Black Folk and the NRA

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Oh hell I get labeled a racist and I regularly do pro bono work for largely African American women seeking injunctions for DV against their husbands and boyfriends (usually in conjunction with an arrest, but not always). I also donate half my garden plot to a local poor black church I became familiar with some time ago when I was donating my parents bicycles. I've made countless food donations after visiting Costco when it's not even the holidays. Hell if anything I'm a traitor to my race because I don't do the same for white people FFS.

You want a perfect white person not enjoying white privilege that has never said or done something someone can interpret to be racist you might as well be asking to crap bricks of gold after eating ice cream. There are racists everywhere but the NRA is not a racist organization. It was not set up to oppress African Americans. It was set up to help folks learn to use guns and preserve the firearm as a part of American culture.

Hell I know for a fact I can find anti-Semites at African American affairs and gatherings. I don't tell the Jesus folks I'm Jewish and the African Americans I've been around due to my charity work with the poor black church have made jokes about jews without any mention or prodding from me.

Get out there, be an ambassador for gun owners. Do charity work if your body and wallet allows. When the lazy scum are sitting on their butts complaining about gun owners you can look them in the eyes and explain how you are so much of a better person than them helping others while they complain as one or both of their thumbs are mysteriously hidden near their rears if you catch my drift.

Want a hint where to volunteer, learn some scripture and volunteer at your nearest poor black church and sing the spirit with them. This 5'9", big muscled, curly haired with a bald spot, jew does it. I've helped some become gun owners but it's the issue of money that will prevent many of them from joining the NRA.
 
If more people, regardless of their national origin, joined the NRA, then maybe less people would vote for anti-gun politicians.

Just about the only anti-gun politicians we have here in Texas represent the inner city areas of Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio. Most of the members of congress from Texas that consistently vote to deny ALL of us our right to self defense come from these areas.

I will take anyone to the range regardless of national origin as long as they are law abiding citizens. Everyone should take steps to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
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Can someone explain to me why Africans-Americans elect and re-elect the most anti-gun politicians in America?
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can someone explain to me why there are about 80 million gun owners in the U.S. but only 4 million NRA members?

the black thing with liberals. blacks have a higher percentage (not number) of welfare recipients. those folks will always sell out to whom ever gives them welfare. the ones standing on their own feet? maybe theyre racists... maybe they feel for their relatives on welfare... maybe they secretly have abortions and pray for forgiveness in their Baptist churches.... who really knows why some vote to stay on the plantation...
 
It sounds like many have the civil rights history of the NRA 180 degrees wrong.

What a shame.

Mike
 
The sad thing is that gun rights apply to every American and that the left attacks anyone who believes in the Constitution. If you are a minority and join a group like the NRA, most of the harassment comes from your own friends and neighbors.

I've never seen anyone from the NRA say or do anything to discourage anyone from joining the organization.
 
The NRA is perceived as a Republican/conservative organization; you can argue about whether that's fair or not, but that is the reality. African-Americans do not like the Republican party; you can argue about whether that's fair or not, but that is the reality. And that's pretty much the story.
 
Some of you fellows are painting with very broad brush strokes regarding your depiction of both races mentioned.
If more African-Americans joined the NRA, then maybe less people would vote for anti-gun politicians.
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If more people joined the NRA, you could say the same thing.....why specify?
As to NRA members being racist.....not any more so than any other group.
In my club in Brooklyn, NY, we have a pistol team with about a dozen shooters. The resident Master shooter and one of our experts are both black men, armorers, police training instructors. Four more of the team....long term shooters, also happen to be black.
All are NRA members.
Pete
 
It's not the NRA, it's just a segment of their members. Most racist Americans are white, middle aged and older men........so is a large portion of NRA members. Go figure.
 
Armor Snail,

Not so fast.
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While there is a good deal of truth in the video you posted the link to it is not accurate that the NRA was created to defend former slaves from vigilantism and racist attacks. The freedmen and their allies did arm and defend themselves but the NRA had no direct part in that.

