Certainly the brazen display of weapons in the streets and on government property by the Black Panthers raised the question: Was the Second Amendment intended just for white folks?
Memorial to the Lost
CHARLESTON CHURCH (JUNE 17, 2015)
On June 17, 2015, a twenty-one-year-old white supremacist murdered nine African Americans and injured five others during a prayer service at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. The 202-year-old church, known as Mother Emanuel, has been an icon in the movement for civil rights and racial equality. And it continues to be. Here are the names of those who lost their lives, often referred to as the Emanuel Nine.
Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, 54 Tywanza Sanders, 26
Susie Jackson, 87 Daniel Simmons, 74
Ethel Lee Lance, 70 Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45
Depayne Middleton-Doctor, 49 Myra Thompson, 59
Clementa C. Pinckney, 41
The Only Thing That Stops a White Man with a Gun . . . ?
There are black gun legends just like there were legends of the Wild West. Most of them similarly have some “truthiness” in them but over time became folk stories, similar to how stories morph a little when you whisper them around a circle. These stories include ones like the story of Robert Charles, who, in 1892, was sitting on his stoop in New Orleans when police officers approached him. The officers were aggressive and violent and injured Charles, who ran inside, grabbed his gun, and shot the police captain. Charles was also killed and became sort of a lone-gunman folk hero of a different sort. Ida B. Wells spoke of Charles as a man who “fought off a mob of 20,000 single-handed and alone.”12
Though gun legends often fade under the light of scrutiny, the gun itself prevails. By the mid-1920s the African American homicide rate in US cities was seven or eight times that of whites.13 From 2001 to 2016, the city of Chicago had more murders than the number of Americans killed in the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, and a majority of those victims were young African American men.14 One recent study has shown that Americans as a whole are 128 times more likely to be killed in everyday gun violence than by any act of international terrorism. But, for specifically African Americans in urban areas, that number shoots up to 500 times more likely.15 Firearms are the first leading cause of death for African American children and teens in the US, and they are ten times more likely than white kids to die by gun homicide.16
The lives of especially black and brown people are endangered on so many fronts, one of which is gun violence—and sometimes it seems as if the most dangerous place to be is your own neighborhood or school.
It’s Complicated
It’s clear that guns and African Americans in the US share a complicated history. At one point the NRA chartered a chapter so that blacks could arm themselves against the KKK. Even though Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. were gun owners at one point, King later said this: “I was much more afraid in Montgomery when I had a gun in my house. When I decided that I couldn’t keep a gun, I came face-to-face with the question of death and I dealt with it. From that point on, I no longer needed a gun nor have I been afraid. Had we become distracted by the question of my safety we would have lost the moral offensive and sunk to the level of our oppressors.”17
Gun advocates who might claim King as one of their own would quickly backpedal if they were to see how committed King became to nonviolence, especially after the time he spent with Gandhi. “I cannot make myself believe that God wanted me to hate. I’m tired of violence, I’ve seen too much of it. I’ve seen such hate on the faces of too many sheriffs in the South. And I’m not going to let my oppressor dictate to me what method I must use. Our oppressors have used violence. Our oppressors have used hatred. Our oppressors have used rifles and guns. I’m not going to stoop down to their level. I want to rise to a higher level. We have a power that can’t be found in Molotov cocktails.”18
And of course we can’t miss the obvious—King was killed with a gun.
Stephen Colbert, in his characteristic brilliance, said, “Dr. King is progun just as surely as Jesus would be pro-nails.” We’re pretty sure King would be quick to join us at the forge to beat a gun into a plow.
The gun never brought about equality. White privilege and power has always meant that the people who suffer most from the gun are the most vulnerable and subjugated members of society. Guns might promise temporary safety or justice, perhaps even fulfill those promises on occasion, but they could never right the wrongs of history or fix a criminal justice system or constitution written by, and for, white folks. Equal justice under the law will not come from the barrel of a gun.
Flash forward to 2016. The election of Donald Trump. The new rise of white supremacy—in Charlottesville and beyond. After the election of Trump, gun store owners reported that the number of black and minority customers quadrupled. An increase in violent incidents and hate crimes directed at people of color and other minorities since the presidential election is thought to have spurred the increase in gun purchases, especially among African Americans. Philip Smith, founder of the National African American Gun Association, says, “Most folks are pretty nervous about what kind of America we’re going to see over the next 5–10 years.”19 This same logic drove progun demographics to file for a record number of background checks (2.3 million) before the election, in preparation for the possibility that the new president (if it had been Hillary Clinton) might take away the right to own guns.20 At the end of the day, the gun empire made a lot of money over the past few years. And a lot more guns have ended up on our streets without any of us feeling much safer. In fact, our country feels as fragile as it ever has, and the festering wounds of our violent, racist history remain to be treated with the care they deserve so that healing is possible.
