Just five years ago, less than a third of African-American families viewed gun ownership as a positive. The Pew Research Center reports that now nearly 60 percent of black families view gun ownership not only as a net positive, but as “necessary.”

What’s more, African-American women lead the way as a demographic obtaining concealed carry licensing. Imagine that: a core demographic has left the Democrat gun control plantation.

The New York Times wants to know why!

It wasn’t always this way — as recently as 2012, Pew had found that less than a third of black families saw gun ownership as a positive.

Philip Smith, the founder of the National African American Gun Association, says that politics — and police shootings such as the recent slaying of Philando Castile — have caused the sudden upswing in gun ownership. And, in his opinion, owning a gun is perhaps the only way that African-American men and women can truly protect themselves.

For once, The Times doesn’t inflict their anti-gun rights animus on a news story that reveals the truth about guns. Yes, but — Mr. Smith goes to Washington, casting aspersions on you-know-who.

“Regardless of what side you’re on, in the fabric of society right now, there’s an undertone, a tension that you see that groups you saw on the fringes 20 years ago are now in the open,” said Smith. “It seems to me it’s very cool to be a racist right now, it’s in fashion, it’s a trend.”

You might not be surprised that The Washington Post published a piece headlining that bit: ‘It seems cool to be racist now’: The rising profile of the black gun owner.

Anyway, whatever the reasons behind African-Americans’ gun rights reclamation, whether real or imagined, all Americans are welcome into the firearms fold.

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65 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve seen a lot of conservative commentators point out that the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage was pretty bad for Democrats, as they had absolutely nothing to offer LGB voters they previously had a lock on (and from what I’ve read, the overwhelming majority of LGB hates T with a passion so none of that is going to help). Good to see the gates of the Democrat plantation blown wide open

    • “as they had absolutely nothing to offer LGB voters they previously had a lock on…”

      I don’t see many LGB people I know even thinking about voting GOP (I don’t know Milo)

      • The only G people I’ve ever been good friends ranged from conservative to extremely conservative. I’ve found most Ls to be off putting and have only known one of my friends to be B. I’ve never known a T, but a lot off the Gs looked at them askance.

        • My experience in California is the “L” is racist to their core. Many of them work in welfare system destroying families.

        • I’m thinking if all the gay folks you know are conservative you might just run in very conservative circles. Now that I think of it one guy I know is both gay and Republican but then again he’s also a cop and therefore would never find a home in the Democratic Party.

      • Well most gay trump supporters are likely in the closet about supporting trump or any republican.

        • or just in the closet about being gay (awful lot of folks who’re *way* too into everything Trump & also doth protest a bit too much on certain social issues)

  3. “Imagine that: a core demographic has left the Democrat gun control plantation…”

    Call me cynical but I doubt they’ll stop voting D. Besides, the rhetoric of gun control is always about ‘common sense reform’ etc. We know what they actually do when they have a chance to legislate (see: NY, MD, DC, etc) but I wouldn’t be surprised if the ‘core demographic’ gets bamboozled again.

    • A lot of Blacks have always had GOP beliefs. Like 30-70% depending on the belief. School choice, immigration, a panoply traditional Christian beliefs, and now guns.

      90% of the Black vote consistently goes to the Jackasses. Most people are morons.

        • “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015
          21.3 Percent of U.S. Population Participates in Government Assistance Programs Each Month”

          “At 41.6 percent, blacks were more likely to participate in government assistance programs in an average month. The black participation rate was followed by Hispanics at 36.4 percent, Asians or Pacific Islanders at 17.8 percent, and non-Hispanic whites at 13.2 percent.”

          Blacks are about 13% of the population. Let’s say the 60% that say gun ownership is necessary all have guns and are evenly distributed among the 13% and 41.6% on welfare. And let’s make the 60% and 41.6% both be 50% because it’s easier and gets us more conservative estimates. Let’s also assume that Blacks vote at the same rate as other races, and the 70% number holds across all races. (I’m sure all the numbers I’m assuming are out there somewhere, but I’m not looking for them). We’ll also assume that everyone on welfare will vote for welfare and against guns. We’ll also assume that every Democrat candidate is pro-welfare and anti-gun, and every Republican candidate is the opposite. And our biggest assumption will be that the voters know this. We will also assume that the current Black Republican vote all already own guns.

          That translates to 2.275% of the total vote going Republican (not 2.275% of the Republican vote, but 2.275% of all votes). Currently the Black vote accounts for about 1.3% of the total vote going Republican. That would be about 17.5% of the Black vote instead of about 10%.* That’s an increase of .975% for Rs and a decrease of .975% for Ds for a margin of 1.95%

          The popular vote had a spread of 2.1% in the most recent election. The only state that had a margin under the 1.95% was Florida, which the R won anyway. Most of the states with small margins seem to be states without a large Black population. I didn’t look it up. To know for sure if any state would have flipped, all the margins would need to be calculated and then checked against the states’ demographics. And finally, math has always been my worst subject, so feel free to check my math.

