black women woman gun owner
Stayce Robinson poses for a portrait in Decatur, Ga., with her AR-15. Robinson, 49, from Douglasville, Ga., is an entrepreneur and tax analyst for a software company. She also is among the ranks of the nation's black women who own a firearm. (AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane)

When I went away to college, my mother gave me a pistol, “just in case.” (Luckily, no such case presented itself.)

When I moved north, first to Detroit and then to New York, I moved into a mental space of more stringent gun control. In general, people weren’t hunting. There was law enforcement everywhere, reachable as quickly as one could dial 911. There were cellphones.

Armed crimes were rampant as well as shootings and gun-related homicides. There were mass shootings and drive-by shootings, all phenomena foreign to me. In my mind, city dwellers simply didn’t have the same need for weapons as the people in the rural community where I was raised, and many were also not reared with the respect for and knowledge of weapons we possessed.

I, like many, were convinced that fewer guns in the Black community would make it safer. But, for many Black people, that sentiment has turned. Since the gun-buying surge in the wake of the Obama presidency, the unrelenting series of unarmed Black people being killed on video and the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic, gun sales to Black people are surging. According to an October CNN report, gun sales among Black Americans were up 58 percent through September.

I, as much as anyone, would like to live in a society in which all citizens felt safe without the need of personal firearms. America could have created such a society. However, it chose not to.

Sure, there are still hunters and farmers and people living in rural areas who use rifles as a tool. There are people who use guns for sport or who collect them. But, there are also people who buy and hoard guns because they have been fed a dystopian fantasy of a race war or a government takeover.

It seems to me that the surge in Black gun-buying is in large part simply a response to that. As has been the case since slavery, many Black people feel the need to defend themselves from their own country.

— Charles Blow in Black and Armed

156 COMMENTS

  1. What a bunch of bullshit.

    “The unrelenting series of unarmed Black people being killed on video..”

    Fake news, through and through. Made up sentence of the year.

    “Black people feel the need to defend themselves from their own country.“

    Another complete line of bullshit.

    Cops aren’t killing black Americans.

    Whites aren’t killing black Americans.

    You know who’s killing black Americans? Other black Americans.

    Sorry for keepin real bro but that’s the truth. Save me this woe is me “racist America” bullshit.

    • Amen. Nothing but The Truth About Fudds simping for the blacks who are still stuck in the mental shackles of consistently voting blue.

      • Notice how the writer establishes himself by going from small town country bumpkin to big city college educated man on the street. That may amaze morons and they may fall for it but reality is the writer is long on bs and extremely short on fact.

        That’s right let’s concoct a narrative for Blacks purchasing firearms. Surely it cannot be massive Black on Black Crime. Unfortunately in the mind of the writer it’s fear of crackers running around killing Black Americans, etc. That thought was put in his Black Head by sleazy white trash instigators that prefer socialism and communism over The United States Constitution., The white trash marxists need useful idiots to make it happen and to them Black Americans are proven to be prime useful idiots.

        Who the writer should be targeting are the handful of police both Black and White who stepped out of bounds and the results were disgusting. Everyone shares outrage over police ignorance but the question for the writer is where is an ounce of outrage and demands for Monetary Reparations from the democRat Party over its long, long history of despicable race based atrocities? Atrocities that move today’s police actions to the bottom of the scale. After all the democRat Party owns the legacy of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, the KKK, lynching, Eugenics, Gun Control and other race based atrocities
        .
        Could the answer be Blacks were duped by trinket promises into joining the Party of their tormentors and Blacks are between a rock and a hard spot and cannot man-up and admit they are fools? I think so. I know so. Yesterday’s Blacks picked cotton for their democRat Party slave masters while today’s Blacks harvest votes for their democRat Party slave masters. The plantation is alive and well. And as long as there are Black members of the democRat Party the plantation thrives.

        Did the writer even know the military wing of the democRat Party better known as the KKK was formed partially on the basis to disarm Black Americans? Is the writer so stuck in the present the history of the democRat Party is a meaningless blank between his ears? If the writer accomplished anything he accomplished answering those questions.

        • “That’s right let’s concoct a narrative for Blacks purchasing firearms. Surely it cannot be massive Black on Black Crime.”

          No, that is not the motivator. If it were, the current phenomena would not be a phenomena. Black-on-Black has been rampant in big cities for over 50yrs. That didn’t just happen in 2020. The logic and justification for gun control laws has never been, and is not today, based on high crime rates in large cities. Gun control laws are based on fear of “good people” being killed in “good places”, by gun-crazed whackos. Not to mention the fact that government is the source of everything good and safe, so only government should have firearms…for the good of the public.

        • Sam…Not only did the writer concoct a narrative you did too. Are your fingers bloody from scraping the bottom of the barrel for something to say? Ah schucks black on black crime ain’t nuthin new Debbie. Why it’s old hat and Black on Black crime has been going on for 50 years. Really? Perhaps you can find a Chicago newspaper over the past 50 years that rivals today’s Black on Black body counts and confirms your phenomenon.

          Your definition for Gun Control is another concocted scatterbrain narrative and often regurgitated on forums like this.
          Flush the dodo between yours ears and your need to nitpick and listen up…Gun Control is rooted in racism and genocide. Therefore Gun Control is a racist and nazi based agenda. It is nothing more or less because it does not need to be anything more or less because what it is is more than enough for it to self destruct. But as a long as lost in space well meaning nitwits think they can define it as not being what it is the well meaning nitwits give Gun Control Standing…Capice?

        • Geez princess what are you smoking? A quick google of Chicago crime statistics tells even you that the 70’s through the 2000’s were hyper-violent. I lived in Chiraq in the 80’s. It wasn’t reported day n night then. Southside,Westside and north. And it wasn’t 15year old’s pulling the trigger. I’ve travelled through those hoods many times. Not now…white folks didn’t burn down Chicago’s Westside in 1968!

      • From the article:

        “I, as much as anyone, would like to live in a society in which all citizens felt safe without the need of personal firearms. America could have created such a society. However, it chose not to.”

