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We’ve been saying that the NRA needs to reach out to minorities since we first hit the net. Maybe not all the people in this video, but the point remains. That doesn’t mean that the NRA should “moderate,” “sugar coat” or “compromise” its pro-Second Amendment stance. But it should do more to get African Americans, Hispanics and the LGBT community to join the NRA. Colion Noir is an excellent spokesman, but America’s largest gun rights group needs on-the-ground activists to get it done. Specifically, it needs to do what it can to get minorities to jump through all the hurdles needed to keep and bear arms. Gun owner first, NRA member second. If that’s even possible.

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134 COMMENTS

  1. I think the minority groups need to cast off the love of captivity before they start criticizing the NRA on their approach. You need to embrace limited government and freedom of property rights before you can think of defending yourself. That means fighting welfare, government regulation, class preference through affirmative action, and the EPA. What’s the point of defending your person and property if you let the government determine what you own and who is preferential in owning it.

      • Been trolling here long?
        He described the United States prior to the Great Depression, and arguably into the late 1960s, better than he described Zimbabwe.
        And yes, it is critical that you understand that nothing is free before you can understand that some things are worth fighting for.

        • Minorities do not want to go back to America before the great depression. Not everyone was as ‘free’ in this mythical idea of the country as people might like to believe.

        • @ Hannibal
          No one suggested we should, nor did anyone idealize any particular era of American history. However, the notion that prohibiting the US government from being involved in every corner of our lives is akin to making us no better than [insert third world country here] is patently absurd.

          Please explain how removing those programs would all of a sudden make people less free.

    • I think the minority groups need to cast off the love of captivity

      I think most Americans need to cast off their love of captivity; for themselves and/or for others).

      There are plenty of white gun-owning conservatives — including readers of this web site — who love captivity. It’s just that everybody — conservatives, liberals, libertarians, progressives, etc. — usually want it to be their brand of captivity.

      • That’s at the core of the problem today. Many people are too ignorant/lazy/scared to be free. Encourage all people to embrace true Liberty, with all of its responsibilities and risks, and we can get somewhere as a free nation.

        • I have come to realize that the masses are quite literally so browbeat that they don’t even realize it. Saying it another way, it is like their entire bodies have been totally bruised for so long that they don’t have any idea what life is like to have a body without bruises.

          This became apparent to me a few months after I started carrying a handgun in an automobile. It was strange at first because my whole life I was conditioned to NEVER carry a handgun into a car. It was always supposed to be locked in a container in the trunk. And then it occurred to me how refreshing it was that I could carry any and all handguns in the car any way I want … on my hip, on the seat, on the floor, in a container, in the open, whatever.

          And I recently remembered this during the deer hunting season. I felt so deflated that I had to unload, encase, and lock my rifle in the trunk. Why can’t it sit on the back seat? Why does it have to be encased? Why does the state tell me that I am not a criminal if I have a loaded handgun in my vehicle but I am a criminal if I have a rifle (loaded or unloaded) on the back seat?

        • true Liberty, with all of its responsibilities and risks

          So are you in favor of eliminating “corporate personhood”, a legal fiction which allows corporate officers/directors/executives to externalize the costs of their incompetence, mistakes, and malfeasance onto a company’s shareholders, customers, employees, and society at large?

          Because if you’re not, then I’m not terribly interested in your thoughts about “true Liberty, with all of its responsibilities and risks”.

        • @ anonymous

          I don’t know how you conflate your rant on corporations against personal liberties. Well, I take that back, I think I know, but your reasoning is so stretched that it borders on idiocy. To correspond the two, the notion of Liberty as applied to individual persuit of freedom in conjunction with personal responsibility, and the application of laws to corporations and individuals based on tax and legality purposes is well stupid to say the least. It should make no difference if I start a business alone or pool resources with other individuals to form a corporation and either company would expect the same rights, responsibilities and protections under the law.

        • @uncommon_sense: For me, it was the opposite experience. I’ve carried all of my life. As time marched on, I witnessed even more restrictions. That was the shock to me. I would get quite pissed about it… to the point that I ignored the infringements wherever I figured the risk was worth it. Decades of quiet, regular civil disobedience was the main thing that kept me from blowing a gasket about it. To me, living in 2014, we are far less free and it still pisses me off.

          @anonymous: I do not support the legal fiction that corporations are persons. Having said that, why would I give a damn what you’re “terribly interested in” or not? Hint: I don’t. 😉 Liberty is the only way you will be free. If you don’t embrace it and all that it entails then you will NEVER be free. It’s your loss, bud, and it’s no epithelium off of my schnozzola either way.

    • In other words, be a conservative or you’re not pro2A?

      I call BS on that. That sort of narrow-minded thoughtlessness will give the antis even moe recruits.

      • I have read the above comments over and over. I still can’t understand how you can up with that comment. Although I do agree with the second part of your statement. I fail to see what comment provoked that question. Nowhere did anyone say you need to be a conservative. Please elaborate.

      • Since the right to keep and bear arms (for the purpose of defending yourself, your family, your community) is a natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right it would seem obvious that EVERYONE should support the Second Amendment, assuming they understood it and why it was important.

        That said, it comes down to the reasons individuals and groups want to maintain their 2A rights. It can be shown through analysis of history and current efforts, that conservatives, generally, support the Second Amendment as a means of defending themselves AND the principles on which this country was founded. Aside from persons known to be antithetical to those goals they hold that the right is universal.

        However, throughout history the Progressives and socialists and other statists have generally believed and worked towards the limitation of the RKBA to their political faction(s) and to restrict as drastically as possible the ability of their opposition to freely exercise their 2A rights.

        For this reason, and this reason alone, reasonable conservatives (not right wing nut jobs) are sincerely concerned when persons who tend to big government politically claim their right to keep and bear arms while actively supporting the political factions that are working at every opportunity to repeal and or otherwise deny those rights to everyone, including them.

        As for the NRA, their logical option here, if they wanted to recruit ethnic or economic minorities, would be to offer free or low-cost assistance to navigating the bureaucratic morass so that minorities could obtain their (unconstitutional) FOIDs, permits, licenses, etc.