          *After looking it up, Trump only got 8% of the Black vote.

    • Kinda hard to complain about voting when in many cases you have a one party system. Locally, for example most races are unopposed. You can stay a incumbent state senator or city council member for 20 years with only token primary fights. With a registration gap of 7-1, cities like Philadelphia or Chicago have not seen a change party control since 1950. Until, you change that; and right now the GOP is in internal cluster mode, not happening

      • Chicken, meet egg, I guess. Many of these places became one-party almost entirely thanks to the black vote which is the most consistent identity vote in US politics. Turnout is always a factor, but party affiliation isn’t.

        Course, it’s not hard to pear down from a two-party system to one to begin with…

        • Not true. The White voter base has the same vote support for the DNC, The GOP has decided to run as a rural/ suburban party. The machine politics of big city America like in NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston are not due to Black votes.

    • Yeah, that’s a really dumb conclusion that they’ve left the Democrats because they’re buying guns. Did they bother to ask *why* these folks now feel being armed is necessary? Oh yeah, that deafening, constant drumbeat of “Republicans are all racists who want to murder you with the police” you hear everywhere (at least until last November). Hell, even a lot of liberal white folks are supposedly arming up for this ridiculous reason.

      • Yep. Regressives arming up out of an irrational fear propagated by an ideology based in lies, delusion and victim hood pathologies. What could go wrong?

        My prediction is that there will be an uptick in the criminal misuse of firearms by licensed CC individuals, almost entirely of the leftist bent.

        • “Yep. POTG arming up out of an irrational fear propagated by an ideology based in lies, delusion and victim hood pathologies. ”

          That describes the run-up to the November elections, to a T.
          Interestingly, I didn’t buy any guns in that period; the prices were too high. I’ve bought three since, though.

        • Lol! I gather you’re a regressive Big Bill? It’s OK B.B. If this is your first gun purchase, if you haven’t already tried killing someone with a fork, or a knife, or tried to drive someone off the road with your car, you probably won’t do so once you start carrying a gun.

          But you will find out that the odds, according the FBI crime statistics, is that it will be a person that is a leftist leaning in belief that you will be using your gun to defend yourself against.

      • Yeah, kind of funny how valuing firearms for their utility as “personal protection and the hypothetical against tyranny is a right wing power fantasy” with no basis in reality. for the liberal platform.
        Except Trump’s in office, now for Democrats we’re living in the end times and need guns to protect ourselves from racists and government tyranny (is that a power fantasy too?)
        If the number of liberal gun owners rise enough will the NRA and gun lobby be blamed for that too? Especially if they have fun…gasp!
        Kidding aside , I’ve been to gun shows and shooting ranges, and seen many instances of people with different backgrounds, social, economic, racial, etc. get along great. Sharing a common interest is always an good icebreaker, whatever it is.

  4. Stop with the hyphenated American BS.

    Are you an American or a ____________. And there is no “dual”.

    And if they (anyone) are an American (legal) you can not create a bigger insult than, calling them a hyphenated ________. critter

    What is defined as a “Black Family”? Whatever it is, it certainly is way different today than back in 1960 when it was pretty much the same as any other American family.

  5. All homes in America should have at least a shotgun for every able member of the family. Every home.

      • That’s up to the individual to decide. Bare bones minimum should be a shotgun. After that the sky and the laws the limit.

        I don’t want a machine gun myself. But the registry should be opened for those that do.

        • I want a machine gun purely for shits and giggles and a unsustainably expensive hobby.

        • The government should give out at 18 yo for all citizens. The last year of highschool should be devoted to public works as well as very basic instruction on things such as maneuver, BRM, fitness ect. Shit if we are going to have a public school program society should reap some benefit out of it, other then baby sitting.

        • The M-16 costs very little more than a semi-auto version, which would probably go out of production if the NFA died a long overdue death. Works fine as a semi-auto, just leave the switch in either safe or semi. At the firearms festival one year, my sons and I each fired 5-10 rounds out of a pretty rifle, then the attendant put in another mag and ripped off around 15 rounds full-auto. “Hey”, we yelled, “you didn’t tell us we could do that!” He laughed and said we couldn’t, that was attendants only. The point is, we didn’t even know it was a machine gun.

    • MY rule is at least one ar15 patterned rifle and one 9 mm handgun for each adult in the family. Plus 500 rounds of 9 mm and 1000 rounds of 5.56 per adult.

      I do have a shotgun , but never shoot it. Maybe if I take up hunting turkeys.

    • The text of the 2A is all I need to read to know that it applies to Blacks. “The right of the (key word) people…”

  7. Interesting to me that 8 years after America elected it’s first (actual) African-American as president (Daddy was Kenyan) race relations are now so good that 60% of blacks in America think they need to have a gun for self protection due to racial tensions!

    It still hasn’t sunk in that their greatest threat still comes from other blacks?