        No, *it* did not choose anything. If we have a society with violent gun-related crime in it, it is so because of those specific individuals who chose to perpetrate those crimes against their fellow Man. No one else. And certainly not those of us who own guns to defend ourselves in support of the better America.

        • You gotta love how this guy creates a pie-in-the-sky utopian “society in which all citizens felt safe without the need of personal firearms” utopia with a single broad stroke and just leaves that bloated, idiotic assumption hanging there with no support. Failed debate class and graduated to the New York Times, it seems.

        • America chose not to, because that would be what’s called a police state, and would be run by murderous dictators. In a FREE country, citizens are themselves armed and protect themselves and their neighbors, dictators and police thugs need not apply, thank you very much.

      • There is a school in California named after Abraham Lincoln changing it’s name because he didn’t feel enough for the black society. Let’s see now. He declared war to free the slaves and over 300,000 white Republicans gave their lives to free what 1,000 slaves. He asked 300,000 people to die to free them but wasn’t compassionate to their cause. More liberal BS just like the person’s story written above. Democrats hate blacks and democrat govonors allow blacks to kill blacks not Republicans. Look at history and current times and see where blacks are safer, white Republican suburbs or black Democrat ghettos. Get smart turn your democrat ghettos into Republican suburbs and yes, keep your guns in your houses for protection, they are very good for that purpose. But keep them off the street please, they make people act crazy when they are on the streets,

        • “He declared war to free the slaves…”

          Not quite. He declared war to put down rebellion (called “saving the union” at the time). The war didn’t become about freeing slaves until, maybe Sept 1862. At that point, Lincoln published/proclaimed “The Emancipation Proclamation”, which freed precisely zero slaves.

          Lincoln, confronted with the issue of slavery, announced, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause.
          https://genius.com/Abraham-lincoln-letter-to-horace-greeley-annotated

        • The Democrats who served in the Union Army, especially those from the Midwest, would be highly insulted to be labeled ‘Republicans.’ Lincoln only ‘won’ with about 40% of the popular vote, and received not a single vote in the South–he wasn’t even on the ballot. If there had been only two candidates (there were four), Douglas would have won handily–and there wouldn’t have been a Civil War in 1861 at all.

          Bear in mind also that vast numbers of Union soldiers, who volunteered to fight in 1861 to ‘save the Union,’ refused to reenlist or simply deserted when informed that they were no longer fighting for Union, but instead were fighting to free slaves. Some were quite blunt about it, and thus cannot be quoted. One of the direct results of the Emancipation Proclamation was the necessity of The Draft in 1863, which also went over fabulously with men who weren’t enamored with freeing those slaves who were highly likely to be seeking employment once freed. Once ‘Union’ was no longer the reason for the war, volunteerism went down the drain.

          Other than that. . .

    • It’s almost as if there’s a difference between a viral video and science. The Party of Science prefers the viral video. It’s much easier to push social change that way.

      • “The Party of Science prefers the viral video.”

        Because truth is more important than facts. Which part of this escapes you (and others)?

        You can go anywhere you like for your facts, but truth is what drives social media.

        • You wrote, “Because truth is more important than facts.”

          You forgot to capitalize “Truth,” to differentiate it from “truth.” The lower case truth is derived from facts, while Truth is derived from whatever the speaker/writer wants you to believe.

          • “You forgot to capitalize “Truth,”…”

            Well, my prejudice may have been in the way, but….my experience is that people who believe “Truth” over facts are convinced that “Truth” and “truth” are one and the same.

    • Yep. Bullshit piled deep and wide. When my ancestors arrived on these shores in 1632 they brought their weapons with them. And subsequent generations of my family right up to today still maintain weaponry. Rural or city makes no difference.

    • There are 6 times as many white people in the US as black as people. Less than twice as many white people are killed by cops than black people. Explain that discrepancy before you keep spouting.

      While you’re at it, remember that minority gun ownership is what’s going to save the 2A in America— not jackasses like you.

      • Pretty easy to explain, those killed by police are overwhelmingly criminals, regardless of race (which is completely unimportant unless you are a racist, which, by your post, you appear to be.) If there is a problem, it would be in what caused those killed by police to become criminals.

      • Lol. Despite being just 13% of the population, blacks commit 50% of violent crime. To get an idea of whether something is disproportionate, you need to use the right denominator

      • Okay, I’ll explain it:

        Black people commit crimes at a massively higher rate than white people and therefore end up on the wrong end of a gun at a massively higher rate than white people.

        If black Americans behaved like white Americans, they wouldn’t get shot so much.

      • C, that’s completely made up by media. Those are not facts.

        I’m telling you the ugly truth. I will not support lies because it may have some faux support for the 2A.

        Everyone here would do well by themselves by studying the actual facts of crime in America, because the news is lying to you everyday. The truth of crime in this country is very different then what everyone on Facebook and CNN are telling you.

        • Nope. But I’m not going to spend 3 hours writing a dissertation on the subject including peer reviewed sources. This I’d the comments section of a blog.

          The information is out there, go find it. And no, a quick Wikipedia article isn’t what I’m talking about. Nor is social media or any news media.

          But the information isn’t hidden, either. I’m talking about FBI crime data, multiple criminal studies done in the last 100 years, and when in doubt, check out a real encyclopedia.

          I know all that these days is too hard when you’re expecting a quick link to a salon, cnn, or snopes article. But that isn’t real information.

    • The OP is expressing his own perception of risk. Will I stand to criticize his perception of his own risk?

      I live in a bucolic area 40 miles from the City of Brotherly love, surrounded by flora and fauna, including black bears. I carry a handgun nearly always. What are the statistics on my vulnerability to an attack by any predator, black, brown or white? (Long way from polar bear country).

      Do I have a right to bear arms in defense of myself, and according to my own perception of my risk of attack? If I expect others to respect my own perception of my risk then I hesitate to presume to lecture others on their statistical risk.

      I presuppose, without evidence, that Black folk are conscious of the phenomena of Black-on-Black crime. I can imagine why they might prefer to discuss it only privately on the principle of not laundering in public.