The former slaves armed and organized themselves to go to the ballot box and vote. For the first time in U.S. history Black men were elected to public office with the votes of both white and black voters. Afro Americans were sent to Washington as Congress men for the first time.

A strong and living tradition of American Black men and women arming themselves to advance their human rights has developed as a part of the resistance to slavery and continued after the war and freedom. It continued after the defeat of Reconstruction in 1877. Rifle clubs and militias were formed throughout the south and in other areas of the country.

The NRA was formed for other reasons.

The National Rifle Association was first chartered in the state of New York on November 17, 1871[13] by Army and Navy Journal editor William Conant Church and General George Wood Wingate. Its first president was Civil War General Ambrose Burnside, who had worked as a Rhode Island gunsmith, and Wingate was the original secretary of the organization. Church succeeded Burnside as president in the following year.

Union Army records for the Civil War indicate that its troops fired about 1,000 rifle shots for each Confederate soldier hit, causing General Burnside to lament his recruits: "Out of ten soldiers who are perfect in drill and the manual of arms, only one knows the purpose of the sights on his gun or can hit the broad side of a barn."[14] The generals attributed this to the use of volley tactics, devised for earlier, less accurate smoothbore muskets.[15][16]

Recognizing a need for better training, Wingate traveled to Europe and observed European armies' marksmanship training programs. With plans provided by Wingate, the New York Legislature funded the construction of a modern range at Creedmore, Long Island, for long-range shooting competitions. Wingate then wrote a marksmanship manual
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While early members of the NRA may have aided the freedmen the point of the NRA was not directly that.

tipoc
 
It's not the NRA, it's just a segment of their members. Most racist Americans are white, middle aged and older men........so is a large portion of NRA members. Go figure.
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WOW...That "angry old white man" propaganda has been going on for some time now... only a gullible idiot, or someone with low morals and an agenda will mention that utter nonsense.
Actually white citizens (besides Democrat politicians) benefit in no way from the "racism" game...so why should they go along with that game??
 
I have to agree with Powder here that there are some blatant and closet racists in the RKBA community. There is also racism among minorities toward white people, even in circumstances where you probably wouldn't expect it. Still, that's not the point. We need to be actively engaged in gaining support and forming alliances with any like-minded people, regardless of their color.

I did rejoin the NRA last year during the panic. I'm one of the extra million or so members they gained because the government made an attack on our rights without even giving us a seat at the bargaining table. Had to make my voice heard somehow and though the NRA isn't perfect, it's big and formidable. A "Stumbling Colossus" at times, but a Colossus none the less.

Having said that, there are some things I really don't like about the NRA.
For whatever reason, it doesn't seem to appeal to minorities. Flipping through a copy of American Rifleman, how many non-white people do you see in pics? I haven't counted, but you may very well fit them all on one hand. Unless you're counting pics ranting against Obama... in which case there seems to be one every other page.

They need to try to appeal to a more broad base. Invite a liberal gun owner to write a monthly column. Make American Rifleman available in Spanish. Take some of the money they blow sending me weekly requests for more donations and use that to rent a range and a bus and get some inner city people to a range to break their fear of guns.
And lose the arrogance... this month's cover has an NRA membership card and the caption "The only truth Obama fears." It looks ridiculous, even to me, and I'm a member.

The NRA needs to get off the X.
 
Just to add to the thread.....out here in CA a much bigger problem is the lack of NRA outreach to Hispanics. They are a huge portion of the voting population and should be natural allies of the RKBA.
 
Exactly. It's like the NRA thinks it can just go along the way it always has gone along. The demographics of this nation are changing. They either have to get ahead of that or they're going to get run over by it.
 
I was born and raised in the south. I'm as white-skinned a polar bear as you'll ever meet. I've watched half the video so far and what the folks have to say makes a lot of sense to me so far... am off to watch the last half.