  2. It’s not that simple.

    Before you can park in a space you gotta tow the occupant first.Right now, the NRAs name is poison in many ethnic communities.Part of that is political agitprop in many urban, ethnic neighborhoods.(big evil NRA conspiracy collecting money while hoods shoot each other)…but most of the story comes from a cultural norm which says thugs on the street are just oppressed souls, but a man with a rifle under his roof is a criminal waiting to happen.

    That’s the case, because the race baiter crowd like Al Sharpton and his ilk in churches all over America don’t put the blame for criminal conduct at the feet of the black thug.They blame everyone else-it’s the white man’s fault Ray Ray shot someone and is in Maximum Secuirty, because the White Man is trucking guns into the ghetto to keep the black community down.I wish I was making that up, but that’s what the so called pastor of my familys church said one Sunday morning.Blaming law abiding gun owners and the NRA is the cultural equivalent of blaming a pencil for why a student failed a Calc exam.
    We in the black community have to eject the race baiting crooks all over our communities, start taking ownership of our cultural baggage ,take the framed “Victim Card” off the wall , and start glorifying schoolwork and social progress, instead of dimebags and rims.

    To this day, my family doesn’t know I’m an NRA member.I’d probably be disowned if they knew about that.Before the NRA can recruit members of the black community, we gotta get our house in order first.Otherwise, it’s like the Isreali Defense Force posting recruitment fliers in downtown Gaza.

    • “Right now, the NRAs name is poison in many ethnic communities.”

      Sorry, but I believe that the correct version of the above line is,
      “Right now, the NRAs name is poison in many communities.”

      I am a 2A activist, take newbies all the time, donate money, been to my state capitol at least a half dozen times in the last 5 years lobbying, and been to numerous rallies. Having said that I am NOT a NRA member and do not plan on becoming one.

      The reason is that I love to talk to and debate with people about 2A issues. Invariably in discussions with Anti’s they start complaining about the NRA and how terrible it is and how they are stopping gun control.

      I smile at them and say ” I am not a NRA member. I get my data from CDC and NAS. Could we please talk about the facts and issues and not some organization that I do not belong to.” The look on their face is usually priceless and they rarely have any good data or ideas on how to reduce violent crime.

      Not saying I do not vote the way the NRA recommends usually, but I feel I am far more effective as a 2A activist not being a member of the NRA.

      Jim

      Jim

      • same here. i get a way better conversation going when the find out i’m not a member, it’s funny cause you can have all the same talking points as the NRA and they actually start listening to them lol

      • Unfortunately, many private gun clubs require being a member of the NRA.

        Which is why I’m a life-member. I paid my dues a long time ago, and they haven’t gotten a penny from me in the past 10 years.

        • One more reason why I will probably never be a member of anyone’s private gun club. (The ability to shoot for free on public land where I can make my own range rules and be away from other people is the driving reason, but still…)

      • With me, it’s usually the opposite: people are surprised to learn that I own household firearms or am an NRA member. My 28 yr. old nephew-in-law was surprised for a different reason. He thought the NRA was strictly a social club and firearms fan club. When I explained, briefly, that it has century+ history of firearms safety and proficiency training, and in more recent decades has added civil rights defense as part of its mission, he came away with a whole new perspective. He’s not a member, but he’s not dismissive and ignorant of it anymore, either.

    • Hey ST, Prof. Thomas Sowell has written about the black anti-intellectual and glorification of the gangster culture in “Black red necks and white liberals”.
      He writes that that type of culture was originally set by the Scots/Irish when they immigrated to the south and that the anti-intellectual outlaw type mindset was more the norm for those groups at that time and that the blacks in the south first as slaves then as free men inculcated the surrounding culture. But that the southern Scots/Irish mostly gave up that culture; but that the blacks; through active support from the white liberal; actively fight to maintain the gangster culture as some type of cultural identity.
      Since I have Scottish ancestory, I found the book facinating and well documented.

      • There are some great Sowell videos on YouTube. Some of the best were back in the Free to Choose (1980) series where he and Milton Friedman debate the other side. I remember watching a recent interview for one of his books where he talks about why he didn’t run for office. He said he didn’t want to subject his family to it (which I respect), but he would have made a magnificent representative for us that love freedom and limited government.

    • Man I don’t know what it’s gonna take, but nothing short of monumental culture change. I’m sure it will start with something gradual, but I just don’t know where. Seeing the recent Chicago town hall coopted away from Al Sharpton was a great treat, but that needs to happen 1000x across America.

      I mean I just recently had a conversation with several black folks who were still pushing the idea of white guilt, of how white people still have a huge amount of debt to pay from slavery and the Jim Crow era. I’ve been told that whites should be taxed at higher rates than blacks. I’ve been told that my success in life is due in large part to the fact that my ancestors were white. I’ve even been told that my success was built on the backs of black people, even after I pointed out that my family emigrated from New Zealand and France in the late 1800s, never lived in the south, and were Washington wheat farmers for generations. Yet I’m still guilty of something and still owe the black community something, and by denying that “reality,” I’m a horrible awful racist.

      It means nothing to these people that the president is black, the AG is black, and that there are thousands of powerful black politicians and CEOs. They still think that this is the 1800s. and I’m convinced that they never listen to any voices outside of their immediate community, so how would they even know that outside of their little bubble, racism is pretty much over and has been for a long time – unless you ask a politician.

      I don’t know what can be done to erase that sort of victim mentality.

      I’m really glad to see that we have a lot of black 2A supporters here on TTAG, but I’m also sad to see a few of you stating that you don’t even want your family to know that you’re NRA members. I know family feuds can suck, but come on guys, you gotta help us pull our weight collectively, and get out there in your family and community and help change minds and attitudes.

      • I hear ya man. I’ve spent a lot of time in the black community from age 5-19 so I understand what you’re talking about, a culture change is much in need. What I continue to observe, things haven’t changed much. Minorities (and women) need to stop acting like victims and start acting like they’re empowered because they are. I don’t keep friends of any color, including white, that cower and act like victims. It’s pathetic, how can one keep company with those that they don’t respect.

        Last time I looked at the color of the skin of locally and federally elected politicians it was majority white so I guess that means that I’m oppressed by the white man too. Guess I need to go out and rape, murder and steal.