      Today, with ubiquitous cell phones, there are videos of rare phenomena. Why take the video if it’s a commonplace event? And, if the video supports a narrative then we can expect the MSM to broadcast such videos repeatedly. Same videos replayed lots of times. Gives rise to a perception. Hard for us PotG to understand?

      The facts are “stubborn things”. They will speak for themselves. I don’t see how it does the cause of supporting the 2A much good to “welcome” new gun owners to the community of responsibility for one’s own safety by deriding their perceptions of the source of risk.

      YMMV. See how unwelcome you can make new gun buyers.

      • “See how unwelcome you can make new gun buyers.”

        I have a problem following, here. In the article presented, I did not conclude that living in NYC gun-free paradise, Blow still has the gun his mother gave him. Nor did I read that he was concerned about the real threat on the streets. Overall, it was an attempted take down of people who perceived any threat at all that would justify owning a gun, other than, maybe, the mythical, vague “threat” from his “own country”. Even then, he did not endorse tooling up.

        Now, maybe I missed a whole lot, but insulting Blow has nothing to do with discouraging new gun owners.

      • No, because this Blow person is not advocating or supporting the 2A or RKTBA.

        They are in fact ridiculing it, and you. But you can’t see it, because they’re offering faux support for gun ownership.

    • Agree. You can go line-by-line on that list and find a problem with the narrative for every single name.

      NFL was “saying their name” last week for a dumb thug who recorded himself spraying bullets into random houses and then livestreamed himself dying in a shootout with police.

      • Yep. And let’s go ahead and start talking about all the convicted murderers and rapists on death row the left now all the sudden wants to throw into the BLM list.

        The last few weeks of trying to push that narrative alone was extremely telling of what these psycopaths really want.

        Men who brutally murdered innocent people 20 years ago are now “fit to be released” simply because they are black.

        BLM isn’t about equality, it’s about supremacy. There’s no difference between a BLM supporter and a skin head.

  2. Since Blow didn’t identify the threats against which he sees need to be armed (except to the mandatory reference to slavery), one must conclude he seeks to be armed against the wrong people: law abiding citizens. Buying/ownings/possessing/carrying a gun can’t fix stupid.

    Oh yes, law enforcement may be reachable by phone, but not available at the moment of need. A condition of which Blow seems blissfully unaware.

    • Indeed. I’m equally unimpressed with the little mandatory slavery jab.

      Slavery is as old as prostitution and war, and every culture/people has done it, and had it done to them. I suppose everyone commenting here should demand an apology and reparations from Italy for enslaving your ancestors at some point during roughly 400 BC –
      476 AD.

      There are also plenty of slaves today, most notably in China, a country which the Democratic Party is in bed with, and leftists defend with vigor.

      I guess you could say some things never change?

      • But, the USA treated black people horribly by outlawing slavery before most other countries did (more specifically, before ANY countries in Africa did)…

        • “But, the USA treated black people horribly by outlawing slavery before most other countries did (more specifically, before ANY countries in Africa did)…”

          Uuhh, uuummmm, like, uuuhh, keep that to yourself. Negative comments (i.e. truth) about who came late to the table regarding abolishing slavery is, well, you know, racesises. And impolite. Regardless of when America, or any other nation abolished slavery, America invented it, and prospered the most from it. All that history about slavery going back to the dawn of humankind was written by slave owners, and the prosperous oligarchy of slave traders. Until America as a nation was created, there was never even a thought of slavery, anywhere else, by anyone else.

          Jes’ sayin’ fur yer own protection.

        • Wow, thanks for the enlightenment! Slavery has been around continuously for 10,000+ years, who would guess America invented it?!

          • “Wow, ….Slavery has been around continuously for 10,000+ years, who would guess America invented it?!”

            Uuuhh, America haters?

            (Do I get a prize somewhere?)

        • Do you really believe America was one of the first countries to outlaw slavery?

          More revisionist history from the conservatives, thankfully there are objective, factual records of the actual events.

          How about America was one of the last civilized countries to abolish slavery and it took a Civil War to make it happen.

          In fact, many white folks in the red states would be just fine if slavery was never abolished, they fly the flag of the treasonous slavers to this very day.

          “1803 Denmark-Norway becomes the first country in Europe to ban the African slave trade, forbidding trading in slaves and ending the importation of slaves into Danish dominions.
          1807 The British Parliament makes it illegal for British ships to transport slaves and for British colonies to import them. U.S. President Thomas Jefferson signs into law the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, forbidding the importation of African slaves into the United States.
          1811-1867 Operating off the Atlantic coast of Africa, the British Navy’s Anti-Slavery Squadron liberates 160,000 slaves.
          1813 Sweden, a nation that never authorized slave traffic, consents to ban the African slave trade.
          1814 The king of the Netherlands officially terminates Dutch participation in the African slave trade. At the Congress of Vienna, the assembled powers proclaim that the slave trade should be abolished as soon as possible but do not stipulate an actual effective date for abolition.
          1820 The government of Spain abolishes the slave trade south of the Equator—but it continues in Cuba until 1888.
          1833 The Factory Act in Britain establishes a working day in textile manufacture, provides for government inspection of working conditions, bans the employment of children under age 9, and limits the workday of children between 13 and 18 years of age to 12 hours.
          1834 The Abolition Act abolishes slavery throughout the British Empire, including British colonies in North America. The bill emancipates slaves in all British colonies and appropriates nearly $100 million in today’s money to compensate slave owners for their losses.
          1840 The new British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society calls the first World Anti-Slavery Convention in London to mobilize reformers and assist post-emancipation efforts throughout the world. A group of U.S. abolitionists attends, but Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, as well as several male supporters, leave the meeting in protest when women are excluded from seating on the convention floor.
          1845 The British Navy assigns 36 ships to its Anti-Slavery Squadron, making it one of the largest fleets in the world.
          1848 The government of France abolishes slavery in all French colonies.
          1850 The government of Brazil ends the country’s participation in the slave trade and declares slave traffic to be a form of piracy.
          1861 Alexander II emancipates all Russian serfs, numbering about 50 million. His decree begins the Great Reform in Russia and earns him the title “Czar Liberator.”
          1863 President Abraham Lincoln issues The Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all U.S. slaves in states that had seceded from the Union, except for those in Confederate areas already controlled by the Union army.
          1863 The government of the Netherlands takes official action to abolish slavery in all Dutch colonies.
          1865 Congress gives final passage to, and a sufficient number of states ratify, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to outlaw slavery. The amendment reads: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

          Hell, even czar Alexander freed the serfs in Russia before Abraham Lincoln was able to free the slaves in America, sad commentary.

