black gun protest armed
(AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

[White resistance to gun control] is consistent with the studies of Dr. Jonathan Metzl, a psychiatrist and sociologist at Vanderbilt University, who has documented both the history and the symbolic meanings of guns. In particular, he investigated how publicly carrying a gun was entwined with and “coded as white privilege.”

Today, “Advertisers have literally used words like ‘restoring your manly privilege’ as a way of selling assault weapons to white men.” Drawing on that history of expanding borders (violent displacement of Indigenous people) and exploiting labor (violent enslavement of Black people), Metzl pointed out that:

“John Brown’s raid was about weapons. Scholars have written about how the Ku Klux Klan was aimed at disarming African Americans. When African Americans started to carry guns in public – think about Malcolm X during the civil rights era – all of a sudden, the second amendment didn’t apply in many white Americans’ minds. When Huey Newton and the Black Panthers tried to arm themselves, everyone suddenly said, ‘We need gun control.’ … Who gets to carry a gun in public? Who is coded as a patriot? Who is coded as a threat, or a terrorist or a gangster? What it means to carry a gun or own a gun or buy a gun – those questions are not neutral. We have 200 years of history, or more, defining that in very racial terms” (“’Dying of whiteness’: why racism is at the heart of America’s gun inaction”)

This is making a diagnostic point, rather than a prescriptive one. Metzl even acknowledges that he came to respect some “gun ownership traditions,” and that many gun owners are deeply committed to gun safety and heartbroken about gun deaths and mass shootings. But those gun owners are not the whole story, and they can’t be used as an excuse to avoid healing a terrible history that continues to spill into the present, killing tens of thousands of people each year in the USA alone.

That is, understanding why it is so difficult to make progress on gun violence includes understanding the racial tensions underlying the gun debate. The deeply polarized opinions about gun politics have emerged in the context of race, and guns came to symbolize those deep wounds. This is why Metzl insists that, “When we’re talking about guns, we’re also talking about race.” (“‘Dying of whiteness’”) …

Not long ago, Henry Giroux made an impassioned and important plea for us “to change the deeper structure of life in the US” in order “to end mass shootings.” He described “a culture awash in guns and violence, a society that nourishes and rewards the gun industries, and values the accumulation of profits over human needs,” connecting that economic interest with the priorities of neoliberal economics. And it is no joke; the largest 100 weapons and military service companies in the world recorded $531 billion dollars in sales in 2020. …

This deep structure of neoliberal violence has other consequences, not least of which is preventing meaningful action on climate change while profiting off the destruction of the very planet that is a home to us all. But the economic interest alone doesn’t account for why it is so difficult to transform this nation’s violence and its morbid and deadly fascination with guns.

As Giroux pointed out, neoliberalism “feeds on self-interest, inequality, cruelty, punishment, precarity and loneliness,” which, in turn, it helps to perpetuate and uses to protect its interests. But neoliberalism also inherited these qualities, and it relies on pre-existing injustices. Untangling all the threads isn’t something to be completed quickly, if ever. But some of the threads are more like ropes or chains, and chief among them is the role of white supremacy and racism in the development of the United States’ gun culture.

— Roger Ray in Racism Drives American Gun Addiction

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

141 COMMENTS

    • The only Rats I see jumping up and down calling for Gun Control are members of the democRat Party. The same deranged party that owns the legacy of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, lynching, the kkk, Eugenics, Gun Control and other race based atrocities. If the shoe fits dr. jonathan metzl…wear it.

  3. Well then. There is too much truth in what the author writes to dismiss him as a crank. Unfortunately, he seems to have landed on the side of the gun control industry. I want to see more black people armed, not less.

    But, WTF does gun control have to do with this global warming business? Do guns generate heat, adding to the global warming thing? Whoda guessed. When we lock our guns away, they secretly beam heat out into the world. Those dastardly guns! I’ll be Pinky and the Brain are the masterminds behind this!

    Maybe the author is a crank after all.

  5. I would ask the “author” if he has in fact looked at the numbers of who’s using guns to kill who (whom) in this country! I’m pretty sure “white supremacy” has very little if anything to do with the issue. But then again, it goes against the narrative so will be totally ignored!

    • Much like shootings in Democrat cities when the shootings aren’t done by white people or the police.

      • Much like shootings in Democrat cities when the shootings aren’t done by white people or the police.

        Urban myths… Everyone knows only white people (including WHITE cops) kill black people in Chiraq, NYC, Baltimore, Boston, Houston, Dallas, LA, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta and Buffalo… That black-on-black crime/murder crap is something created by white folks to dump the responsibility onto the backs of the poor, downtrodden POC who are just not smart enough to get a photo ID to vote or run a business because they don’t how to attain lawyers (other than court appointed ones) and accountants so how could they possibly defend themselves against the big lies perpetuated by white people?

  8. Claim: resistance to gun control is racist
    Support: list all the racists who supported gun control for racist reasons.

    These fucking people.

    • This, this right here, they must break their backs with the mental gymnastics they go through. What is it about leading a horse to water?

    • “People say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana who are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why’d we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is. And the way you should get the guns out of the kids’ hands is throw them against the wall and frisk them,” Bloomberg says.

      LOOOOOL

  9. Racism Drives American Gun Addiction
    So the author talks about the KKK disarming blacks, how gun control in CA started with the Black Panthers carrying firearms – both of which are racism driving Gun (really People) Control, and the takeaway is that Racism drives Gun Ownership?

    I hope Debbie weighs in…..

  11. Global warming is a lie, and so is that gun culture is racist bs. The elite don’t want to have to deal with regular people when on holiday. Ever notice how they want to tell you you’re evil for driving a Tahoe, but they have private planes and yachts? Alec Baldwin thinks regular people can’t handle guns, but we know they are always loaded and you don’t point them at anything you don’t want destroyed. Lot easier to bind an unarmed population.

