For Black and Latino gun owners, being armed "evens the playing field"

[Jilly_in_VA]

P.B. Gomez is a 23-year-old law student at the UC Berkeley School of Law interested in urban environmental justice policy. He's also the founder of the Latino Rifle Association (LRA), a politically progressive organization for Latino gun owners with left-leaning values who want to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

"Gun culture in the United States is largely toxic, and it's not welcoming," said Gomez. And he believes gun rights are for everyone: "I don't believe self defense, which is fundamentally about bodily autonomy, should be exclusive to people on the right politically."

The LRA website states membership is open to all racial groups so long as its mission and rules are respected. Since its formation in 2020, the LRA has attracted several hundred members across the U.S.

"Our biggest supporters have actually been leftists, have been socialists, progressives. You sort of have to have a distrust of authority. The police and the government aren't taking care of me, so I have to do things on my own," Gomez explained.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-latino-gun-owners-armed-cbsn-originals/

[canuckledragger]

1. If this gains traction...

Expect the conservatives to suddenly be all for gun control measures...

...just like they were when the Black Panthers took advantage of the existing laws to openly arm themselves.

Funny how that works, eh?

[Caliman73]

12. True.

The fastest way to get strict gun laws is the have scary Black and Brown people armed up. Reagan and the NRA were pushing loosening restrictions in California until the Black Panthers started their patrols and walked into the Capital building armed (which was not illegal at the time).

[bullwinkle428]

13. Bingo. People need to learn the history of the 1968 Gun Control Act.

A whole bunch of segregationist Senators from the South were instrumental in getting that passed.

[48656c6c6f20]

2. Well I guess we need to arm everyone

And the last standing wins?

[maxsolomon]

3. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Black & Latino gun owners are just as likely to shoot themselves or a loved one, and just as unlikely to actually defend themselves from mortal threat with their weapons.

Black & Latino gun ownership is far from a new thing.

[Act_of_Reparation]

4. You're not wrong.

But I understand why they would feel the way they do.

While it makes good policy sense to opt out of the "guns for personal protection" mentality, it's a hard fucking ask when there's a legion of racist fucksticks pointing their arsenals directly at you.

[maxsolomon]

5. I think there's less of that than there has been historically

But thanks to the Internet, examples of that threat (Ahmaud Arbery) are more widely known that ever before.

I am skeptical that the threat of a "Civil War" from MSSA-toting rural dickheads is as great as we urban Librulz think it is.

[Jilly_in_VA]

6. I'm not

I live out where they are. These people are crazy, drunk, and armed.

[Act_of_Reparation]

8. I don't know that there being "less of that" should come as any consolation.

I mean, it's not like there's an acceptable level of racially-motivated homicide beyond which people of color ought not to be concerned. As long as there are people out there who will kill you for being black in their neighborhood, I understand why people of color would feel the need to protect themselves, even if I don't agree that it is a reasonable course of action.

[maxsolomon]

11. I hear what you're saying.

I guess I'm looking for consoling thoughts anywhere I can these days.

But I do think Americans of recent generations lose sight of how things were prior to the struggles of the 60s - they were far worse than they are today for so many minority groups. The knowledge that Racism is losing is one of the reasons the BLM movement has sparked such a dumb backlash (All Lives Matter, etc.).

Regardless, a pistol isn't going to solve shit. Defensive Gun Uses are exceedingly rare, and usually excessive, despite the hosannahs they receive from Gunners.

[MagickMuffin]

7. Well if they join the gun club they'll get real training about guns and gun safety

Perhaps this would change things for the better. Of course anything involving guns is . . . . .?

[dalton99a]

9. Minorities should defend themselves and their family with every legal means available

The police are not their friends

[cinematicdiversions]

15. An armed neighbor is a much greater threat than the police.

I mean you are advocating the needless deaths of thousands of black men.

African Americans already shoot each other at rates much higher than average. Statiscally police killings of minorities are not statistically sinifigant compared to overall gun violence numbers.

[hunter]

10. Sounds dangerous.

I don't let anyone I'd care to shoot live in my head.

I'm a pacifist by necessity, not by any natural inclination.

Whenever I'm feeling other than pacifist there's a wicked knife scar on my arm I can contemplate and a gun related PTSD diagnosis.

If I wasn't some crazy guy who happened to be born white I'd probably be dead.

When I was young I had a few rough encounters with the police but they never shot me.

I don't respect gun fetishists or any sort. Gun fetishes are disgusting.

[tman]

14. I understand it. Trump's election changed everything.