          • True – many / most European states abolished serfdom in the 19th Century. Since few flee prosperity, it’s logical to infer that many / most 19thC immigrants were former serfs, escaped serfs, or children of serfs. Even many of the original / “privileged” / “non-ethnic” settler groups began as indentured servants.

            How many of their descendants, in 2020, have several times the violent crime, illiteracy, illegitimacy, unemployment, and poverty rates of the overall population? How many raise their kids to blame all their own choices on serfdom? The National Association for the Advancement of [Czech, Lithuanian, Jewish, or Chinese] Persons is called “the US job market”.

    • Blow is a complete idiot that makes his living off of virtue signaling whiteys by telling them how terrible they are. They eat it up. I’ve read some of his other articles. 100% garbage.

      • “Blow is a complete idiot that makes his living off of virtue signaling…”

        The publishing company sorta says that from the gitgo.

      • Speaking of hot garbage, I enjoyed this little gem: “…because they have been fed a dystopian fantasy of a race war or a government takeover…”

        I seem to recall watching both, live on TV just this year. Maybe omit the word “fantasy” and try again.

        • You think this summer was a race war and/or government takeover?

          Clearly, you did not live through the 60s.

      • I must jump in here to note that any student attending university in the last say thirty five years has been thoroughly indoctrinated in “the real history ” of the colonies/states/ United States. The “colony’s” history actually began in 1621 with the importation of the first African slaves brought to ” the Americas” to plant/ harvest sugar cane, tobacco and rice
        (cotton came later). This is what is being taught by doctorate level professors in American colleges and universities. Is it any wonder that our youth turn against their parents generation? That is evil. There is never any mention of the black tribal leaders who sold their brothers into slavery in the Ivory Coast region of Africa FIRST.

        • I’ve heard that silliness, but have yet to understand the point. Is this a movement seeking revenge by the US nuking Great Britain, or something? There was no US in 1621, any guilt for that period can be shared by Britain, France, and Spain, plus some bit players, so what is this idiocy supposed to prove in the US?

          • “…so what is this idiocy supposed to prove in the US?”

            That the nation as founded (going back to the first English settlements) is corrupt beyond redemption, is illegitimate, cannot be repaired, must be removed and pure government put in its place. Justifies every un/extra constitutional act by anyone.

    • She said she was raised rural. I was raised rural. Our county sheriff advised everybody to own a gun. In a life or death emergency his nearest deputy could be an hour away.

      This was a democrat sheriff. How times have changed.

    • “Since Blow didn’t identify the threats against which he sees need to be armed (except to the mandatory reference to slavery), one must conclude he seeks to be armed against the wrong people: law abiding citizens.”

      Well there is a ridiculous assumption.

      How about being concerned about violent criminals, no matter what their color or religion? Or better yet, domestic violence attacks by abusive partners?

      Many people on this list fear property confiscation or worse from duly constituted law-enforcement officials, about every fourth post accuses ordinary police officers of being agents of the Tyranny.

      And yes, many unarmed Black people are killed by out of control law enforcement agents.

      Why would you dismiss all these possibilities out of hand and somehow assume they want to shoot law abiding citizens?

      Textbook case of white persecution complex. You automatically assume that every armed black person is a criminal who means harm to law abiding citizens.

  3. Always, always trying to pass the buck on some other reason other than, self-awareness, self-responsibility. Always. What a hunk of stinking bullshit. This is intolerable. Black people are the only ones responsible for their condition today; and it’s them only. No one else. NO – ONE – ELSE!

  4. This is the new York times. That really should tell you everything you need to know. What is printed there will be twisted, turned upside down and backwards, and will contain lies and half-truths.

    Blow has no real understanding of what the actual problem is.

  5. America Could Have Been Book-Free, But Chose Not to Be
    America Could Have Been Vote-Free, But Chose Not to Be
    America Could Have Been Murder-Free, But Chose Not to Be
    America Could Have Been Religion-Free, But Chose Not to Be

    See, makes no sense no matter the direction you go.

  6. Yeah, funny that cop or whitey shootings against blacks always end up on video. Meanwhile…. “St. Paul police are asking for anyone to come forward with information on the city’s latest fatal shooting. The 17 year old was killed Saturday in the latest of a string of apparent gang related violence….. “. crickets

    • When there is a problem with no solution, move on and get on with your life! It’s really simple, This is a large country, chose not to live around blacks or some other people of color. Problem solved. Why attempt and waste time, money and resources on solutions that blacks won’t even implement themselves. Blacks in large metro cities are taught before age 5 to “Fuck the Police”. No solution to that type of mentality. I know this sounds racist, but it’s based on facts. It’s really not really a confusing topic, unlike fathers day in Harlem.

  7. The black community at large is not purchasing weapons to defend themselves from police or the government. They are arming up after jails were emptied and after watching the riots like everybody else. There is a great number of black people who feel abandoned after liberals defunded the police.

    • “There is a great number of black people who feel abandoned after liberals defunded the police.”

      Doubtful. The great number of People, regardless, get their info from corrupted sources, and respond accordingly. Thus, the “great gun buying spree” is not about riots and letting criminals out of jail. The great majority of new gun owners are arming because of who caused the riots and the criminals to be released: conservatives, Republicrats, law-and-order types, white people, deplorables, folks clinging to their guns and bibles…the usual suspects. In short, they are gunning-up because of “you”.

      • Three groups of people, those who get their info from MSM, those who seek out alternate sources of info, and those who can look out the window and see bad stuff happening right now. Methinks he’s referring to the black people in group #3.

        • “Methinks he’s referring to the black people in group #3.”

          Could be, but whatever the problems, the source is not Liberals, Statists, Despots or Dimwitocrats. In a word, “Trump”.

      • “Sure, Jan.”