      • The annoying part is that it’s also what is taught in many universities these days, apparently. Have a read:
        http://scounsel.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/examples_of_racial_microaggressions2.pdf

        So basically:
        – if you’re white, you’re racist
        – being colorblind and otherwise not “acknowledging” race is racist
        – hanging pictures of American presidents on the wall is racist
        – if you refuse to acknowledge that you’re racist, that in and of itself makes you racist

      • I say screw the NRA. Mr. “Video games” LaPierre making near $1,000,000 salary? Fuck that. $0.40 of every dollar going to straight to fund raising? Fuck that.

        Also, consider the inherent incentive structure. If the NRA does too good of a job, their revenue stream dries up. The post Newtown gun grabbing fiesta was/is a financial windfall for LaPierre and his overpaid cohorts. They need the problem because they profit from it.

        The root of the problem is that we have a group of people who are (illegitimately) ordained by society to have the authority to initiate the use of force (government). Think about it. The only thing you can do with the initiation of the use of force is bad stuff. If it was good it wouldn’t need to be forced.

    • While all or most of these arguments are valid, especially the political demonization of the supposedly OFWG good ole boy club NRA image, I think we are missing an important point:

      Most of the heavily ethnic neighborhoods are in big-city urban environments where the RKBA has been heavily restricted or outright denied to law-abiding citizens for a long, long time. We needn’t discuss here and now that these restrictions were enacted by the politicians these ethnic minorities voted for over and over.

      When you live in a place that has for generations been removed from the ability to own a gun legally the NRA may very possibly be of very little interest to you since it does not seem to have any direct bearing on or benefit to your actual life. Add to that the agitprop that they don’t want you or care about you anyway because they are all a bunch of right-wing bigots and you are starting in a very deep hole.

  3. I dont get why some people hate themselves so much. All through school (80’s and 90’s) the black kids were saying stupid stuff like “we aint reading those white people books” and “math is for the crackers”. It was cool to be willfully ignorant apparently.

    Then they grow up and say “black people dont join the NRA” founded in part to help train minorities to defend themselves against Klansmen.

    You arent doing your perceived oppressors any harm by putting the chains on yourselves.

    • I would amend that to say the “…help train black people to defend themselves against Klansmens aka Democratic Party terrorists”

      The Party of Slavery has figured out a way to make black people oppressive themselves so they can pretend to be helpful. I once read a comment by Tom Sowell that [today’s] Democrats have done more to damage the lives of black people then the Klan had wanted to do.

    • +1.

      The entire “Black Folk Don’t” initiative is indicative of the the lack of leadership and independent thought coming from Blacks. After looking at several of its episodes, at its very core, it highlights and celebrates “Black Folk” ignorance. I just don’t get it.

      How about an initiative to solicit talk and address the real issues of Blacks: dissolution of the Black family, celebration of thuggery, and cultural acceptance of poor academic performance. It has been over 50 years of MORE than equal rights under the law- no more excuses.

      • Indeed. A lack of education and independent thought is a major culprit. Although there are some strong Republican / conservative values within the NRA that dissuade some minorities. A few more spokesmen like Mr. Colion Noir would continue to enhance the reputation of the NRA.

      • “The entire “Black Folk Don’t” initiative is indicative of the lack of leadership and independent thought coming from Blacks.”

        Not only that, but the constant refrain of “Black folk don’t…” actively discourages individuals from making independent decisions and choices by making them pariahs if they choose outside the accepted orthodoxy. With this mentality in their community it is always amazing to me how many do manage to break out on their own.

  4. The people in the video seem to carry that big city aroma of pompous arrogance about them…

    I have friends that I hunt with in east Texas -good, salt of earth, small town, country people- and, oh no, they’re black, NRA members…

    I live in a small town of under 5000- I’m half Latino and Caucasian- and, oh no, I’m an NRA member…

    This isn’t about black, white, brown, green, man, woman, its about large urban centers with city folks vs country and rural area with small town folks.

    By way of reference, NY state comes to mind.

    • Until the age of Progressive race baiting Latinos were considered white. We know this because there was no need for a Latino Jackie Robinson. I also note that I am part Romanian which modern genetic research has shown them to be the closest living people to the original Romans. That makes me more Latin than any of you other “Latinos.” Latin = Roman. Hispanics are actually Germans [Visigoths]. So the people who we identify as Latino are Germanic or of a Germanic/Asian (Native American) mix. The original inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula were Celtic peoples.

      • “The original inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula were Celtic peoples.”

        Until the Romans pushed them north into the world’s second biggest penal colony, Britain 🙂

      • whaaaaaat???? I’m calling BS on this one. Italy and that Roman Empire region is one of the most conquered, reconquered and invaded to be reconquered one more time for good measure areas in the world. There is no such thing as pure blood or pure ethnicity in that area of the world. All of us are mutts.

        • A-Rod:

          Those invasions occurred in the era of the declining Western Empire. The people we call Italians are Germanic Franks as you can see from the ethnic characteristics of Northern Italy where the Moors never reached in significant numbers. Southern Italians are a mix of Moors, Franks and Latins. Romania was the Florida of the Roman Empire. That’s where retired legionnaires went. Modern Romanians are a mix of Latin, Slavic and Turkic peoples but the still dominant genetic heritage of Romania is Latin as is the language.

          At the time of the birth of Christ Southeast Europe and Anatolia were predominantly Greek. Southern Europe was Latin and Western Europe was mostly Celtic. Over the next few hundred years the Germans move in to Western and Southern Europe and drove out/exterminated the Celts outside of the British Isles. Brittany remains the sole area in Western Europe that is ethnically Celtic. Slavs and Ottomans overran Southeast Europe and radically changed the ethnic composition of the region. The Turks finally expelled the Greek population from Anatolia after the First World War.

          So if you want truth in ethnic labeling I am far more “Latino” than the group defined by racist EEOC definition. Latin is now more a language group than a ethnicity. The EEOC does not classify Portuguese speakers as “Latinos” despite the fact that they represent about half the population of Latin America.

        • tdiinva: An impressive rundown. Some of that I knew, most of it I’ll take your word.

          I was going to make a similar point about the Latin designation — it’s a linguistic heritage that’s been reapplied (misapplied) as a cultural/ethnic term. Which it is not.