    • Sure it’s real.
      Just as real as all the times a teacher or news anchor told be we’d be out of oil by now.
      Just as real as the rising oceans all the celebrities and politicians buying coastal property told me would eat the coastlines.
      Just as real as all the greenhouse gasses your AC puts into the atmosphere all the politicians and celebrities flying on their private jets and sailing their private yachts warned you about.
      Just as real as the impending ice age I was warned about as a kid.
      Just as real as the 8-12% projected fatality rate of COVID was.
      Just as real as Epsteins suicide.

      When the power structure tells you you’re gonna die if you don’t buy their products or submit to their rules you better believe it because 100 times out of 100 they have money to make and power to grab and isn’t that really the most important thing in the end?

        • Solar minimum aside I was referring to we still have ice caps and the definition of ice age that I was taught was ice was still present on the poles as they are only a couple hundred thousand years old at most. And if the evolution theory is correct we have had cycles of much hotter climate that life must have adapted to without ice caps present.

      • Just to answer one of your assertions…

        “Just as real as the impending ice age I was warned about as a kid“

        The scientific community did not warn you there was an impending Ice Age.

        • The scientific community did not warn you there was an impending Ice Age.

          YES, yes they did… 47 years ago, an astonishing number of people — including some climatologists — would have answered yes. On April 28, 1975, Newsweek published a provocative article, “The Cooling World,” in which writer and science editor Peter Gwynne described a significant chilling of the world’s climate, with evidence accumulating “so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it.” He raised the possibility of shorter growing seasons and poor crop yields, famine, and shipping lanes blocked by ice, perhaps to begin as soon as the mid-1980s. Meteorologists, he wrote, were “almost unanimous” in the opinion that our planet was getting colder. Over the years that followed, Gwynne’s article became one of the most-cited stories in Newsweek’s history.

          TIME magazine’s January 31, 1977 cover featured a story, “How to Survive The Coming Ice Age.” It included “facts” such as SCIENTISTS (emphasis mine) predicting that Earth’s so-called average temperature could drop by 20 degrees Fahrenheit due to manmade global cooling. Dr. Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned readers that “the drop in temperature between 1945 and 1968 had taken us one-sixth of the way to the next Ice Age temperature.”

          This followed a panic created by “scientists” in the mid-60s warning of….. YEP, GLOBAL WARMING!!!… Yeah I was there…

        • “On April 28, 1975, Newsweek published a provocative article, “The Cooling World,” in which writer and science editor Peter Gwynne… “

          “TIME magazine’s January 31, 1977 cover featured a story, “How to Survive The Coming Ice Age.”

          You need to learn the difference between a reporter or editor speculating in a magazine, and actual climate research studies peer reviewed and published in reputable journals.

          If you actually read the science, you would see that there was concern that the increasing amount of air pollution in the form of particulates would block sunlight and lower the earths temperature.
          As more data came in and we’re research was conducted, it became clear that the greenhouse gas effect will far outweigh any cooling due to the ‘nuclear winter’ theory.

          The successful passage of anti-air pollution laws not only cleaned up the smog in LA, but also made it clear that the heating affect of the fossil fuel produced greenhouse gases with far outweigh any cooling effect of air pollution.

      • “Just as real as all the greenhouse gasses your AC puts into the atmosphere“

        Strictly speaking, the change from Freon was not due only to greenhouse gases but rather the depleted ozone layer, increasing the risk of skin cancer, as well as accelerating the atmospheric greenhouse effect.

        “When released in bulk quantities, this chemical causes ozone depletion and significantly increases the risks of global climate change. In fact, R-22 emission — among other hydrofluorocarbon compounds (HFC) — can be 10,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide, per ounce.

        To counteract these ozone effects, the Montreal Protocol — an international treaty that promotes the disuse of harmful substances — will mandate reduced “consumption of HFCs by 99.5% below the U.S. baseline” by 2020. Recycled or reclaimed refrigerants will be permitted, but after the deadline, chemical manufacturers cannot produce R-22 for air conditioner maintenance.“

        https://www.arcticair4me.com/blog/2018/march/is-your-old-ac-unit-damaging-the-ozone-layer-/

        • I see you conveniently neglect to mention that DuPont’s patents on Freon were about to expire, and that after Montreal, they had a freshly patended replacement ready to go.

        • “I see you conveniently neglect to mention that DuPont’s patents on Freon were about to expire… “

          Actually, no. You are correct that the US did ban the use of Freon in aerosol cans the year before the Dupont patent ran out:

          “In 1978 the United States banned the use of CFCs such as Freon in aerosol cans, the beginning of a long series of regulatory actions against their use. The critical DuPont manufacturing patent for Freon (“Process for Fluorinating Halohydrocarbons”, U.S. Patent #3258500) was set to expire in 1979. In conjunction with other industrial peers DuPont formed a lobbying group, the “Alliance for Responsible CFC Policy,”

          But the fact is, the dangers of Freon were identified and the United States instituted Freon bans years before the DuPont patent expired:

          “In 1976, under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the EPA banned commercial manufacturing and use of CFCs and aerosol propellants. This was later superseded by broader regulation by the EPA under the Clean Air Act to address stratospheric ozone depletion.”

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorofluorocarbon#

          Of course, I completely agree that large multinational corporation such as DuPont have far too much influence in the United States regulatory and political system, all thanks to the conservative majority Supreme Court decision in ‘Citizens United’.

          We need that decision reversed, in order to remove the big money donations corrupting our politics.
          Money is not speech, corporations are not people and our system is not based on “One dollar, one vote“.

      • If you’re interested in climate change, it is a good idea to learn more about the actual research being done to support the idea of global warming.
        Relying on popular news articles and non-scientist reporters as an information source to form conclusions regarding climate change is perhaps not the best course of action to find the most credible theories.

        I’ve met this gentleman, and I think his research is valid and clearly shows the climate changes we are now experiencing.

        Lonnie is a country boy who was raised on a farm in the West Virginia Highlands, and his groundbreaking research looking at the actual evidence of historical climate trends is generally accepted by climate scientists around the world.