        Whatever you say. Po’ black folk gettin’ shot by white Proud Boys in job lots.

        You blithering idiot.

        • It’s true! Hordes of armed middle-class white suburbanites from outlying areas swarm into Inner-City Chicago every night, especially on weekends, arriving about 10PM and proceeding to wreak havoc ‘mongst the citizens thereof, who have no means of defense against the swarms of Proud Boys, bowling leagues, softball teams, and PTAs who rage through the streets, wantonly firing their assault weapons at innocent yutes and teens, infants and puppies and POC Oh MY! as the racist cops look on.

          Fact!

          • “It’s true! Hordes of armed middle-class white suburbanites from outlying areas swarm into Inner-City Chicago every night, especially on weekends, arriving about 10PM and proceeding to wreak havoc…Fact!”

            I know; saw it on the internet, where “Truth” reigns.

      • They might be getting told to fear ME. I know that is what comes from places like The New York Times. But it isn’t going to be me breaking into their homes, cars, or businesses. It WILL in fact be one of them.

        Sometimes I wonder if there is such disconnect from reality that when they see a black person holding a gun threatening them if they actually ‘see’ a white person as they stare into the face of a black person.

        • “Sometimes I wonder if there is such disconnect from reality that when they see a black person holding a gun threatening them if they actually ‘see’ a white person as they stare into the face of a black person.”

          Think that might be “confirmation bias”. Such a thing is certainly possible.

      • They don’t need to “get their information” — they’re living it. They see the criminals coming back to the neighborhood. They see their businesses getting burned and looted. They see the police decide that there are other places they’d rather patrol. They’re left living in the rubble and ashes after the white rioters go back to their dorms and upper class parents’ homes. The businesses they needed are destroyed, and there’s little incentive for new ones to be built in a location that is likely to be destroyed in the future.

        • “They don’t need to “get their information” — they’re living it. They see the criminals coming back to the neighborhood. They see their businesses getting burned and looted. They see the police decide that there are other places they’d rather patrol.”

          “They” don’t see what you see. “They” see racists causing people to resort to crime, and racists killing people unfairly driven to crime. “They” see all social problems attributed to white privilege. “They” aren’t arming against criminals, but against police, bigots, non-leftist whites, country bumpkins, and everything but their own behavior and beliefs. As noted, they are arming against “you”. Confirmation? “They” consistently vote their own misery, and blame it on others.

          If “100 million gun owners” saw things the way you do, Dims would never hold public office anywhere.

          (This isn’t supposed to read hostile or combative)

      • The majority of blacks are good citizens and do not want to be victims of criminals or police. While many are skeptical of whites “that have a plan”(I would say they have reason), they want the same for their families as whites.

        We are all Americans and should behave as such. The 2 party system has polarized this country to the point where there is no agreement on these issues. We need to abolish the party control in politics and vote for the person. All politicians should be independent.

        • “The majority of blacks are good citizens,…they want the same for their families as whites.”

          Then why do they vote in lockstep to elect the very people who keep them dependent? If the threat from “people who have a plan” is why people of color are arming, why didn’t that happen before now? Why are we not hearing from “community” leaders that they are arming because crime is affecting everyone, and government cannot stop it?

          People, regardless, who vote Dimwitocrat put most things in their lives above personal safety. Evidence: look at the voting patterns. Again, the great buy-out attributed to minorities is not about crime, it is about being armed against white privilege that caused all the crime and rioting in 2020. The minorities saw the same videos of riots as did people visiting here. There should have been a mass migration away from Dimwitocrat politicians.

          • I kept seeing, “Vote early, vote often.” So I followed the advice. Even sent in soup can labels and old parking tickets with my choices indicated. Did no good. Dumb advice.

  8. Stories about increased gun sales among blacks always seem to be paired with the 9 or so unarned, non-combative police shootings that occur annually. A notion that is flawed and dangerous.

    Leaves me wondering if a segment of the media and “community organizers” out there are actually hoping people start pulling on cops to pump up those numbers to further their agendas. We’ve certainly learned over the past few years that the distinction between a bad shoot and a good shoot disappears completely when there is an agenda to push.

    • Many young blacks have heard the stories from grandparents about Jim Crow, they believe they are targets today in the 21st century. Yes, it was real bad at one time. Before WWII, very few black felons even made it to the penitentiary(in most states and the fed). They were killed by police before they even got to trial.
      A black man better not even look at a white woman with lust in his heart, 1 complaint from the woman, and he could be dealt with in the woods by white men in sheets.
      Most of these abuses(as far as murdering the perp) have disappeared. A LEO shooting an unarmed black man is usually because the LEO is scared.
      Old time blacks will tell anyone that it is much better now. How I wish that all younger blacks would give American society a try, there is a place at the table for them. Hint….. gangbanging is not the way to get there.

      • From what I have learned growing up in the ’60s until now, your rendition is the same as my experience. In addition, right after college I went to pilot training in Selma, AL, in 1969, and I was shocked by the blatant racism I saw everywhere, tho I went to school in VA the difference was night and day. But those days are gone now, and blacks need to get on with the program just like the rest of us.

        • “right after college I went to pilot training in Selma, AL, in 1969,”

          Woohoo: class 70-03, Craig air patch.

        • No shit. 71-04 here (just passed 50 years since graduation, 3 Dec 70), doesn’t that put you present for the Pettus bridge incident?

          • “71-04 here (just passed 50 years since graduation 3 Dec 70), doesn’t that put you present for the Pettus bridge incident?”

            That was Mar, ’65. Was freshman at Jacksonville State College, AL. Read about it; couldn’t afford the trip to watch.

            We lived in a trailer park just outside Craig. The Richter building has just been finished and populated.

  9. I would like to point out to the writer and comments I read attached to the NYTs article itself. (yes, I went and read some of the bloviating navel gazing nonsense)

    NO ONE is coming to help you.

    Embrace that concept.

  10. “But, there are also people who buy and hoard guns because they have been fed a dystopian fantasy of a race war or a government takeover.”