EDIT: Watched the last half... so what's the problem? Please enlighten me regarding the NRA's racist roots and/or current racist motives/actions? I do care and this means a lot to me.
 
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Bigots tend to perceive the world through bigotry, and a lot of people today don't seem to understand the difference between being insulted and being offended. Just sayin' ;)

"It's like the NRA thinks it can just go along the way it always has gone along."
The NRA has, until quite recently, been a very staid and conservative group. Weren't they still fronting as a hunting/sporting group in the 80's/90's? This whole "self defense activist" thing is a very new trend they've latched onto to give themselves new legitimacy in an increasingly urban society. It also happens to resonate with the ideals the Republic was founded upon and the advancement of mankind, so hopefully, for all our sakes, they maintain this tack for a while and do us all some good.

The NRA was founded in response to military observations of terrible marksmanship (probably a bit of nostalgia for Revolutionary times when "every farmer was a crackshot" --surely as much a myth then as it is now). During the Jim Crow days, NRA chapters also opened as a means of protecting the 2nd Amendment rights of blacks in various places north and south, though I don't know how widespread they were (I imagine they were shut down in many places for their activities, too). During the turbulent 60's, when Democrats magically transmogrified into the party of equality champions, and the Republicans morphed into Bible-thumping moralists (perceptions, people; both parties turned into statists ;) ), the NRA of course remained with the people it was composed of; largely rural sportsmen rather than urbanites fighting oppression. And that's how they came to be associated with the Republican party.

Time went by, the NRA became more and more aligned (it's easier/safer to take sides than to walk the middle, and easier to market yourself as well) with the Republicans, causing Democrats to become ever more hostile to anything having to do with guns; the NRA was one of their biggest organizers of like-minded citizens, right? Republicans (many of them also closet statists) often were willing to collaborate with the other side on gun issues, dancing on both sides of the topic by openly supporting sportsmen rather than civil gunowners (Fudd-favoritism).

After 50 years of largely Democrat rule and Republican compliance, the NRA leadership finally realized what their members undoubtedly realized earlier; that they had made a terrible error years ago in becoming pigeon-holed politically. The AWB of '94 seems to have been the seminal moment where they saw that the Republicans could neither guarantee gun owners national representation nor work in their favor reliably when they occasionally did hold the reigns of power. Ever since, we have been hearing more and more Libertarian sounding vocalizations from the NRA, which is a good thing since that philosophy squares with responsible gun ownership and shares many traits from all political sides. They have a larger pool to draw from now, and a more coherent message. Still, the NRA has a deep hole to climb out of; we've only recently got national-level black/minority activists working with us, large numbers of women in our ranks, and undergone a studied approach to how we present ourselves. I think it will take at least another generation of this before the "plaid-shirted racist Fudd with a trucker's cap" image fades from memory. Hopefully it isn't supplanted by tacticool morons who fire their CCW's into their legs :rolleyes:

The "Fudd image" was the NRA not caring how they presented themselves; thus, like anyone who doesn't bother to make themselves up properly, the worst traits show the most. If the rest of us present ourselves well, make it plain we don't appreciate the jackassery of others who try to be popular by adopting the stereotype of the "good 'ol boy," and are unified in our message, we will pull support from all sorts of unexpected places.

TCB
 
barnbwt said:
If the rest of us present ourselves well, make it plain we don't appreciate the jackassery of others who try to be popular by adopting the stereotype of the "good 'ol boy," and are unified in our message, we will pull support from all sorts of unexpected places.
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I hope you're right, and I also wanted to thank you for teaching me a new word.

Here's the thing.
I don't feel that the NRA is a racist organization, but it is an organization that's not adapting well.
I just flipped through the latest American Rifleman with a goal in mind to note any minorities. I found two pictures of a black man - both of Barack Obama with a caption expressing general disapproval and dislike. There is one woman of Asian heritage possible on page 80, in a random crowd photo of the Great American Outdoor Show. She's so far off that it's hard to tell. There's also one woman who may be of Italian or Latin American heritage in an advertisement on page 43 being defended by her white husband and holding a white baby.