        One day in 1991, high in the thin, crystalline air of the Peruvian Andes, Lonnie G. Thompson saw that the world’s largest tropical ice cap was starting to melt. It was the moment he realized that his life’s work had suddenly become a race.

        The discovery meant other ice caps were likely to melt, too, and the tales of past climate that they contained could disappear before scientists had a chance to learn from them.

        Driven by a new sense of urgency over the ensuing 20 years, he pulled off a string of achievements with few parallels in modern science. He led teams to some of the highest, most remote reaches of the earth to retrieve samples of the endangered ice.”

        https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/science/earth/lonnie-thompson-climate-scientist-battles-time.html

        • MajorStupidity,

          “f you’re interested in climate change, it is a good idea to learn more about the actual research being done to support the idea of global warming.”

          Tell us you are COMPLETELY ignorant about the scientific method, without saying you’re completely ignorant about the scientific method . . . oh, you just did.

          A scientist does NOT do research to “support” a theory (and global warming/global climate change/whatever you propagandists are calling it this week is most DEFINITELY a theory, and NOT a “fact”). A scientist may propose a theory, and then “research” (more properly, if you’re doing ACTUAL SCIENCE, experimentation) is done NOT to “support” that theory, but to test it.

          And that describes the entire problem with what Leftist/fascist liars have done to real scientific inquiry. Any idiot that “does research” to “support a theory” is a propagandist, not a scientist. Any moron who blathers about “the consensus” knows f*** all about science.

          Since you’re apparently so “concerned” about “research”, try researching recent findings on the placement and quality of weather monitoring stations (the data from which are frequently used to bolster the “global warming” panic porn). Or maybe research the numbers of those monitoring stations charted over time, and their proximity to “heat sink” cities. Ocean monitoring has found literally NO repeatable, reliable evidence of global ocean warming. Research the history of “adjustments” to ACTUAL recorded data, to (apparently) “hide the decline”.

          You, AND your “global warming” co-religionists, are nothing more than data-manipulating frauds . . . but you’re REALLY inept at it.

          Go eat a bag of dicks, you Leftist/fascist liar.

        • Global warming can’t be real because the earth is flat. Planar warming maybe. But even then, how much is natural cycle and how much is really man made?

        • If you’re interested in climate change, it is a good idea to learn more about the actual research being done to support the idea of global warming

          You should also research how Al Gore changed the narrative from global “cooling” to gobal “warming” in the mid-90s through the power of the government, firing govt officials who disagreed with him and withholding/denying funding for credible researchers that cast doubt on “warming theories”. Threaten a man’s livelihood or ostracize him from his peer community and it is remarkably easy to get a “consensus” meanwhile Al Gore continues to dump more pollutants into the atmosphere in one year than the average person will in a lifetime..

        • … says the guy quoting ten year old NYT science / fantasy stories and a blog from a refrigerant replacement manufacturer ,
          Minor Irritant .

        • Fun fact no two scientists climate models get even close to the same results and no one scientists models get the same results twice in a row, not oven close matches.

        • And when the models are off, which they always are, it’s always in the same direction. Guess which way?

        • Eileen, thanks for your comment, you actually include a link, bravo!

          From your link:

          “Another lead author of the declaration, Professor Richard Lindzen, has called the current climate narrative “absurd”, but acknowledged that trillions of dollars and the relentless propaganda from grant-dependent academics and… “

          Of course, the few scientists who hold opinions at variance with the vast majority of climatologists are receiving large grants from the fossil fuel industry, a fact rarely mentioned by climate change deniers:

          “Richard Lindzen and Roy Spencer, two contrarian scientists who appeared for Peabody at hearings in Minnesota last month on the social cost of carbon, were also included in the bankruptcy filings.

          Peabody refused to comment on its funding for climate denial groups, as revealed by the bankruptcy filings.“

          https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climate-change-denial-funding

        • Research should be done to test a theory. The research you look up is to support an idea. That’s now how research is done. That’s how propaganda is done.

          For example, real research would go like this “One theory is that C02 has a major impact on global warming. We’re going to test to see what, if any, impact our current levels have to test this theory”.

          Your research goes like this “We know that C02 has a major impact and we’re going to conduct tests that will support our claim”. This is not science.

          Post research, results should be as follows “Our test supports the theory.” Your research results are as follows “Our test proves the theory.”

          I’m not a Flat Earther, even though I joke about it. The earth’s circumference was calculated way back in the day by measuring the angle of shadows in two separate places at the same time and calculating how big a sphere would need to be for the difference in angles.

          Short story long, this test supports the earth being round. But, it also supports the earth being flat. You can repeat this in your kitchen. Put two cups on one side of a light source and you’ll see that they have different shadow angles despite your kitchen table not being a sphere (hopefully).

          Unfortunately, in today’s world, very few major experiments are truly done in a neutral vacuum. Universities, government grants, money from the fossil fuel industry, everyone who has money to throw around to fund a research also has an agenda. They give money in support of outcomes, not in support of true science.

          In my estimation, the earth goes through natural climate cycles. In my estimation, human creations changing the topography and atmosphere will impact climate on our planet. It is tough for me to take research that “proves” anything at face value, especially when the researchers wanted to support an idea and it was funded by anyone who would prefer a specific outcome.

          What I have yet to be convinced of is that any government program addressing climate change would actually make things better. The USA produces about 8% of all aerosols worldwide (last time I looked things up) and the world itself increases the total amount of aerosols about 4% annually. This means that even if the USA cut 100% of all aerosol production to zero, we’d only delay the supposed “point of no return” by two years. Far more damage would be done to future generations by crippling our economy than by the two years of reduced pollution.

        • Tim, I don’t think the scientific methodology of these researchers is flawed.