    Well, so far in 2020 we have watched BLM and Antifa Burn, Loot, and Murder with complete abandon and no effort from the authorities to stop them. We have read endless columns on a variety of subjects which, like this one, drip with black grievance and blame all white people for all black failures. We have watched black assaults on whites for political reasons. We have watched the same government and police who would not stop BLM and Antifa from their racist violence then order businesses and churches closed and punish those who defied these orders. We have watched people who dared to defend themselves or their property arrested, charged, and prosecuted by the same government and police who would not protect them from the anti white racist mob. We have been ordered to remain in our homes unless we fall into certain approved government criteria. Government is now changing rules to make previously legal firearms and accessories illegal.

    It looks a lot like race war and government takeover are well underway. Thank you. I will add those to the list of conspiracy theories that have come true along with;
    Normalization of homosexuality is a pathway to normalizing pedophilia.
    Chemtrails are a way to change the environment. Bill Gates research paper. Look it up.
    Motorvoter acts are leading directly to illegals and other disqualified persons voting

    • I agree with most of what you say, but that bit about acceptance of homosexuality leading to pedophilia makes no sense, I’ll have to see that one.

      • @Larry,
        Already on it’s way to happening in (where else) CA. Check out SB-145 and think liberal judges…

      • LarryinTX says, “I agree with most of what you say, but that bit about acceptance of homosexuality leading to pedophilia makes no sense, I’ll have to see that one.” See Netflix -“Cuties” and “Tiny Pretty Things.”

        • Wife and I actually watched “cuties”, a couple hours I’ll never get back. Anybody thinks that has anything to do with pedophilia, kiddie porn, or any such is astonishingly innocent and inexperienced, or has not actually watched it. And likewise, it has nothing to do with homosexuality.

  11. Wow, Shes a woman with a gunm, that’s a good thing. Did I read something wrong? A lot of bashing going on. Guess I’m sleepy, but I thought She was saying gunms are good. ,,,why am I sleepy, because I been up all fckn night trying to find out the legal way to sling a rifle for open carry. Round and around, no definite answer. Guess I’ll have to call my local law enforcement agency. Oh gawd just shoot me now and get it over with, I hate talkin to “the fuzz” , remember when they used to be called the fuzz, lol, I’m going to crawl back to my burrow now.

    • Pay attention. The writer of the article is a male (well, based on its picture in the original article, I conclude it’s a man – these days, who knows?) The photo of the female (?) with the AR is just a random photo of someone holding a firearm.

      • Yeah, I didn’t realize this was a story about why Chuck Blows until I got to the by-line.

        I guess I assumed the author was in the picture.

        • “I guess I assumed the author was in the picture.”

          Easy mistake to make. I set my browsers to not show pictures unless permission granted.

      • “Pay attention.”

        The Possum has a good excuse for being ‘loopy’, he’s recovering from second and third degree burns. Narcotic pain killers will do that to ya.

        Possum, whatever you do, don’t mix drinking in your burrow with those pills, OK? 🙂

        • Setting a brush pile on fire using gasoline, them new safety cans ain’t so good, I had to take the top off and got gas slopped on me,. My new favorite past time is pulling dead skin off

    • In a Playboy cartoon years ago a cop ask a woman in a traffic stop, “Lady you ever been picked up by the fuzz?” The lady replied, “No but I bet it hurts like hell!”

  12. Charles Blow is an All Star idiot in the major league of idiocy called New York Media.
    You are dumber after reading one of his screeds.
    Just Don’t Do It.

  13. I have not read this article. The NYT wants me to sign up for their email list. I was on their list years ago. Until they stopped having any objectivity what so ever. I do know however who Charles Blow is. He is a “pink hand” black man who is socialist progressive in his political orientation.

    He has never supported civil rights. He has always followed the thinking of white Liberals. He has publicly called for gun control and gun confiscation many times in the past.

    The fact that so many law abiding blacks are buying guns is not something he his happy with. But too many now have guns and he does not want the police, who will be mostly white, forcibly taking their guns. Ya, that’s right I said it. Before, he was totally supportive of the police taking the guns from poor people. Law abiding or not.

    Even after the murders in a black South Carolina church by a white kid, he still didn’t support black gun ownership. He and many others in the Libertarian, Liberal and the Leftist community got want they wanted. The public in general to hate the cops.

    Now the gun business can’t keep up with the consumer demand. and I think it will never stop. Because the police will be defunded. and cops are leaving big city departments (democrat) everywhere.

  14. This article…BLOW’s. As an aside my older good friend(70 next month)now wants to get an AR. I guess I’m his guru😏

  15. It’s not fantasy Mr. Blow when you see his foot it all over the country. Others nations decided to go gun free and it worked out for a few of them. Others not so much.

    I think we will take armed self protection for a thousand, Alex.

  16. After seeing antifa brownshirts burning and looting minority owned businesses who can blame black folks for wanting to arm up?

    Racism is alive and well in America. Look to the fascist left for it being so.

  17. I guess America could have made everyone the same size and strength, with the same physical abilities, and prevented any groups from ganging up on fewer people, and have the same character and moral fiber not to do harm to anyone else, but we chose not to.

    We really blew it on that one.

  18. This reads, not like a coherent article written by a rational person, but like a case study in a Logic 101 course – a bunch of cut-and-pastes showing people fully aware of facts but leaping to the exact opposite of the self-evident conclusions:

    “more stringent gun control. . . . law enforcement everywhere, reachable as quickly as one could dial 911 [on] cellphones. Armed crimes were rampant as well as shootings and gun-related homicides. There were mass shootings and drive-by shootings,” No doubt where this is going, right? Except instead, it’s “In my mind, city dwellers simply didn’t have the same need for weapons as the people in the rural community”. WTF?

    He observed, or at least received a strong impression of, rampant crime, shootings and homicides, mass shootings and drive-by shootings – but dismisses the rationale for owning guns as “a dystopian fantasy”. Seriously?

  19. Grew up in the 70s, part of the curriculum for English Lit was the reading of 1984, Animal Farm, and Fahrenheit 451. I am betting that you would have a hard time locating a copy of any of them in a modern school library, or perhaps they have all been banned altogether. Health classes used NRA safe gun handling manuals (pre Eddie Eagle) also….those truly were “the days” !!!