To this day the NRA is one of the most overtly racist organizations in the country. You can see a list of hundreds of quotes from NRA board members on the NRA on the Record website (www.nraontherecord.org). There are the obvious ones from folks like Ted Nugent, who called Obama a subhuman mongrel and said that if Obama got reelected, Nugent would either be in jail or dead, implying in not-so-subtle terms that he would try to kill him.21 In 2016 he posted on social media a racist meme with a fake moving company called “2 n——ers and a stolen truck.”22 He has said several hundred more terribly offensive things. But what is most offensive is that, after all of that, he got reelected to the board of the NRA and still serves.
Another NRA board member, Jeff Cooper, commenting on the massive numbers of people killed in Los Angeles, said we are doing society a service by keeping them armed so they can kill each other. Here’s the quote: “The consensus is that no more than 5–10 people per 100 who die by guns in LA are any loss to society. . . . It would seem a valid social service to keep them well-supplied with ammunition.”23
So that is what we are up against.
But keep in mind, 90 percent of gun owners are not members of the NRA.
Outside the NRA, polls show that people of color are only half as likely as white folks to support gun rights.24 And more and more companies continue to put pressure on the NRA to be more reasonable or else they will cut ties to the organization.25
At gun shows, there are plenty of Confederate flags, and wherever you find white supremacists and Nazis, like the folks who marched in Charlottesville and left Heather Heyer dead, you can be sure to find some NRA stickers.
Some of the racism is overt, and some is subtle.
Gun enthusiast Troy Newman, a panelist on the “Faith and Guns” special on PBS, said this: “White, middle-class evangelicals use guns for protection, and unfortunately the people on the lower social economic rung of the ladder are victims of gun violence.”26 The image of my (Shane’s) mortified face after that comment went viral. I am rarely speechless. All I could say during the live recording was, “We need a commercial break.” I actually did respond after the break. But only later did I realize how hurtful and offensiv
e his comments must have felt to the other people of color in the audience. There were people there from Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston, where black folks were massacred during worship. And Mr. Newman was sitting directly in front of Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, who was killed at a gas station by a white man who complained that Jordan was playing his music too loud.
The residue of slavery and racism continues to surface all over our country, in almost every facet of society. We have not healed the historical wounds of racialized terror and violence. And we cannot get our future right until we get our history right. The consequences of America’s original sins can be seen plainly by looking at the victims of gun violence and police violence in America today.
Consider
This
GALLERY OF THE ABSURD
THIS GALLERY OF THE ABSURD is not meant to treat lightly the madness of gun violence. Quite the opposite; our goal is to expose how tragic, obscene, and totally avoidable many gun deaths are.
Exhibit 1
In my (Shane’s) home state of Tennessee, state representative Curry Todd pushed for legislation that would allow guns in bars. What could go wrong? He said, “Drinking with your gun is something that no responsible handgun owner would ever do.” Two years later he was jailed and charged with drunk driving and the possession of a loaded handgun while under the influence.1 A similar law in Virginia passed that allows people to take guns into bars, provided they do not consume alcohol while there. Isn’t that why folks go to bars?
Exhibit 2
After the tragic shooting in Sutherland Springs, where twenty-six people were killed at a rural church in Texas, there was a push to bring guns to church. One congregation even posted a warning at the front of the church: “Welcome to Church. This is not a gun-free zone. We are heavily armed. Yes, we are a church, and we will protect our people.” In Tennessee, a man brought a gun to church and was showing it to other members of the congregation, making the case for how guns protect us, when the gun went off, shooting him in the hand and his wife in the stomach. Another church member thought it was an attack and called police. They locked down every school within fifteen miles, thinking there was an active shooter. Thank God the man and woman both lived. We’re guessing the proposal to bring guns to church didn’t fly when the deacons took it to a vote.2
Exhibit 3
There are numerous shootings at weddings. I’m sure some are from romantic feuds, but many are unintentional. Apparently it’s a thing to pose with a gun on your wedding day. One couple accidentally shot their photographer. 3 Another bride gave her husband a handgun, and he accidentally shot both of them.4
Exhibit 4
After the Columbine massacre, former vice president Dan Quayle said, “I hope they don’t blame this on guns.” Donna Dees-Thomases of the Million Mom March countered, “Well, then, Dan, what should we blame it on, the trench coats?”5 Touché.