          Surprised to hear that Portuguese aren’t considered Latin by our benevolent government. Don’t they speak… Aren’t they… And what about Brazil? It’s a Portuguese speaking country. Ah, but Brazilians can be Latin…because apparently even a single drop of Native American blood makes you ethnically Roman?

          But I shouldn’t be surprised. That’s why we have the Hispanic (white) category made famous by the media’s Zimmerman hack job. Have to separate those troublesome Spaniards (and maybe the Portuguese) from the legitimate victim cultures. The crap that happens when someone puts the government in charge of “diversity”…

      • Well, I can’t say the I knew the origins of the term, but I do know I grew up in a predominately Mexican area… And, I was called a white boy and was made to understand early that one of these things was not like the others…

        My only saving grace was being 6’0 and around 200lbs by 15, some Brazilian Jui -Jitsu training didn’t hurt either.

        • Damn near my exact experience as well, Wuerro and white boy are two things Ive heard damn near my entire life and almost ALWAYS said dripping with disdain and disgust.

          I do not respond very politely to white boy anymore, but Im still smiling 🙂

        • Don’t confuse race and ethnicity. My father is from the Westside of Chicago and back in the day an Italian or Jew did not go into the Polish or Irish neighborhoods and vice versa.

        • I will remember that next time I’m getting my ass kicked for being born with light skin and having a white boy name…

        • You should be fortunate that you are only getting kicked. Walking in the wrong ethnic neighborhood in 1920s Chicago could get you killed. Oh, wait, how is that any different from today?

        • Maybe theres something wrong with Chicago, just sayin.

          @HellChild Too True. I always made a point to have a couple sharp pointy objects handy for that sort of thing.

      • “Until the age of Progressive race baiting Latinos were considered white. We know this because there was no need for a Latino Jackie Robinson.”

        I am sorry, but this is not true. Hispanics suffered real discrimination in baseball and in greater society. Read up on the way that Roberto Clemente was treated (hell, look at what the Jewish star Hank Greenberg went through, and he was as white as Casper). There were almost 600 confirmed lynchings of Hispanics: while no where near the number of African Americans lynched, it is a frighteningly large number. Latinos were not considered white.

        • Are you for real? They got to play major league. African-Americans didn’t. At one time guys like Eddie Collins and Moe Berg were discriminated against in baseball because they were educated.

          You really are invested in Progressive ideology aren’t you. I am surprised that you like guns.

        • Light skinned Hispanics were able to play in the major leagues, but darker skinned Hispanics were only able to play in the negro leagues. The second world war really opened things up for latino players since so many of the major leaguers were in the military. I agree that it was far easier for Latinos to be part of American society than Blacks, but they were not treated as whites. Sorry if you think I sound like a progressive and that you find it hard to believe I could like guns.

    • Bingo. Growing up in the rural south, I saw many black hunters. If not 2A absolutists, they were at least not brainwashed into believing guns were evil. This is as more a regional culture across all races as a racial culture across all regions. We only see the big city examples more often because the rest of us live in Flyover Land.

      • I shoot with several black guys each week. No clue their stance on the NRA, i woudl be they are members. But they’re not urban. They’re rural and suburban mostly.

        The big problem is proponents of urban culture claiming to be the mouth piece for an entire race of people.

        The people whom I have met are most outraged by race pimps are actual African Americans, who emigrated from Africa to be here. More often than not, their politics do not line up with traditional “African American” politics, at all.

        • Unfortunately that particular mouthpiece has a major news network on the side of it and it screams very loud 🙂

  5. The NRA has a lot of public image healing to do before it can get any credibility with minorities. They seem to be more or less on the right track now, but too many people remember them as the people who’d hold a pro-gun rally like clockwork the day after a school shooting.

    If you want to know what most non gun owners think about the NRA, watch Bowling for Columbine. The image of the NRA presented there (bloodthirsty, incoherent old white men profiting off the deaths of children) is about in line with how a lot of people perceive it. That movie sucks for accuracy, but as a propaganda piece it’s absolutely brilliant.

    • “That movie sucks for accuracy, but as a propaganda piece it’s absolutely brilliant.”

      And you have just summed up Michael Moore’s career brilliantly. No one is better at tugging on heart strings.

  6. I often wonder, how many black men and women who are now arming themselves illegally could do so legally if they had the money? Certainly not all of them are actually prohibited persons, and I suspect many falsely see the black market as their only option for tooling up. Maybe there should be a push to familiarize the black community with the world of legal, private sales?

  7. The urban high crime black communities have WAY bigger problems welfare state 80% illegitimate births , horrible education, drugs. The main reason why I dont see urban blacks joining any gun rights group in the near future is urban black have been brainwashed into hating and blaming whites and conservitives for all their problems

    • Well … in a way, some white folks are at fault … at least those who have supported the drug war. The drug war has destroyed inner cities, by enabling gangs to gain power (by enabling them to be the provider of a product – rendered illegal – that has high demand, they have a source of revenue) and making them the most appealing option for too many young minority males (the allure of easy fame, friends, money, power, etc.).

      The drug war helps organized crime, which helps support the inner-city gangs, which helps lead to the destruction of the black communities inside cities.

      Welfare issues and other issues have also played a role … but too many whites have pushed for drug laws (many of which are racist in origin and in their application) and that has helped destroy too many black communities.

      Prohibition laws that make non-violent, non-fraudulent persons into felons are horrible laws. The simple act of possessing or consuming a plant is non-violent and non-fraudulent.

      • Please learn the difference between “discriminatory” and “racist”. “Racism” is thrown around in an age where legitimate, textbook racism is dead. Discrimination and prejudice still reign supreme, but I don’t think anybody believes anyone is genetically inferior at this point.

  8. I would sent the NRA $1,000 if they actually took that money and went to a city like Chicago or Atlanta and gave firearms safety classes in the roughest neighborhoods. If the NRA wants to win over the hearts and minds of many Americans then they need to launch longterm programs in the areas that need firearms education the most. But they won’t because it is like a third rail. They are not about to talk about or even hint at social issues. So by and large their demographics will remain White, Older and Those With Enough Money To Support A Firearms Habit. The NRA is in a real tough spot.

  9. I have been doing minority and female employment and business outreach for the past 30 years. No problem doing NRA and/or Second Ammendment outreach to the same clients. Contact me if there is an interest.