          Here’s the words of the man who actually collected the ice core data that gives us the best indication of earths rising temperatures:

          The fact that every tropical glacier is retreating, and where we have time-lapse photography we can demonstrate that the rate of ice loss is accelerating, I think is our warning that the system is changing. And, you know, glaciers, they don’t have a political agenda; they just kind of sum out what’s going on out there, and they respond to it. They are giving us a very strong signal in the tropics, and of course, as time has evolved, we’re getting the same message from from glaciers at all latitudes, that the planet is warming. Some of the skeptics will look at a mountain like Kilimanjaro, and they say how do you know that it’s not land use changes? How do you know it’s not changes in moisture supply – droughts and the like? The answer to that is that it’s not just Kilimanjaro, it’s Mount Kenya, it’s the Ruwenzoris, it’s all the glaciers in the Andes of South America and throughout the Himalayas that are giving the same message.“

          https://www.learner.org/series/the-habitable-planet-a-systems-approach-to-environmental-science/earths-changing-climate/interview-with-lonnie-thompson/

        • Two questions:

          Who’s Eileen?

          And why is anyone trying to have a reasonable discussion with a proven liar and disinformation manipulator?

          Fact: the climate is constantly changing; it has been ever since the erf was formed. Man can do nothing to affect it.

        • Miner buddy, I didn’t say that either any specific research is flawed OR that I didn’t think the earth’s temperature was warming. Apologies if I wasn’t clear. The vast majority of “climate change” research that I’ve seen is working backwards from a conclusion and using only the evidence that supports the conclusion. That’s not just a dig at pro climate change research, it’s everybody.

          The earth is an incredibly complex ecosystem that is constantly changing and adapts to itself. What percentage of it’s change is man made? 90%? Half? 10%? Something else? What percentage of man’s impact will be reduced based on any particular legislation? Can you guarantee me the economic damage of any particular measure will be smaller than the reduction in climate damage? Can you even tell me that a warming phase will be worse than our current climate?

          More people die every year due to cold than to heat. Warming temperatures have the greatest impact on the coldest days and the least impact on the hottest days. For instance a 3 degree increase overall will usually mean a 5 degree increase in the coldest days and only a 1 degree increase in the hottest days. There are vast swaths of land worldwide that are too cold for agriculture and a warmer temperature may change that and actually help with global food crisis’s.

          Polar bears for instance. I’m sure climate change changes their hunting habitats. It wasn’t climate change that reduced their numbers, it was hunting. Once they gained protected species status, their numbers exploded back. This idea that we view every change or action through the lens of climate change as though the matter is settled and it’s global warming that’s causing everything is just silly. If you’re interested, I will link dozens of articles about how climate change is responsible for crime or White Supremacy is responsible for climate change or any number of pure crap that I’ve just tuned out.

        • I don’t think the scientific methodology of these researchers is flawed.

          Of course, YOU don’t Minerva however people who are far more inclined toward CRITICAL thought than you appear to be DO.

          “the few scientists who hold opinions at variance with the vast majority of climatologists are receiving large grants from the fossil fuel industry, a fact rarely mentioned by climate change deniers:”

          And climatologists who DO agree are receiving even bigger GRANTS from Federal Government. Foreign Governments AND the Solar and Wind energy industry (which is heavily SUBSIDIZED by American TAXPAYER dollars)

          ” we can demonstrate that the rate of ice loss is accelerating, I think is our warning that the system is changing.”

          Minerva, no one doubts that the planet goes through cyclical climatic changes, technically we are STILL in an ice age. There is PROOF (look it up) that the planet has gone through MUCH WARMER periods and in fact was even once covered COMPLETELY in ice and but for an active core and some major volcanic activity would still be a “snowball earth”. , The Mojave and the Sahara deserts were at one time the bottom of oceans, Bonneville Salt Flats was a sea. If you can’t at least admit that MAN CREATED global warming is mostly a scam to gain more control over the population then there is no need to continue to engage with you. If there is so much concern over global warming and sea rise, WHY do the loudest voices FOR climate “control” own hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of property on our coasts many of which are at/below or only slightly above “current” sea levels? OBTW: ONE week left in August and no “killer” Hurricanes in sight? WTF?

    • Much like Supreme Leader Trudeau telling the ignorant unwashed proles how they MUST reduce carbon emissions immediately before boarding a leased private jet with his family to fly to the Caribbean for a holiday.

      And the sailing yacht Greta Thunberg used to travel to and from New York. The cost of the yacht and crew were about $30 million.

      Some pigs are definitely more equal than others.

      • … not to mention, the support boats that escorted her along the way gave off TONS of hydrocarbons. So much so, in fact, that they rendered her face with a permanent scowl.

      • The cost of the yacht and crew were about $30 million.

        The Yacht was made of carbon fiber AND the crew was FLOWN home and the crew that took the boat home (without Greta) had to fly from England to New York. Greta went home on a fiberglass (made from petroleum products) catamaran. When not sailing around the Atlantic Greta likes to ride the rails mostly on trains powered by diesel generators and electric/hybrid cars charged mostly by coal fired powered plants…

    • “Global warming is a lie,”

      It could be real, but I highly doubt humanity had a hand in it, considering Earth is still climbing out of an ice age…

      • Earth is still climbing out of an ice age…

        22000 yrs ago the upper 2/3rds of the US was covered by an ice sheet up to 2 miles thick… Wonder why it went away? Pretty sure it wasn’t my Navigator…

  12. Stop being nice!
    Those who dwell amongst us who insist on “other blaming” are the center of most every problem we have.
    Around when a youth turns 13 or so, they come to the realization that:
    They are not the center of the universe.
    Actions all have consequences.
    “Everybody Else isn’t responsible for my problems”, and
    they alone are responsible for their own actions.
    The failure to mature into an adult leaves a large sized citizen body, inhabited by the twisted mind of a child. There is no logic in it, only greedy self aggrandizing behavior and endless argument.
    We get Physicians, Mayors, Teachers, “SAS Armourers” and “The First Female Secretary of State” that are patently blind pathologic consumers. Psychiatrically, they are Infants.
    They are in no way adults and should never be given either responsibilities or authority.
    Consider this when you spar with them. You are talking to a three year-old.

  13. So wait……….do we not sell guns to black people? If so what is going on with NY where “nonwhites” are making up over a 1/3 of new buyers?