I don't mean to nitpick, but there are people who are sensitive to this kind of thing. If you're Korean or Hmong or African American or Puerto Rican and you get this magazine subscription, you may notice as you flip through it that no one in it looks anything like you. Not even in the advertisements for log splitters or lawn mowers or pajamas for the little missus. I'm pretty sure this isn't an intentional slight, but it does show that someone doesn't even realize that they should be trying to appeal to a more diverse population.

What's true is important, but so how is things are perceived.
We've got to do something to foster a better perception.

76shuvlinoff said:
The NRA is racist? Someone better tell Colion Noir.
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I'd like to see Mr. Noir as a more public representative and possibly doing a column on a regular basis.
 
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The instructor who taught my NRA rifle, pistol, etc. instructors course was an African-American gentleman, and a member of the NRA. Nice guy, he didn't seem like a racist to me.
 
If you're Korean or Hmong or African American or Puerto Rican and you get this magazine subscription, you may notice as you flip through it that no one in it looks anything like you. Not even in the advertisements for log splitters or lawn mowers or pajamas for the little missus. I'm pretty sure this isn't an intentional slight, but it does show that someone doesn't even realize that they should be trying to appeal to a more diverse population.
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And speaking of Koreans. Lets remember how the Korean store owners protected their stores during the Rodney King riots. They knew the value of the second amendment better than the average American. I am proud of them.

Korean-men-defending-Koreatown-during-the-1992-LA-riot.jpg
 
Wow........some of you really need to look in the mirror. Talk about racism and racists........


Regards,

Rob
 
When ever I see a black (or any non-white) at my private shooting club putting rounds down range it does my heart good. There are VERY few non-whites in the region I live, so I think it is great to see some of the few that there are responsibly enjoying firearms and exercising their freedom.

The more Americans in the 2A camp the better!
 
"I just flipped through the latest American Rifleman with a goal in mind to note any minorities. I found two pictures of a black man - both of Barack Obama with a caption expressing general disapproval and dislike."

1) Why would there be pictures of minorities; that's not the readership demographic at present, but since their addition would not hurt anything, they should at least think about including them (though it would doubtless be seen as phony pandering by the same people who noticed the absence of minorities in the first place ;) )
2) Barack Obama is (or at least serves an identifiable face for) the greatest threat to our 2nd amendment rights (among others) at present, or at least "was" until his keester was kicked last year

Like I said earlier, this attitude of outreach is fairly new, but it seems to have a permanence to its momentum. Therefore, I'm not too concerned that we won't be on better terms with minorities in 5 years --just takes a lot of time and effort to mend burnt bridges. As far as the NRA not being able to approach the black/etc. communities off the bat? Do remember that most of the marketing firms familiar with those demographics will have nothing to do with the NRA (and actively work to propagandize them and other groups perceived to be related). Most venues/routes that reach them will have nothing to do with the NRA. So they have to start from whole cloth, in a self-censoring environment. I'm sorry, but white people aren't black, and there is going to be some culture clash when they first speak with each other. It may be awkward or even offensive at first, but if there is no malicious intent, the wisest course (on both sides) is forgiveness. We may not understand you because we weren't invited in, and had no desire to be for decades and decades; but we're trying, now. Just remember, the NRA is desperate for new member$, and since they've cornered the market on "racist old white guys" who ostensibly won't be around much longer, you can bet your bippy they are honestly trying to reach more diverse groups to raise funds, as well as protect the rights of all their members.

"Wow........some of you really need to look in the mirror. Talk about racism and racists........"
Like I said, bigots tend to see bigotry everywhere, and perceive ignorance as insult. Being unwilling to engage different people because of preconceived hostility is... counterproductive. And a sin among all peoples.

TCB
 
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