    • Bless you, Will. If nobody contacts you, may I suggest that you reach out to the NRA or any Liberty organization that might be willing to partner with you. For a long time, I’ve wanted to go into impoverished urban areas (similar to some of those that I grew up in) to educate and encourage the RKBA and individual Liberty. Present finances and health prevent me. However, should my health ever again allow it, that’s one of the things I’d like to do.

      IMHO, you’re on the right track and groups like the NRA ought to be lining up outside your door to get it done.

      Edit:Might I also suggest that if you have a website or perhaps build a small blog or site where you can solicit donations for a well explained plan to add that outreach to your present work it could generate some seed revenue to begin. If my health allowed, I’d be inclined to set up the site or blog and then drop links in gun and Liberty forums and blogs as well as FB and alongside my online news media comments on articles.

  10. I think the NRA needs to do more to educate on it’s message.. I am seriously bothered by the one woman’s comment that alleged that MLK Jr. tried to buy a firearm but was denied, and that somehow that is the doing of the NRA…? I don’t understand how someone can make the leap (and it is a huge one) that the NRA controls gun laws and who should/shouldn’t own firearms?? I WISH that the NRA had that power, because from what I’ve seen the NRA would be totally happy if EVERY American had legally owned firearms… Thoughts?

    • It’s an interesting thought. I’m an NRA member, but not someone who believes that Wayne LaPierre is the second coming. There are a lot of times that I flat out disagree with them because they seem a little too eager to compromise in a lot of cases….

      But if they were suddenly given carte blanche over gun control? It’s a massive IF, but if they were given such total control I can see an immediate end to all infringements on RKBA.

    • I agree with your larger point, but unfortunately the woman’s leap of logic concerning the NRA controlling the gun laws that denied MLK’s permit is a smaller one than many of us would like to admit. Prior to the late seventies, the NRA’s focus was almost exclusively on marksmanship training, target shooting competitions, and environmental conservation; with hardly any meaningful opposition to gun control laws, and in some cases outright support for gun control. In the thirties, the president of the NRA at the time, Karl T. Frederick, was instrumental in drafting and supporting the model Uniform Firearms Act. The UFA was adopted in many states, including Alabama, and required a permit to carry a gun that would only be issued to someone with a “proper reason to carry”, among other limitations. How likely was it that a black man’s carry permit would be signed off on by a KKK-sympathetic LEO in Alabama?

      I’m not arguing that the NRA as an organization was racist, it wasn’t, but any restrictions on firearms, no matter how “reasonable” they sounded to the hunting and target shooting membership, would have a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities in many parts of the country at the time. So, yes, the NRA’s historic support of the those laws did impact Martin Luther King Jr.’s ability to obtain a carry permit.

  11. “Needs to reach out” is pretty generic. Even the specific doing what they can to motivate minorities isn’t all that specific. I don’t really know what more we can expect the NRA to do. They have their black spokesman. They send Eddie the Eagle into some inner city schools, where allowed. They highlight in their literature the historical racist roots of gun control in the U.S. They discuss the current disparate impact of gun control on black communities, particularly in D.C. and Chicago. There are some black NRA members and they’re often encouraged to raise the topic of firearms freedom with their friends, family and neighbors. More creative marketing might help, as might showing up at black oriented events with a booth and pamphlets and someone familiar-looking to answer questions, but that would only go so far.

    Still, perhaps the greater issue isn’t insufficient push by the NRA, but rather massive inertia within the black community. This is a demographic that votes 90% for Democrats in general, and up to 99% for black Democrats, in particular. This, despite Democrats hawking a bankrupt philosophy that ravages blacks, their families and their futures: permanent welfare dependency, zero school choice, non-privatized social security accounts which the typical black man dies before drawing from and which cannot be bequethed. The list goes on and on.

    What it really comes down to is a black culture in this country which is not only set on a tragic course from the start, but also primed from birth to accept it and scapegoat it, all with a victim mentality. Given that the underlying principle of the NRA’s firearms freedom message is personal freedom coupled with individual accountability, it’s a daunting task making headway with a community whose mindset is alien and hostile to those very themes.

    • What makes you think the policy outcomes aren’t the ones intended? The Justice Department is now formulating polices on school discipline based on disparate impact. Black students are suspended in greater proportions than white/Asian students because white and Asian students refuse to act badly in proportion to their numbers. This net result of this policy will be that troublemakers and gangbangers will not be suspended. It will help destroy whatever learning environment that exists in minority dominated schools. The net result will be fewer black children getting an education. This will reinforce the welfare and gang cultures in the inner cities and keep the people voting for their white masters. Progressives are the new KKK.

      • No, they are FAR more dangerous than the KKK. For the most part the Klan was satisfied with simple violence against minorities at the time. Progressives have formed an ideology guaranteed to quash entire ethnic groups for generations to come.

      • I do think those outcomes are intended. I just don’t understand why blacks continue to support that party against their interests. I think I’ve read that that’s only been since about the New Deal or so, that prior to that blacks voted Republican. I haven’t ever researched that, though.

  12. It’s a tough row to hoe. Kenn Blanchard’s podcast is one of my favorites, and from listening it’s become clear to me that no matter how reasonably this gentle soul tried to preach the message of responsible firearm ownership and second amendment rights, his church audiences literally turned their back on him.

  13. I am Black and a proud LIFE MEMBER but it was sad at the convention in STL in 2012 to only see a few dozen of the tribe. Where is the NRA Director of Minority Outreach??

    BTW – the 2014 convention is in Indianapolis, not too far from Shannon Watts’ home, I mean the MAIG wholly-owned subsidiary MDA’s corporate HQ. Just sayin . . . 🙂

    • Now THERE is a headline I want to see….the aftermath of you walking by her house with an NRA t-shirt and an AR slung across your back 🙂

  14. What a great video… Really interesting.

    Honestly, I cringe at the sight of Wayne LaPierre. That HORRID post Sandy Hook speech aside, he just always comes across like an old man pointing his cane and telling kids to stay out of his rose garden. The NRA desperately needs a sharp, charismatic spokesperson.

    They also need to quit making commercials that sound like scare-mongering campaign ads and instead present the facts.

    • I agree that LaPierre needs to step back out of the spotlight for a while. They do have a couple of very bright, articulate celebrities that either are or were on the board, however. Off the top of my head Ted Nugent, Chuck Norris, Tom Selleck. I still watch Tom Selleck’s Rosie O’Donnell interview when I need to brighten my day…..