    • I live in a pretty white suburb. Well, and Spanish/Mexican descent – but in Denver, seriously, that’s like white, as long as you’re at least first generation native and not a gangbanger. There are some families in Colorado been there since the 17th Century, on old (still recognized by the US) Spanish land grants. I digress.
      So, I don’t see black folk at the range. But I DO see homosexuals, male and female, coming in to rent a pistol and see what this shooting thing is all about. My hope is that they will talk to us about our interests, and learn that we are real people, not a dehumanized caricature of the totalitarian Left. After all, if we were that dangerous, why would they come to a place where we’re all tooled up?

    • Exactly right. I welcome all to exercise their 2a rights, however the reason that so many blacks are turning to legal gun ownership is the boogeyman of racist Trump supporters coming for them. Many sincerely believe that almost all of the people who voted for Trump and attend his rally’s are actual KKK members. The irony is that Trump was elected by the same people in the same districts that elected Obama twice. Blue collar rust belt democrats ready for hope and change.

  8. Well if it’s like ME or everyone I know we don’t answer polls. It NEVER was a big percentage of black folks who hated gun ownership. Just BS from the lamestream. Does gun ownership translate into voting “right”? Nope…

    • Does gun ownership translate into voting “right”? About 70% of the time, it does. There was an article about it here on TTAG recently.

      • Maybe in Texas- it sure as hell doesn’t “translate” in Illinois!!! Or anywhere else… gigantic black disconnect. “NRA is white men(they lied about Obama),Republicans hate black folks and Trump is raciss”.

        • The about 70% number was across all racial lines. People change the way they vote when the government comes to take their stuff (but not money, which is weird cuz that’s how I get most of my stuff).

        • That is the stereotype view of many. Not just Blacks. The majority of people have negative view of the GOP & NRA. The media view us is even worse. Few ÑRA bumper stickers at ABC NBC or New York Times.

          • “58% view National Rifle Association favorably.” Gallup, Oct. 22, 2015.

            You need to backup your claims if you want people to believe them, but you can’t because their not true.

      • It could. It could also mean that if enough blacks own guns, anti gun democrats will have trouble in the democratic primary. This used to be the case in the south and kept gun control to a minority view among democrats.

        • “Across 11 presidential contests, gun ownership was more strongly linked to vote choice than such well-known predictors as gender, age and education.” – Washington Post, “Gun ownership used to be bipartisan. Not anymore.” May 9, 2017.

          Also, from the article the gun vote went 62% to Trump.

  9. Since gun control laws were originally to deprive freed slaves of their gun rights, it’s good to see that they are slowly getting them back. I feel I need protection but the minority citizens need it far more than me.

    • My second favorite picture of the civil rights movement is Malcolm X and his M1 carbine

      • Poor trigger discipline, bad example for the kiddies. I’m sure the magazine posed it, though. I’d wear that pic on a t shirt.

  11. “a core demographic has left the Democrat gun control plantation.”

    Yeah, no. They’re still voting Dem with one hand while taking the cash with the other.

  12. “Just five years ago, less than a third of African-American families viewed gun ownership as a positive. The Pew Research Center reports that now nearly 60 percent of black families view gun ownership not only as a net positive, but as “necessary.””

    We did it. We have reached the tipping point on gun rights.

    This in combination with Leftists buying guns convinced Trump actually is Hitler II, we have won the culture war on guns.

    I look at it this way, once those Leftists buy a gun, a good percentage of them won’t hate the 2A as much as they they have.

    They won’t admit it to their little friends, but they will stash one away “Just in case”.

    And that is *winning*…

    • That’s winning? No it’s not, they’ll still be voting Democrat and that’s anti-gun by default.

      • Most voters care about issues other than guns. The majority like the DNC message better. Guns are like abortion. Only the hard fringe care on the left & right.

  13. I think Pew’s numbers are off. I’m rather the lone NRA hat in these parts. In my friend, family, neighbor circles I never heard that level of support on the issue.

  15. When anyone tells me the NRA supported the Mulford act I tell them that leadership got fired for supporting it.
    When they say Reagan signed the Mulford Act, I tell them the white homosexuals who boast about their power in California are keeping the Act on the books. The people who are blocking guns for blacks are “Minorities”, gay, jewish and straight progressives and their black liberal government slaves.

  16. “It seems to me it’s very cool to be a racist right now, it’s in fashion, it’s a trend.”

    Wow. Just fucking wow.

    • Thing is I completely agree with what he’s saying. I just disagree with what he’s implying. It is pretty popular to be all “white privilege bla bla bla.”

  17. Disarming occupied out-groups has a long history, world-wide, just like, picking an example at random, prohibitions create organized criminal cartels meeting supply on the sly, paying off the enforcers and regulators as a cost of doing business.

    It’s almost like creating discretionary criminals, and generating revenue were the point.

    Occasionally, the harvested castes figure this out; even if they do not revolt, their “resistance” takes a different character.

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