    • It’s not just NY. From 2020 on the numbers of non whites and women buying guns has significantly increased from previous decades. And as an OFWG I fully support and encourage it, and participate in helping new people of all descriptions get started as often as I can.

      • I only knew the local proportion off the top of my head. Good to hear more of everyone is getting into it but hoping we get to building more ranges.

  15. Allow me to dissect this guy. In the first place, during the Bruen case one of the justices was asking about muggings. The responding lawyers representing NY immediately went into ‘well animals are in the woods that’s why we need guns there’, to which I believe it was chief justice Roberts who asked ‘yeah but who’s getting mugged in the woods’? Doesn’t it make sense to have a gun where crime is more prevalent?”.

    Therein lies the dilemma for the gun grabbers. They had essentially no issue policies in big blue cities (and they’re trying to keep it that way) where there are oftentimes large minority populations making them more vulnerable to crime and abuse. Add on top of it all kinds of licensing requirements and fees and it’s beginning to look like ‘well we’re not trying to discourage you from owning a gun, we’re just making it expensive enough and intrusive enough to discourage you. That’s all’.

    I want those low income people to be just as armed as the rich are because when the day comes and these globalists want to make their grand life or death decisions I want even the poorest person to have the ability to use lethal force no matter who is coming at them be it ra*ists, the criminal class, gangs and yes even the government. I oppose gun control because I want that guy, the poor man, the single mom in the projects, to have a chance at defending themselves.

    I want that person to have the same opportunity at protection that is afforded to me. I can do it because I’m wealthy enough that I don’t care about fees. But I oppose fees and requirements because it acts as a deterrent to people who want to exercise their rights.

    You know I hear from the left how minority people are often times afraid of the police and for good reasons because they fear being mistreated. Now to mandate that same minority person has to go face to face with an organization they fear in order to exercise a fundamental civil right is everything that’s wrong with their arguments. Remove barriers, remove requirements and remove fees. I want everyone who wants to be armed, armed if that’s what they want.

  16. Gun sellers want to sell guns to ALL people, not just white men.

    “Indigenous” people were not “indigenous”. Their ancestors came here from other places just like mine. Given that all humans evolved initially in Africa, no group of humans is indigenous anyplace else. The ancestors of the injuns were trapped in Beringia for 19,000 years while other people from other places were coming to the Americas. Those other peoples, for example Clovis, were displaced by the ancestors of the injuns.

    The injuns, in turn, were mostly killed by diseases inadvertently introduced by the Spanish. Far fewer were killed by violence and most of that was in defense of self and community. The Spanish seem to be considered “European” whenever they did something “bad”, and POC whenever they did something “good”, with “good” and “bad” being used in terms of communist ideology.

    Blacks were enslaved for ages by other blacks, and then for ages by Arabs (who mostly eunuchized them), both of whom get off Scott free (Scotts had nothing to do with any of it). Europeans arrived late to that game and only because the Spanish (if they’re being European) knew there was already a thriving slave trade when their injuns died off and they needed manual labor for mines and plantations.

    Africans took far more Europeans as slaves than Europeans did Africans. Europeans are the ones who ended slavery almost globally, sometimes forcibly. So who is really violent and supremacist? Even the word “slave” derives from “slav”, the dominant race of eastern Europe, who were so often in bondage that they lent their races name to the practice.

    Those are just the answers to one paragraph. I do not have time to rebut the entire piece, but this may serve as an example of the ignorance of Mr. Ray and others of his persuasion.

    • so, the beringian standstill population: fatty acid desaturase cluster, or ectodysplasin a receptor? i’ll let yupik.

    • To “Did I…”

      You forgot about the Chinese who were “brought” in by Wasi’chu. Forced to work on the trans-American railroad for pennies. Denied the right to vote. Were not allowed to bring their own wives from China. Who were blamed for the opium trade – even though they killed themselves to bring it into the U.S. Were for over 100 years treated like second-class citizens even with citizenship. Yup. Seems to me that guns in America are definitely a racial issue. Hopefully POC will one day wake up and realize that gun ownership is a very important part of their heritage. Forget the Japs they are to attached to showing they are a “peaceful” race even though the most heinous crimes in WW2 were perpetrated by their own armies.

      • Whoa, Anna-lee; that may be a good summary of the early Chinese experience in America for many of that ethnic group …

        But I strongly object to your characterization of the current Japanese citizenry and I find the slur that you used greatly offensive. The early experiences of Japanese in the US has numerous parallels with that of the Chinese, with the exception that Roosevelt didn’t round up Chinese nationals and Chinese-American citizens and inter them in camps during WWII.

        I’ve been married to a Japanese (now Japanese-American) woman for over 30 years. And my uncle lost his life in China while fighting the Japanese military as one of Chennault’s “Flying Tigers” of the 14th USAAF.

        • Roosevelt didn’t round up Chinese nationals and Chinese-American citizens and inter them in camps during WWII.

          China didn’t launch a cowardly attack in an attempt to destroy the entire US Pacific fleet killing over 2400 Americans and China didn’t ally itself with NAZI Germany to the point of attempting to help Hitler develop a nuclear bomb (thankfully failed)… Just sayin’

        • You’re right, Maxx. China spent much greater effort in exterminating its own people after the Communists under Mao took over.

          Please don’t change the context of my remarks by omitting words — I’d expect that of Miner and Dacian, but not you.

        • Okay, the Japanese occupied China for 8 years and killed nearly 4 million, Mao took power in 1949 and killed an estimated 65 million (either executed or starved to death) it’s dirty work trying to take over an entire country (ask any wanna-be dictator) guess it sucked to be Chinese back then, probably still does for most citizens.. Stalin killed 100 million, 6 million Jews were not Hitlers only victims, hell there were 3,000,000 people killed during the crusades and they did it the hard way. I don’t really care who did what I don’t trust anyone of any race, color, creed or sexual proclivity unless I’ve not only known them for years but have had the opportunity to see them tested and I can count those people without having to take off my shoes. Bad people do bad stuff and if we don’t get a major change in direction, we will get to see just how a true dictator works.