    • Most school librarians resist their communities’ pressure to ban those books.

      But if you want to read a great, subversive book–as a fifth-grader, I found Robert Heinlein’s “Red Planet” in the school library.

      It’s a great, entertaining, young-adult primer on constitutional law and living by and upholding the Bill of Rights, as a Martian colony resists Earth’s government and an evil corporation in a transparent re-enacting of the prewar American resistance to the British.

      I still own it in hardcover and read it every few years. Parents who lean toward censorship and authoritarianism should be careful of their kids (or their schoolmates’) reading it. Same is true of “All the Mowgli Stories” (not the highly abridged “Jungle Book”), “Mary Poppins” (NOT the movie!) and others I still treasure from my childhood.

      • “But if you want to read a great, subversive book–as a fifth-grader, I found Robert Heinlein’s “Red Planet” in the school library.”

        Heinlein got goofy in his later years, but “Red Planet” was a masterpiece, like “Tom Sawyer” not really being a children’s book.

        Aside: when stationed at Colorado Springs during the founding of Air Force Space Command, the Colonel and I made the trip to Heinlein’s former home (which you couldn’t see from the road; gated entry). It was still rewarding to see the overall landscape.

  20. Probably the cringiest article I’ve read here so far. I’d say I expect better, but there have a been a few in the past that left me wondering. By far though, this was the worst article so far. Is TTAG going SJW on us? Is all lost now?

    • “Is TTAG going SJW on us? Is all lost now?”

      How on Earth does one reach that question?

      Discussing something is not the same as endorsing it….unless one believes words are violence.

    • “Reports on German radio traffic and what those damned Gerries are SAYING? Has MI8 turned on us in favor of the Reich?”

      – Winston Churchill, upon reading signals intelligence reports, late 1940, unconfirmed quotation from anonymous sources.

      (Yes, /s)

  21. Dan Z., I had already read Charles Blow’s column (I don’t usually because I find him predictable and unenlightening–but his headline attracted me as I’m glad to see minorities, liberals, Democrats etc. arming up).

    Your headline misrepresents what Blow wrote, and you know it. He said America could have created a society in which (black) people felt safe without a need for firearms for personal and family defense.

    He had already acknowledged the many other common and lawful uses of guns. Nor is he disputing that black people and others might still choose to carry or own a gun for personal defense.

    I usually find you to be reasoned–you have a point of view, but you’re not usually inflammatory or a conspiracy-theory-monger. Likewise, I follow TTAG for useful information and varied viewpoints about firearms, society and the state of related laws and regs.

    Beyond that, the comments section is a horse of a different color. I find the illiteracy and outlandish, kneejerk, paranoid fantasies of many commenters both hilarious and skin-crawly.

    As a Jew, I was glad when Heller was decided–even though I’m not sure it was correct. The Holocaust, occurring in an “advanced” society and less than 100 years ago has always made me want to be able to protect myself, my family and my premises (currently, the latest of three “hobby” farms).

    With Trump dog-whistling support to white supremacists (Charlottesville: “very good people on both sides”!) and with record acts of violence against Jews and synagogues in the past four years, I’m not sitting meek and defenseless.

    The Pittsburgh synagogue massacre was committed by a guy who believed conspiracy theories about Jews’ supposed role in alleged global child trafficking. QAnon looniness? Maybe.

    Since summer, when the current craziness about the election was being foretold, I added to and modernized my 30-year-old arsenal. Any militarized, rear-guard Trump cultists who think they’re going to mess with me in my rural neighborhood are going to find fire met with fire. (Like the Texas guy who made news for tweeting to Trump that he and his buddies stand ready to come out in arms against the federal government if they get “the call.” And many others like him–including on here.)

    Fortunately, the lay of my land means no one can easily approach my house–they would get tied up in brambles, stymied by deep creekbeds, have to break through gates, and would trigger alerts and be identifiable and within effective range of my “MSR” (and then my 12 gauge) well before they could present any threat of harm to me and mine. And those are hardly my only means of defense.

    If I never need those tools for probably unlikely assaults and invasions–I agree with most of you that they’re fun to shoot and cool to own.

    P.S. I was named tops in my CCW classroom and field performance a few years back …. i.e., I know how to use firearms safely–and accurately/effectively. Unfortunately for my co-religionists and “fellow travelers,” I’m probably a VERY atypical as a gun-toting, bow-hunting, motorcycle riding, raise-my-own-meat social-democrat but politician-skeptical Jewboy. But I’m sure I’m not a “unicorn.”

    • You missed everything. The headline was correct. How many sentences in the article presented reference Black people feeling the need to protect themselves from their country (which includes YOU)? How much was about utopia, and the failure of America to create it? How much was about guilting Whites? How much was about how all lives matter, and all Americans should own guns because without utopia, there will be crime and there will be criminal attacks on innocent persons?

      Fact: when you bury your message in a garden of dissembling, your message is muddled, ineffective, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, feel good pablum perfectly suited to people who read NYT for anything other than humor and ridicule.

      (Note: this comment was meant to be confrontational)

    • “As a Jew, I was glad when Heller was decided–even though I’m not sure it was correct.”

      A citizen doesn’t have an absolute right to defend themselves from lethal attack?

      That’s a mighty… strange… stance for a Jew to take who knows what happend to their people in the 1930s-1940s Germany.

      If someone (say, a nation) doesn’t have your best interests in mind, do you seriously believe they will willingly give you ‘permission’ to own a gun?

    • “With Trump dog-whistling support to white supremacists (Charlottesville: “very good people on both sides”!) and with record acts of violence against Jews and synagogues in the past four years, I’m not sitting meek and defenseless.”

      Just a reminder. It was Jewish lawyers who supported and said, it was a great thing to have the KKK marching through black neighborhoods. As they carried their guns. Also it was an ACLU board member, a Jewish democrat state senator, from California. Who co-wrote the most racist gun control law in modern American history. The Mulford Act.

      The president who has Jewish grandchildren is not a racist. But he is often smeared by Jews who are racist. There is something called the 1st amendment in this country. Perhaps you have not heard of it.