        • I like Nugent because he doesn’t BS. Whatever he thinks about a topic is what tends to come out. That would be the drawback….most people can’t distinguish someone like that from someone that’s just trying to be a prick. So, agreed.

          Chuck Norris is actually listed as a celebrity spokesperson, but that was on a list on meetthenra.org that includes several people I know to be dead….

          If he is a celebrity spokesperson we definitely need to hear more from him.

        • Nugent is not the right spokesman for people who are on the fence about guns or… anything else. He’s the kind of guy who can raise money preaching to the choir, though.

        • I think Nugent would be an OK guy to go shooting with, then have a beer and a BBQ with later, but he isn’t the guy to represent us.

  15. As several have said above, the NRA has a tough row to hoe here. I’m fairly confident in the statement that not a single person reading here hasn’t experienced being in a gun store or at a gun show (or even at a gun range) and hearing something said that was not-just-a-little-bit racist. Whether the person saying that thing was an NRA member or not, that exact person is the stereotypical NRA member, in many folks’ eyes. And I’m not sure how you change that.

    Could I promise a black person that if they went to the NRA convention, they wouldn’t hear a single bit of racism? I suppose it’s possible, but I wouldn’t be confident making that statement. It wouldn’t come from the official materials or spokespeople, certainly, but in the hallways and on the convention floor? The sly comment, followed by the chuckles? That goes double right now, with Obama in office, because it seems some people can’t criticize him without delving into some form of racist comments. (Of course, that’s more than balanced out by the folks that take any attack on Obama of any kind as “you must be racist.)

    Anyway, yeah. Tough row to hoe. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see another organization, like GOA, become the “black man’s NRA,” because at least they don’t have the historical (correct or not) negative name association.

    • I am a formerly anti-gun Black man. I went to my first gun show in 2012. All my life I had been told that gun people are a bunch of racist hicks. I was at the show for 30 minutes, was feeling real good about how nice everyone was, and then saw an anti Obama bumper sticker for sale displayed prominently using a variation of the word “ni##er” on it… All it takes is one bad apple…

      There are no good answers. I was really disturbed at some of the things so called “Second Amendment Advocates” said when Mandela died. You know, the kind of people who love the Jefferson “tree of liberty” quote. The kind of people who think the Founding Fathers were patriots even though they owned other people as property. And yet when Mandela died it was “OMG, he was a commie who wanted revolution!” Or, “OMG, scary black man wants a gun to fight oppression!!!! Why couldn’t he have been more like MLK?” If you think your RKBA is “better” than the ANC’s during apartheid, then you are deluded at best and evil at worst. If you think that the RKBA is dependent on whether or not you believe in socialized medicine, then you are worse than Feinstein.

      The NRA video above is many things – ignorant, wrong, etc. But their suspicion that many NRAers believe in “RKBA for me but not for thee” is on the mark…

      • And what is the vaunted Mandela legacy? Well.

        Today, South Africa ranks 69th in the world on the Cato Institute’s Worldwide Index of Human Freedom. That’s well below such paragons of Jeffersonian democracy as Mexico, Namibia and Papua New Guinea, and only a step ahead of Madagascar.

        Meanwhile, on Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, South Africa clocks in at a stellar 74th place. That’s well behind such bastions of laissez-fare capitalism as Kazakstan, Albania, and Rwanda, and only a shade removed from Mongolia.

        Hmm…sounds like same chains, different master, to me, and Mandela’s RKBA was a license to conduct business as usual. There, fixed it for you.

        • So South Africa has problems. It had problems before Mandela, too. Where did it rank before, especially for the black majority?

          if history shows one thing over and over, it’s that revolutions devolve into vengeance (French Revolution, anyone?) and naked power grabs.

          If nothing else, Mandela deserves credit for making sure the victory against apartheid didn’t turn into the kind of literal cultural war that’s consuming some of South Africa’s neighbors and blighting the so-called Arab Spring.

          He may not have made the perfect society, but when he could have arrogated the whole nation to himself, purged his enemies, and become dictator for life, he chose not to. That’s an extraordinary thing.

        • I don’t believe anyone should be a slave. I wouldn’t accept that about you. I certainly won’t accept that from you.

          What I would say is that we often delude ourselves either by demonizing or lionizing history-making figures, sometimes by adorning them with fondness in mirror image of the contempt we have for those whom they oppose. Mandela fought apartheid. Apartheid is bad. So that must mean Mandela is good. Must it? Why can’t they both be bad?

          We should judge by actual outcomes. Mandela has a great personal story, no question. Simply surviving in prison all those years would have been beyond me, I’m sure. But as for what he really accomplished that made a difference for most South Africans, I’m not seeing much. If he’s a big hero just because he didn’t start slaughtering people, then we’ve really lowered the bar on high station.

        • Jonathan, I’d say history and human nature have set the bar, and compared to our ideals it is appallingly low. But otherwise, well put.

      • You have a good point about the for-me-not-thee attitude. It may be inherited or unintended, but people can feel it even when nobody seems to know it’s there.

        As for Mandela, good point also. I can’t get behind the deification that’s been going on, but he was an extraordinary man, comparable to America’s Founding Fathers — who actually started a war. Think of how vengeful he could have been…and yet when his political enemies were finally defeated, he set a tone of respect and conciliation and did his level best to build a nation that worked equally for everyone. He wasn’t a saint — just one of the world’s truly great people. (And then the Nobel Peace Prize went to someone who had done pretty much nothing. What a crock.)

        • As part of a volunteer job, I ended up doing some background research on Mandela just after his death. At that time I had a “somewhat negative” opinion of him, and was irritated by the “Saint Nelson” nonsense of so many.
          During the research, I discovered what someone else noted: not a saint, but with some good qualities as well.
          – While in prison, he decided to learn the language (Afrikaans) of his main enemy tribe, to better understand and communicate with them.
          – He renounced terrrorism (and ended up divorcing his wife, who never really did).
          – He advocated and gave his enemies the same forgiveness for past action that he sought for himself and his supporters.
          Not perfect by a long shot — nor is the country he led for many years. He never fully caught on that socialism is another form of slavery. To some extent, the major influence has just shifted tribes (from the Boers to the Xhosas — the majority tribe is Zulu). He did not forcefully oppose enough current racist violence (and crime in general) such as “farmer-murder” (/plaasmorde/) and “kill the Boer” rhetoric. Then again, after he left the presidency, his political clout seems to have dried up as well, so perhaps there was little he even *could* do.