Now we have companies that stand to make a ton of money off products that are meant to protect kids in school—like bulletproof backpacks, blankets, walls, and the like. It wouldn’t be surprising if the same companies producing assault rifles were also producing bulletproof backpacks for protection. There is even an insurance policy (that has faced lawsuits over its legality) that would cover someone who is sued for shooting a person in self-defense. One life insurance policy even offers a special provision for teachers who are killed in their schools. Needless to say, all this seems like we have missed something.
Exhibit 5
The Barrett 82A1 Centerfire Rifle, a .50-caliber rifle that can shoot five miles, is advertised with these words: “A round of ammunition purchased for less than $10 can destroy or disable a modern jet aircraft.”6 One has to ask: Why do we have guns that can shoot down an aircraft? What’s more is that the fellow it’s named after, Ronnie Barrett, was named man of the year by the National Industrial Defense Association. He has contracts for sales of his gun with the US government and fifty other governments. He praised God for the gun: “It really is a gift from God.”7 A gun that can shoot a plane from the sky. It reminds me of when President Truman thanked God for the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: “We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely,” he explained, adding a few days later, “We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes.”8 We don’t know that God.
Exhibit 6
There is a gun that is made to look exactly like a cell phone. It’s the same size, shape, and overall look, but beneath the face is a .22-caliber pistol. It’s a phone that is capable of firing four rounds in succession with the touch of the keypad. It also looks pretty easy to take into places where cell phones are allowed but guns are not.
Exhibit 7
Did you know that some cities require every person to own a gun? If you don’t like guns, it’s best not to live in Kennesaw, Georgia; Nelson, Georgia; Nucla, Colorado; Virgin, Utah; or Gun Barrel City, Texas (fitting name).
Exhibit 8
One of the laws that is often considered wise is limiting the number of handguns one person can purchase to twelve per year, or one per month. This is only for handguns, and it’s just limiting how many a single individual can buy. It’s an attempt to cut down illegal sales, theft, and accidents and to keep someone from loading up a truck with guns and selling them on the streets. The bill has been blocked because some gun advocates think it starts the “slippery slope” to taking all guns away. One more strange law: a gun dealer who sells two or more handguns to the same person within five days must report the sales to the ATF, except if they are AK-47s, which don’t have to be reported.
Exhibit 9
Florida created a statewide database of pawnshop transactions to aid police officers in tracking stolen property. The database includes pawned jewelry, televisions, tools, computers—everything except guns. The law stipulates that details of gun transactions are to be purged after forty-eight hours.
Exhibit 10
There’s a thing called a “fire sale loophole.” It allows a gun dealer who loses his license for misconduct to dispose of his inventory privately without being charged for illegal sales. Can you imagine shutting down a bad liquor store and saying, “You are responsible for disposing of all your inventory”?
Exhibit 11
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) keeps records of all gun sales through licensed dealers but must destroy them after ninety days. The law was enacted in 2001 through the efforts of Attorney General John Ashcroft, a former NRA board member. The ATF can check gun dealers for illegal sales, but only once per year. The ATF also collects data on gun dealers who regularly sell large quantities of guns that end up used in crimes (only 5 percent of gun shops are responsible for 90 percent of guns used in crimes9), but the ATF cannot release that information publicly. So no one knows which gun shops are good and which are bad. The ATF is not even allowed to have computers because doing so would be considered a “national database,” so they have thousands of boxes of records. Obviously it is the epitome of inefficiency, which is exactly the goal of the NRA.
Exhibit 12
In 2003 Congress passed a law that bars federal law enforcement from releasing any information that links guns used in crimes back to the original purchaser or seller. It is impossible to build consumer pressure, facilitate boycotts, or put a gun shop out of business if we don’t know which ones are the bad gun shops.
Exhibit 13
In 2010 fifty-six police officers were killed in the line of duty. All but one were killed by a gun. Seven were killed by their own guns—and these are professionals trained to use their guns. Still on the market are armor-piercing bullets, often called “cop killers.” They are designed to go through anything, including body armor. And, of course, we also know that in a country saturated with guns, police are often on edge. In 2017 police killed nearly one thousand people, many of them unarmed, and disproportionately peopl
e of color.10
Exhibit 14
Every minute a gun is stolen in the US.11 What’s more, stolen guns aren’t required to be reported in many states. In places that have required gun dealers to report stolen guns, say within a day or two, gun advocates have sued. Fifteen guns disappear each day from gun shops—over five thousand per year. Every year three hundred thousand guns are stolen from other places like homes, cars, and even directly from the military or gun factories. Up to a third of these stolen guns are used in crimes.12
Exhibit 15
In the United States, we register births, marriages, divorces, and deaths. We register houses, land, trucks, boats, animals—everything but guns.
Beating Guns Page 8
