonder if I’m the token early twenties atheistic, Hispanic, liberal, anti-Democrat, anti-Republican, pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-everybody rights, feminist, supporter of the Cascadia movement, supporter of the decriminalization of drugs (at least the harmless ones), anti-UN, isolationist guy of the gun community.
Sadly no…just so long as you don’t vote dumbocrat(or RINO) for that matter…
The headline is not wrong, but not for the reasons you might think.
Many liberals actually don’t care much one way or another about gun control. It’s just not an important issue for them, but it won’t turn them off of politicians who are promising more handouts for the poor, protection for more minority groups, and sticking it to The Man.
But when it comes down to it they’re also racist (but not in the traditional way, more in ‘black people need to be coddled and protected from themselves, for the children, so we can’t treat them the same as regular people’ racism) and are flat out terrified at the idea of black people being armed. OFWGs protesting for gun rights is no big deal. Young Black Men protesting for gun rights makes them soil their panties.
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