      The 1st amendment is for everyone. Racist or not. Armed or unarmed. Religious or not. The ACLU does not support the 1st amendment rights of armed black people. But they have supported the free speech rights of the armed Klu Klux Klan.

  22. Australia and the UK could have chosen to be gun free, and they did….but it turns out, they aren’t. Lesson, anyone?

  23. I’d rather listen to Charles Blow’s mother, who is/was more realistic and wiser in her worldview. Blow never mentions what he did with the gun that she gave him. I would bet my bottom dollar that Blow is a first class hypocrite when it comes to his own personal defense. Blow knows that he is peddling garbage.

  24. Not one mention of gang violence. Not one mention of the black victims of the BLM and commie riots over the last ten months. Not one mention of the FACT that the overwhelming majority of blacks DO NOT want to see police defunded.

    According the Blow, Blacks acquire guns only because of evil YT.

    And he, and the NY Slimes, want to be taken seriously.

    • Shit yeah….. gotta be really cautious with a” high caliber, fully semi automatic, large bullet capacity clip- thingy, and a whatchamacallit that sticks out/up/down ,war machine like that…. give it an inch and it’ll likely assault yer fat ass just because it’s proven to be inherently evil. Scary shit, indeed!!

  25. Charles Blow is a “pink hand” black man who like most of his ilk project their racism and intolerance on to innocent people. People like him totally support the law enforcement/justice system. As long as Democrats control it. And they do totally control the worst crime ridden cities in the country.

    They like anarchy on their terms. The traditional family broken. Fathers replaced by government welfare. The fathers guns replaced by the guns of a big city police department. Democrat’s are sexually liberated so they support, $$$, a woman having 5 kids from five different men.

    Living in a “gun free” zone government housing project. Where the mothers are prosecuted for having sex with a man.
    And some of the school systems taken over by the pink hand, and the 2A education and rifle teams have been destroyed, at the schools.

  26. This struck me as hilarious! You see, when I went away to college, I gave my Mom a revolver “just in case”, since that left her alone at home.

  27. Stayce Robinson needs to be far better informed on the Second Amendment and the firearms issue and actively resist the deceitful “LBJ/KGB” anti-gun lies of the socialist elite! I endorse “Dial 911 and Die: The Shocking Truth About The Police Protection Myth” by Richard W. Stevens, and the online video: “No Guns For Negroes”. Both can be obtained from JPFO, Inc. at http://www.jpfo.org or viewed online at You Tube. JPFO, Inc. is “America’s Aggressive Civil Rights Organization” and is non-NRA affiliated.

  28. I’m 6’3″.. 300+ lbs.. powerlifter + 20 years martial arts…. in an unarmed world .. I own you (no slavery reference by the way)… and you’re just now getting it…?
    can’t fix stupid

  29. “….many Black people feel the need to defend themselves from their own country….”

    Well yea, bullshit. Swing low sweet kiss my ass.

  30. While we’d need to dig into a dataset that probably doesn’t exist to find out, I’d hazard the wild-ass guess that a major driver of folks buying guns in cities isn’t “the blacks” but rather the recent actions of black-clad middle class white kids *fighting oppression*.

      • Yup, that’s what I’m referring to.

        Interesting that when I lived in a real shit-hole neighborhood the people who didn’t get fucked with were like my neighbor three houses down. Black guy, mid-60’s, bought his place before the neighborhood went to shit. Kept his property up quite well and… always OCed a .357.

        Nice guy. Good taste in bourbon too.

  31. I have owned firearms for the last sixty (60) years because I enjoy competitive shooting and hunting. I began carrying the last twenty years for personal protection. My decision to carry was not because of black criminals or white criminals, it’s criminals period. If someone is breaking into my home, I am not going wait and see if they’re black or white, I’ll let Mr. 45 ACP make that call. Don’t let anyone try to fool you on why Black People are buying firearms, it’s the same reason that White People are buying, Self Protection. Safety is not a black or white issue, it’s a human race issue and that is to survive. So can we stop making this issue a black or white but a feeling safe in our homes and while we’re out and about.

    • Nicely said. Really doesn’t seem that confusing, wonder why no one in the media can get it? Or any politicians?

  32. I sure am glad that black people are finally following the advice of Colonel Jeff Cooper. The founder of Gun Sight. When he said give inner-city citizens their own guns. And they will solve their own problems themselves. It’s wonderful that black folks are following the advice of this old white Soldier.

    RIP sir.

    • Yup, I’ve said it before, if the cops would stay out of some parts of law enforcement things would eventually work themselves out.

  33. Funny how some people claim they tool up to fight the gov but when the wrong color tools up it gets bashed. ,,,, Heres a story about me finding out how black people see some white people. Years ago had me a rebel grey Ford pickem up, rebel flag( not for racial reasons, it’s my black eye to the gov) in the back window, twin rabbit ear antennaes,gunm rack,and cooler in the back, oh yeah a real Redneck Special so everybody thought I was some kinda supremacist. Anyways somebody painted in the streat in front of my black neighbors house , The South Will Rise Again. One evening one of the black kids come over to play with my kids and ask me, with a tearful look, ” You ain’t going to shoot my daddy are you?” I thought Wow poor kid. Went out to the garage and got some paint thinner and me and the kids had a scrub party. ,,,, Race keeps people divided, United we stand, divided we fall. Control of the masses thru racism, it has to stop, the division that is.

    • “United we stand, divided we fall.”

      We’ve been divided since the beginning of the nation. Reading history beyond the classroom, it is amazing just how antagonistic toward itself the country has been. We even had Civil War 2, and didn’t “fall”. Big stumble, messy events, but we didn’t “fall”. The nation was a bit different after, but we didn’t fall.

      Never forget, the original colonies were populated with troublesome people; it’s why they came here.

  34. The 2A ensures the constitution! Period! To defend it from ALL enemies domestic mostly, foreign as needed!

  35. Charles Blow should do a piece on what the gun murder/crime rate would be if blacks committed those crimes at the same rate of white people. He would see we would have gun grabbers almost to extinct, over the extremely low rates.

    What did this include that it requires moderation to post? So I know what to do to behave?

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