          That said, the subject is not Mandela, but how to help more Americans value their civil right to keep and to bear arms. This includes those who don’t accept other civil rights. (I think that might come to them over time, but it’s not the specific issue.)

    • Excuses, excuses. I can’t go into Starbucks or to a college campus or watch T.V. without being subjected to racism. Fifty different slurs variously ridiculing someone’s gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or intellectual ability, if used in the workplace, classroom, on T.V. or even just among polite company, would get you fired, expelled, cancelled or shunned. If coupled with the commission of a crime, can get you seriously jammed up.

      Meanwhile, everyone’s free, even encouraged, to say “redneck” or “hillbilly” or “bubba”, smears which roll up pretty much all of those prejudices into one tip-of-the-tongue sized taunt. And yet, people referred to by those terms go on about their lives and earn their successes without using anyone else’s mere bigotry, real or imagined, as an excuse for their own failures. It doesn’t transform them into bitter clingers to their guns and religion, either. Neither should blacks get a pass on acting in their own best interest because a group they know nothing about, doesn’t dispel a myth they’ve done nothing to create.

      If people are out there judging a millions strong organization without knowing the first thing firsthand about it, then what’s to be done with them? Engaging them is apt to generate more heat than light.

  16. I watched this video that colion noir posted a couple of hours ago, and it boggles my mind how my community views the NRA in a negative light. Maybe because I’m from the state of SC and have been in the military since I joined 18, I have had a healthy love of firearms and the NRA. I find fault with “black people don’t” because I’m black young and a proud member of the NRA.

    • I think that’s the major problem with a discussion like this, it’s hard to have without stereotyping someone, somewhere.

      If I may, I don’t think the solution to the underlying “Black people don’t join the NRA” question isn’t that they need to market specifically to minorities, but that their membership (that’d be us, folks) need to make themselves more visible.

      Today it’s “Black people aren’t gun people.”

      A few weeks ago it was “Guys like Dan Zimmerman aren’t gun people.”

      The actual fact is that NRA members specifically and “gun people” in general are a far more diverse group than we are ever given credit for. If the NRA comes out and says “See, we’ve got all kinds of people” they will be immediately discredited as trying to cover their political asses with diversity. If their MEMBERSHIP becomes vocal about being a member then the stigma is more likely to change for the better. Suddenly it won’t be unusual for the black guy next door, or the white guy with glasses from the small town, or the single mom with three kids to be “gun people.”

    • Unfortunately for you and other black men if you’re successful you’re likely to be called an uncle tom negro by others in the black community. If you’re not “hood” enough or if you don’t “keep it in the streets” your an uncle tom negro. It’s a lose lose situation for you. I’ve seen this over and over and over as I grew up in a predominately black community.

      There were black (or african american or whatever you feel most comfortable with) people I grew up with that went on to do great things and you could see their potential even at a young age and because they didn’t posses enough thug qualities they were called uncle tom and made fun of behind their back by other blacks. My neighbor across the street is the one neighbor I talk to the most, we have a very good relationship, he cane come and go on my property as he pleases borrowing my wheel barrow or whatever else he needs, he’s welcome over my house for dinner or a beer any time, I would jump through hoops to help him out with whatever he needs; he not only holds down a day job but also has started his own consulting company. The man has his shit together. I can tell you what though, I take him in the ghetto and he will get dirty looks because he doesn’t have the ghetto accent when he talks; they will call him an uncle tom negro. His son is a good kid, an honorable marine, he also doesn’t speak in ghetto tongue….despite his accomplishments he is considered an uncle tom negro by the black community.

      Sorry, I have no solutions this time, I’m not sure how this culture change happens but I sure hope it does. Time for the black community to look inward instead of blaming everyone that’s not them. To be clear, you sound like your not in this group, life is full of distributions where there are typically outliers.

  17. The NRA (and associated groups) should only recruit people (all people) whose Number One Priority is the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

    LBGTs, Welfare Queens, Stoners, etc. have different No. 1 prorities. They’ll let gun owners carry the water for them to get what they want, but they’ll kick gun owners to the curb when RKBA politicos oppose their No. 1 prioriy politicos.

    The NRA’s support of various Democratic Politicians comes under fire on these pages, but they (the NRA) have no other policty but to support gun rights (and make money).

  18. I nominate Tom Selleck and Colion Noir to be co-presidents of the NRA. One’s a Hollywood guy (gasp) and the other is a non-white non-old guy (gasp).

  19. I’m going to ask this one more time…. Why does it need to be the NRA? Why can’t GOA or SAF pick up this torch and run with it?

    It seems to me that the NRA is a non-starter for most minorities (right/wrong as that may be). But if minorities were courted to participate in the defense of our RKBA through other organizations, they might in time actually back into the NRA naturally – or not, but it wouldn’t matter, as long as they are participating. That’s what is really important.

    Unfortunately right now, most of the minorities that I know who own guns have one over-riding feeling – sometimes voiced, most times not. That is, “Its not about gun rights , I am going to be treated as a criminal by the system anyways, so what difference does it make whether I own legally or not.” So not participating in Gun Rights organizations is as much about laying low as it is about not having to rub elbows with the assumed red-neck racists that do.

    • Because promoting certain people as victims is an entire industry. If the GOA or the SAF were more effective than the NRA, they would also be propaganda targets for the victim industry.

      And not only the Right to Keep and Bear Arms organizations, but any group that supports self-reliance and self-responsibility will find, and have found, themselves targets.

  20. The guys soliciting membership at the NRA table at my local Cabela’s are often African American. There’s an exception to every generalization.

  21. I am hopeful that the NRA population is diversifying on its own. As a retired military member, I identified with the woman who mentioned she had family members in the service. This is one HUGE natural pipeline to NRA membership.

    I thought the women who created this video did a good job, even if it did have a big city (anti gun) vibe to it.