        • To alien.
          Regarding the “slur”. I stand corrected. In my haste to make a point I let my emotions get the best of me.
          Now then, regarding the Japanese in WW2, there are many Asian countries that to this day regard the Japanese during the war as flat-out criminal. The Bataan Death March in which 18,000+ Filipinos died and at least 600 POW’s – including Americans. Korean “Comfort” Women. Estimates put that number in the region of at least 16,000+ and Korea was not the only country that was forced into Japan’s sexual slavery. The unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor in which 6,000 Americans were slaughtered. Last but certainly not least, The “Incident” at Nanking. In which at least 80,000 innocent females some as young as 10 years old were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered all under the watchful eyes of Japanese military leaders. There’s much more of course. And while many Japanese were and are peace-loving individuals the fact that they until recently would deny these acts ever happening is abhorrent. But I digress. In today’s Japan, peace and harmony are their by-word(s). Their violent history is never mentioned. Now they deal with one of the highest suicide rates in the world and over a million cases of isolationism (leading to death) among their populace.

        • alien response.

          Addendum to my comment. I think alien and I are talking about to different aspects of Japanese. I speak of the modern Japanese living in Japan. I believe alien speaks of American born Japanese living Orange County (as an example).

        • Anna-lee —

          “Regarding the “slur”. I stand corrected.”

          Yet you didn’t apologize. And you saw fit to enclose “slur” with scare quotes, indicating that you do not perceive it to be such.

          “In today’s Japan, peace and harmony are their by-word(s). Their violent history is never mentioned.”

          My family lives in Japan; I’ve visited several times and have had discussions with them and their friends about our history and cultures.

          Ever been to the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima? I have. Ever speak to a Japanese family about watching from the hills as their town was firebombed, then returning to find their homes burned to the ground and many of their neighbors dead? I have.
          Ever speak to an artist who was trained to become a kamikaze pilot, but whose life was saved when American fighters strafed his airdrome, killing his co-trainees and friends and destroying the last few planes that they had? I have.

          Yes, the Japanese people are acutely aware of the horrors of war that their leaders brought upon them nine decades ago and, as a result, are now among the strongest proponents of peace in the world.

          Every culture, people and nation has a violent history. Some have tried to move beyond it. Others, such as modern-day China, have not and refuse to do so. Which is a greater benefit to the world?

          “I believe alien speaks of American born Japanese living Orange County …”

          Uh, no, I was speaking of the “current Japanese citizenry” — those were my exact words.

    • “Africans took far more Europeans as slaves than Europeans did Africans.”

      I would certainly be interested in your source for this assertion.

  17. Scholars have written about how the Ku Klux Klan was aimed at disarming African Americans. When African Americans started to carry guns in public – think about Malcolm X during the civil rights era – all of a sudden, the second amendment didn’t apply in many white Americans’ minds.

    So the obvious thing is to give the racists what they want and pass gun control. Clearly.

    My reaction to all that would have been to make sure the right, which is there in explicit black and white in the Constitution, would apply equally to everyone. That no one would be treated as second class. Diminishing everyone’s rights seems like going the wrong direction.

  18. Far and away, the most numerous mass killings on the planet have occurred at the muzzle of government-owned guns: Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, Xi, on and on. No one in those regimes pushed either climate change or white privilege. The premise of this piece is ludicrous and merely a modern day attempt to do away with 6000 years of normal human development and attempts at civilization, all the while discounting documented historical human nature and eventual outcomes when it is left unrestricted.

    In every society where humans have been denied the God-given right to protect themselves and their livelihoods from those who would rule over them, the inevitable long-term results have been fascism, slavery, and eventually genocide. Regardless of the fluff “evidence” presented by the woke to expose “white privilege” to a society that is still majority caucasian, it does not exist, and for the most part, anything that is good for a white person should be similarly positive for people of any race, religion, creed or color. If HUMAN privilege is really the goal, all people must retain the right to self protection and redress of those who are in place to “keep the peace”.

  19. Project much? When racism is your answer to all of societies problems then I would argue that you are in fact the racist.

    • Or to reword an old saying a bit:
      If you run into one racist during the day you ran into a racist. If you are running into racists all day long you are the racist.

    • It’s a convenient distraction. If it ain’t broke…

      What would they do without the racism boogeyman? Conduct an introspective assessment of failed policies by our ruling class? lololololololol

    • Pretty sure the Smithsonian defined personal responsibility as “whiteness” and it is therefore evil.

    • Personal responsibility is antithetical to left wing ideology.

      In related news, they’re forgiving student loans because they hate hard working people who pay their debts. Plus, they’re gifting a massive bonus to the most privileged among us to be paid for by the least privileged (educated vs. uneducated). They’re entire shtick about helping the poor and sticking it to the privileged is a lie. This is what political desperation and buying votes looks like. Anyone who is still voting for Democrats, at this point, is a hopeless moron.

  21. “Previously, White Supremacists sought to keep black people from owning guns.

    Today, gun rights advocates who want everyone to own a gun, including black people, are the real racists.

    Also, climate change.”

    Lol, you can’t make this stuff up

  22. Cliff notes:
    climate change
    injustices
    white supremacy
    racism
    gun cult
    white settlers
    slavery
    Jim Crow
    violence by a white person towards a black person
    lynched
    gun hoarding
    white nationalism
    racial privilege and hierarchy
    white people
    anti-black bias
    symbolic racism
    the more racist a person is, the more likely it is that they will own a gun
    anti-black prejudice
    white privilege
    violent displacement of Indigenous people
    violent enslavement of Black people
    Ku Klux Klan
    racial tensions
    Dying of whiteness

    Does he get paid by the buzz phrase? Imagine consuming this media on a regular basis and taking it seriously.

    • Dude
      Stop just Stop reading your post made my head hurt and I was starting to feel better from having read the story.

  23. Abolitionist John Brown launching his raid to seize weapons (I believe he had some freemen with him?) proves the racism of gun ownership?

