More African-Americans Support Carrying Legal Guns For Self-Defense

[hack89]

When James Craig was a young man in the 1970s, he says law-abiding people wouldn't dream of carrying guns. But then he left town to pursue a career in policing. In the years he was gone, Michigan liberalized its gun laws, making it easier for people to get concealed-carry permits.

When he came back to become Detroit's police chief in 2013, he found a whole new reality.

Police chiefs usually don't like the idea of citizens carrying concealed guns for self-defense, but Craig says he had to be realistic about the situation in his hometown. So he endorsed a trend that was already well under way — the trend toward more people carrying legal guns.

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 54 percent of blacks now see gun ownership as a good thing, something more likely to protect than harm. That's up from 29 percent just two years ago. In places like Detroit, more African-Americans are getting permits to carry concealed weapons.

http://www.npr.org/2015/04/02/396869889/more-african-americans-support-carrying-legal-guns-for-self-defense

Smart chief - who is AA btw.

[upaloopa]

1. Why is the chief smart?

Just wondering what is the reason this is smart.
We should carry guns because it is so dangerous not to? Or is it just a cool thing to get to do or what?
It is my impression that most people don't carry guns so most people don't thing it is that risky.

[sarisataka]

3. At least in part

it is due to the situation in Detroit.

"It was a well-known fact here in Detroit. People didn't have a lot of confidence that when they dialed 911, that the police were going to show up. In fact, we know they didn't."
- Detroit Police Chief James Craig

IIRC an article last year put the police response time to priority 1 calls at about 27 minutes. Many lower level calls either had a response time measured in days or no response at all.

If you know no one is coming when you call for help is then makes sense to be your own 911.

[hack89]

5. He took the time to study and understand the data

he understands that legal concealed carry is not a public safety issue. It is illegal gun ownership that is the problem. Unlike most gun controllers he looks at people, not guns, and understands that most legal gun owners can be trusted to carry guns in public.

[upaloopa]

6. Yes they can be trusted but I wasn't aware of the

need as someone above posted

[Eleanors38]

7. Have you heard of the Hewey P. Newton Gun Club? No need to wait.

[gejohnston]

8. has happened

Actually, walking in front of a polling place with a weapon, including a night stick, is a federal crime.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172159686

[Politicalboi]

9. It's sad but true

If more yokel gun owners saw more blacks arming themselves, they would either buy more guns, or demand more gun control. Somehow it's only white men who can carry a gun in public without ANY recourse.

[gejohnston]

10. I don't know about where you live

but where I live all races own guns and hunts, even when the USAF sent me to the rural south, blacks owned just as many guns as the whites. In fact, the only non gun owner where I worked in South Carolina was a white guy. He was also the only Republican. But then, he and I were the only whites in the shop.
Recommended reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Negroes-Gun-Black-Tradition-Arms-ebook/dp/B00E2RWQHM
BTW, if "yokel" means country or rural, then I know a lot of Democratic "yokels".

[Nuclear Unicorn]

13. No, I'm pretty sure it will be the controllers who scream the loudest and

tackle black gun owners as they walk into Wal-Mart.

[beevul]

14. "They should have broken his legs too"

I believe that was one sentiment.

[ileus]

4. Personal safety should always be job one no matter what race.

[Eleanors38]

11. That's a huge jump in 2 years. Perhaps Detroiters realized that the police cannot protect them.

Cut backs in LEOs have to figure in, but so also the huge geography of Detroit proper and its increasingly isolated pockets of vulnerable residences. The criminals and HyperPunks™ surely realize that a home invasion is not going to be dealt with in a timely fashion, so in they go.

These kind of numbers put a deep crack in the already crumbling edifice of the gun control/ban outlook which, in my opinion, depended on black community elites to prop up gun ban laws, and give Democratic Party elites something to point to in order to justify supporting the...

GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING (for the GOP).

Who knows? Maybe he black communities around the U.S. will be the undoing of this propped-up culture war.

[Puha Ekapi]

12. A large majority of Native Americans...

...are firearms owners. Here on the rez in Ft. Duchesne, I would estimate that at least 90% of the households have at least one firearm, and in my observation that pretty much holds true throughout NDN country. It's not just men that own them either, Granny is just as likely to have a shooting iron and the skill to use it. We are also overwhelmingly (85% or better) Democratic voters.

So much for the redneck teabagger stereotype....