  22. Frankly I’m tired of being told I have to reach out to “minorities”. The deal is out there, the goods are on offer, let the other guy reach out for a change. If he can’t see what’s good for him why is it my problem?

  23. I think we need outreach into urban areas … especially the 41 or so “shall issue” (concealed handgun carry license) states. There are millions of inner city folks who are convinced that it is illegal for them to be armed in public … and probably plenty who think it is even illegal to be armed at home. There has to be a large number of them that would love to be armed in public (for self defense) and simply have no idea that it is legal.

    We have to first open their eyes to new possibilities before anything else can happen. That is why I think peaceful open carry marches into urban areas could be fruitful. Such marches would convey two messages loud and clear:
    (1) Citizens can be legally armed in public.
    (2) Armed citizens care enough about urban residents to demonstrate this truth with them.
    Both messages dispel hugely intrenched falsehoods of urban culture.

    Along the same lines, I think similar peaceful marches should happen regularly near schools and universities to demonstrate the same truths to our next generation.

  24. Because they see it for what it truly is. Another NPO that brings in Millions and pays it top execs 6 figures. Kind of like the Wounded Warrior Project.

  25. African-Americans will never join the NRA en masse. Those who join now are criticized for not being black enough. Peer pressure can be a killer.

    • I’ve seen black peer pressure on other blacks first hand on issue other than guns.

      Try having a friend who is a highly successful, MSEE-holding black… and being in the company of other blacks sometime. The black women would always start in first:

      “Why you hanging out with that whitey?”

      “Well, because he’s an electrical engineer too. We work together.”

      “You done sold out.”

      “You were just complaining how you can’t find a black man with a job, a car and a house. Here I am, and now you say I ‘sold out’. Sucks to be you.”

      And now the screeching would start. At high volumes, I might add.

      This man was more successful than I at that point in my life. Great engineering skills, worked his way into being a really hot consultant for big bucks. We’d go into all-night soba joints in LA and surprise the Asian regulars by sauntering into their noodle shops at 4 AM after an all-night coding session. He’d start a joke we never seemed to finish: “A black nerd and a white nerd walk into a Asian noodle joint…”

      Great times.

      Going to parties where there were US-raised black women? Not a treat for either one of us.

      Another engineer I worked with was from Africa. Smart guy. Couldn’t understand why blacks wanted to call themselves “African-Americans” but then dumped a truckload of BS onto someone who was actually from Africa – but who was also educated, spoke four languages fluently (none of them American ghetto slang) and worked with white people. Most hilarious and sad debate I ever watched was American blacks (again, women) trying to explain the preference for the term “African-American” over “black.” His response was always the same: “You’re not from Africa. I am. I could call myself A-A, but don’t. I’m black. You’ve never even been to Africa, and you call yourself ‘African-American’, which simply doesn’t make sense.”

      Spectating at those parties was somewhat amusing, but in hindsight, very illuminating.

  26. How come nobody wants to promote the Second Amendment Foundation? It seems that the SAF has done more for gun rights in the U.S. than any other organization…

  27. I’m Hispanic, a lawful permanent resident, and a gun owner. I’m also an NRA member. I joined the NRA because their effects of the fight “trickles down” to permanent residents. But I don’t feel like the NRA is actively trying engage either (a) hispanics or (b) LPRs.

    The Second Amendment doesn’t directly apply to me, not being a citizen. However, after living the the US for 10+ years, and my kids being citizens, of course I support the fight.

    But I would certainly appreciate the NRA to somehow include LPRs on their messaging – would it be too hard to say “lawful gun owners, citizens and residents”? 🙂

    And please spare me the comments about “after 10 years you should apply to citizenship” – it’s not that easy.

  28. From my personal observation of heavily black neighborhoods in California and their crime problems in the 80’s and 90’s. any black who thinks that their root of their community’s problems is “the NRA” is delusional.

    LBJ’s “Great Society” has utterly destroyed the vast majority of the black community in the US. Where illegitimate birthrates were 29% in the black populace in the 50’s, they’re now about 74% and seeming to go higher. Recent stats are claiming that half of all black men have been in jail or prison at some point. Thomas Sowell makes a very strong case that the black family’s economic situation was improving markedly and steadily before the Civil Rights Act & Great Society legislation was passed, and it certainly took a downhill turn after that. Today, many black neighborhoods are more dangerous and economically deprived than many third-world countries.

    At some point, a coherent and rational group of people would have to look at the current results of their political fealty to the Democrats and realize that they’re getting hoodwinked rather badly, but that never seems to happen.

    LBJ might have been a racist cynic when he said that with the Great Society programs and the Civil Rights Act that he’d have blacks (he used a much less polite term) “voting Democrat for 100 years!,” but given the track record in the last 50 years, I’d say that LBJ was also a highly astute student of the populace. His prediction is halfway towards being absolutely true, as there is no other racial group in the US population that votes with such lock-step devotion to one political party. Given LBJ’s track record, I’ll go out on a limb and predict that the black vote won’t change much in the next 50 years, either.

  29. NGO’s (excluding religious organizations) are typically a white thing (though not always) – let alone a firearms related organization. Where non-whites do join NGO’s, it is usually related to their own specific group – ex. Chinese Tongs. NGO’s started w/ English speaking whites & that is who disproportionately fills their ranks even today.

    Indeed, show me the NGO that does have a very diverse ethnic/racial cross section of members. The few that do are usually youth organizations. It is a cultural thing. Most non-whites are not going to join the GOA, knife rights, or a quilting association.

    I

  30. Hispanics and blacks will never join because they are not real Americans, They are Anti-americans prone to love being controlled.

  31. It’s hard to think about “outreach” after watching a video like that, when it takes less than a minute for the speakers to delve into ignorance and outright lies. Case in point, the woman talking about the NRA’s alleged “history of discriminatory policies” in which the *government* denial of Martin Luther King Jr.’s concealed carry permit application is cited as an example.

    What’s needed first is a point-by-point rebuttal of all the lies contained in this video. Otherwise any form of outreach is a waste of time.

  32. Hmmm, black people don’t want to give up the guns they bought illegally, but want to take guns away from white people who purchased their guns legally. Sounds like black people have a plan to start killing disarmed white people. The fact that they claimed the NRA wants to hunt black people and are neo-Confederates, certainly suggests their intentions are violently inclined.

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