    Also why do I get the impression they inflate the profits by including military equipment companies, making Lockheed profiting from selling F-35s, Boeing from selling Apaches and Electric Boat from selling submarines equivalent to Ruger selling LCRs and Daniel Defense AR-15s to civilians?

    • Because he is a propagandist. The only way American gun companies could even make that list would be to pretend all of them were a single company.

      The most skilled liars and manipulators mix truth, lies, and innuendo into persuade the ignorant and the gullible.

  24. Congressional Democrats Aim to Tax AR15-Style Guns at 1,000% > https://nationalgunrights.org/resources/news/congressional-democrats-aim-to-tax-ar15-style-guns-at-1000/

    “The so-called “Assault Weapons Excise Act,” has been introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA).

    In its current form, the bill would impose a 1,000% tax on the manufacturer, importer, or producer of so-called “assault weapons” and standard capacity magazines.

    Since the media and gun grabbers claim these to be “military-style” weapons, there is a carve out for law enforcement and military.

    A simple 50-vote majority in the Senate could pave the way for this unconstitutional gun control, because the bill qualifies as a revenue measure via reconciliation.

    Since Senate Democrats don’t have 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to get a so-called “assault weapons” ban to President Biden’s desk, they’re seeking this as their path forward to banning modern sporting rifles, and America’s most popular rifle.”

    • Note that this BS could go both ways, of course. Democrats can pass this through reconciliation, but Republicans, if they got the stones, could pass a $1,000 per year tax rebate, taken at the register for any gun. Call it the Second Amendment Democratization Act.

      Make it part of the NICS approval. Check the box if you want to use the tax credit on this transfer. NICS will confirm that you are still eligible for the year, and aren’t double dipping. If you are, then the dealer applies the credit to your purchase and you pay the difference, if any.

      Not that anything like this would ever get passed, but it’s an idea.

      • or a 1,000% tax rebate on any firearms purchase. For example, a $500.00 gun you get a rebate of $5,000.00.

        😁

    • As there is no such thing as “assault weapons”, any such tax would become null and void. Any manufacturer or retailer charging such a tax should be held liable by law. This would be the very definition of price gouging.

  25. I seriously doubt that Dr. Roger Ray (Doctor of Divinity) is reading these comments. And I seriously doubt that he cares even a little about what is posted to TTAG. If you have something to say to him, I suggest going to the article and posting your comment.

    • Thats for sharing Captain Obvious.

      Dr. Jonathan Metzl – further proof that Phd does NOT indicate intelligency.

      Yeah sure “DR” Ray (and “DR” Biden) – “DR” snort guffaw/laughable.

  26. ‘Ku Klux Klan (democrats) was aimed at disarming African Americans’. Now they just want to disarm all Americans. Except their selected few.

    • The big banks and their scheming friends in big business bought the Democrats from the Klan. Now they see the whole world as a bunch of Ns, and they want to play “savior” (oppressor).

  27. YOU PEOPLE…Yep that’s right!… whomever you may be that keep forcing these issues…YOU PEOPLE, JUST KEEP POKIN’ THAT BEAR…YOUR DAY IS COMING….

  28. Everything is rasist,guns ,climate, shooting a black gun and wiping my white ass with white toilet paper Get a real job , contribute to our bewildered nation ,or shut the f up. Articles like this just piss people off. Dont give these people the recognition they don’t deserve.

  29. Hidden within his lies and attempts at manipulation is a truth: Americans of all races who have taken the time, trouble, and expense to arm themselves are far less likely to buy into the typical leftist talking points like climate change, CRT, and spending another trillion dollars will bring down inflation.

    He and his fellow travelers do well and truly hate us and all we represent.

    • Sure white boyz R raciss. Even after they marry & procreate with my pretty wife. PS I gave my chocolate bunny a gat! Dimbazz…

  30. Can we all take a moment to appreciate the guy in the photos carbine?
    Brownell’s AR-18 Upper
    Standard Lower with an aftermarket trigger / anti-walk pins
    Right sided folding stock that doesn’t appear to block ejection
    OPMOD RDS with functional back-up irons
    And an Olight Lithium-Battery-Flashbang

    • I’m down, that photo always brings a grin.

      Except for that Olight. Preachy follows: Preference where sensible for pure USDM and Allied country products. Disapprove of footing the bill for our own downfall, with a footnote that I heartily agree with using your enemies own weapons to defeat them.

      Deliciously sweet irony.

  31. I am proud of all those who would take up arms in the name of freedom. That is the sole qualifier, none other withstanding.

    Metzl, Ray and those akin deserve and have earned a tyrants ignominious end.

  33. This guy should throw the numbers of how many people the state has killed up. These are amateur numbers in comparison.

  34. The guy in the pic with this article is wearing an NFAC wrist band on his right wrist.

    NFAC is the ‘Not Fuxking Around Coalition’ (‘x’ substituted for ‘c’ to avoid moderation jail). It is a black nationalist militia group that advocates for black liberation and separatism.

  35. Uh… the photo at the top… the Rastafarian look doesn’t do it for the rest of civilization. And before younger people say hell yeah, the “I can’t afford to shave because I spent all my money at the tattoo parlor” look is just as bad as the Rastafarian look, if not worse.

  36. FBI, DHS bulletin warns of potential for copycat racist mass shootings > https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fbi-dhs-bulletin-warns-of-potential-for-copycat-racist-mass-shootings/ar-AA112zAL

    “The U.S. government on Tuesday urged law enforcement partners nationwide to “remain vigilant” and watch for indicators of potential copycat attacks following the widespread dissemination of over 700 pages written by the 19-year-old suspect who allegedly opened fire and killed 10 people in a supermarket located in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, in May.”

    If you routinely think its a good idea to open carry your MSR around everywhere you go….got a bunch of jumpy people out there looking for a reason to call 911 or take a closer look or respond so might not be a really good idea right now.

    We had one ‘almost’ incident here this morning. Guy on the way to the range stopped at a grocery store, MSR in the back seat and passenger in the car. Guy runs in to pickup some snack stuff, comes back to the car and its surrounded by cops and the passenger is out of the car sitting down handcuffed. Someone walking through the parking lot passed the car and glanced in and saw the MSR on the back seat and called 911 to report a ‘mass shooter’. Got sorted out quickly though.

    ya know, all us white gun people look the same – we are all suddenly ‘white supremacists’ just bubbling over with ‘white privilege’ to anti-gun.

  38. Funny, I don’t know a single 2A supporter that has ANY problem with “blacks” (or Hispanics, or Native Americans, or asians, or pacific islanders, or, or, or) owning guns. Not a one. Hmm.

    Remember the brilliant observation, “If you hear the dog whistle, then you’re the dog”????

    Methinks projection is a rampant pandemic among Leftist/fascists. EVERYTHING they accuse conservatives/libertarians of is something they are trying to deny that THEY are actually doing. Well, unless they once again steal an election this November, we’ll likely be rid of them. And hopefully we’ll have a few more conservatives/libertarians with actual testes.

    As the great Breitbart once said (about “compromise”), “F*** you!! WAR!”

  40. Where the connection between climate change and CC or firearm ownership is beyond me. But, after sorting through the word salad tossed by the original author, I guess there must be something. Of course, supporting anyone who can legally do so owning or carrying a weapon or encouraging people to be less dependent on government or more self supporting/reliant is somehow racist.
    Whenever the far left or disarmament crowd claims racism, or white privilege, check on who would profit or gain political power if their agendas are put in place. As always it comes back down to power, control, and money. Solving any actual problem would be accidental or even detrimental to the agenda.

    • I figured out the connection to climate change and firearm ownership. When we fire our tools and they go bang it emits a gas like a cow fart…..That Mystery solved ! Now I will work on this white supremacists thing for a bit.

      • it emits a gas like a cow fart

        Not quite, no methane in gasses emitted by smokeless powder (potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, and potassium sulfide) OR black powder (potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium sulfide, potassium thiosulfate, potassium thiocyanate, carbon, and sulfur).

  41. Today, “Advertisers have literally used words like ‘restoring your manly privilege’

    Damn missed that one….

  43. I figured out the connection to climate change and firearm ownership. When we fire our tools and they go bang it emits a gas like a cow fart…..That Mystery solved ! Now I will work on this white supremacists thing for a bit.

      • change one slightly or post the same thing as a reply to another post instead of a straight out stand alone comment like he did the first one and then later as a stand alone comment like you replied to asking how he got two identical posts.

        I’ll demonstrate for you with my next two

      • change one slightly or post the same thing as a reply to another post instead of a straight out stand alone comment like he did the first one and then later as a stand alone comment like you replied to asking how he got two identical posts.

        I’ll demonstrate for you with my next two

        • I’ll demonstrate for you with my next two

          Not necessary, unlike some of the heroes on here I am able to comprehend a simple explanation… One was a reply the other was as a main post, both identical, nothing was changed.

  44. I wonder how racist all those new gun owning black women feel? I see them standing at the gun counter all the time. Now more than ever. I’m seeing more women in general buying firearms and I could not be happier. I’m seeing more women at the range too and some of them even have their kids with them.

    The only racism our society is getting is coming from the Democrat left. The black race NEEDS to separate from them and start thinking for themselves.

  45. Yet another preaching that you should work your ass off so that those who don’t can live as well as or better than you. Ain’t gonna happen. It’s contrary to human nature.

  47. Here’s the thing folks, if you want to “solve” the problem of “gun-violence” you first must be honest about what it is, what it is not, what causes it and what does not. Many of the people of the ilk of Dr. Metzl (whoever the hell that is) want to continually beat the drum that it is the guns and the (white) folk who own them who are the problem. Well, doc, problem is that there are around 400 million or more guns roaming around the country and you are (just barely) correct that a (tiny) fraction of them are involved in 10’s of thousands of homicides. (Don’t try the common integration of the twice-as-likely suicide into this discussion – we are talking about 10-14,000 firearms homicides per annum in a country of 330 million, that’s it. People who wanna die by their own hand, will, regardless of means. I say this as a man who’s brother shot himself in the head. If you claim that the gun made him do it then you are removing all of his agency and, essentially saying he was too stupid to do it another way – I take offense.) So to make this case that “its the guns, stupid” you have to explain how something that exists in the hundreds of millions “causes” something to occur in the tens of thousands. How, exactly, does the fact that roughly 0.003% of the guns in the country are involved in homicides, (Assuming each homicide involves exactly one gun which is, clearly, an over-estimate since at least one gun has been used to kill at least two people each year since, roughly, forever ago and, further assuming that there are about 4*10^8 guns in the country which may, in fact, be a low estimate.) indicate that it is the quantity of the guns that drives the crime. The criminals only “need” 12,000 or so guns each year – that is around one half of one day’s sales in this country over the last couple years.

    See, one of the problems you have, doc, is that if you claim it is the guns and that there is some sort of linear relationship between the number of guns and the homicides with a gun, then you have to get rid of more than 33,000 guns to eliminate ONE homicide. So to eliminate 1 of the 12 or 13 thousand annual homicides, you have to eliminate more than twice as many guns as there are homicides each year to reduce the total at all. In case the magnitude of this effort is not clear, that means you have to eliminate 33,000 guns a year each year for the next 12,000 years to reach your gun-less, no homicide utopia.

    As for your points about guns reflecting some sort of racist “whiteness” coded signal and gun-control having some connection to climate change, well, those ideas are too stupid to bother responding to. Other than, perhaps, to say that you might wanna look into the demographic data vis-a-vis firearms related homicide in this nation.

    • Upon further review, I realize that I somewhat conflated the views of Dr. Metzl and the author Roger Ray (whoever the hell that is). Mea Culpa.

  48. Racist white h0m0sexu@l law makers like Tom Ammiano, have kept the Mulford Act in the law books in California.

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