The National Rifle Association is gradually moving away from its not-entirely-undeserved rep as a repository of OFWGs (Old Fat White Guys). The gun rights org’s decision to hire YouTube sensation Colion Noir as an official NRA spokesguy marked a sea change in the NRA’s modern marketing efforts. While we await a female African-American NRA front-of-the-house commentator (not to mention a Hispanic and openly gay team member), it’s important to realize that the NRA is reflecting the trend towards gun rights inclusivity (a.k.a., diversity), not creating it. You can see it at any urban gun range: men and women of color exercising their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. You can read it in our comments section. But you won’t see it or hear it in the mainstream celebration of Black History Month. Shame. As always, it’s a long road to freedom.
“…the trend towards gun rights inclusivity (a.k.a., diversity).” I’ll believe that when I can go to the range a single time and not hear racist comments. Latest gem: the guy wondering loudly to himself how those slant eyes can hit anything at all in reference to a group of younger asian men at the other end of the range.
It doesn’t make much to let you know you are not welcome to be part of the club.
Never once heard a single racist remark during hundreds of visits to ranges in RI, MA, NY, TX, FL, NV, etc. Where were you when you heard this?
I never heard any racist comments either at the range I go to in PA. I have however been called bigoted names by immigrants from old Warsaw countries.
Florida. More subtle in Central Florida, but when I lived in Jacksonville it was awful.
I don’t know what you look like Robert, but do you pass? There could be a reason you don’t hear these comments.
I have a friend of mixed race. She passes for either, and when people think she is one of them, that’s when she hears their true feelings.
Never heard it here in South Florida. Ranges I’ve been to have been very inclusive/encouraging/welcoming, even the shabbier ones.
So Manimal, since your commitment runs so deep as to be intensely offended about what you seem to describe as the plurality of customers comments about other races at that range, do you still go there?
Or was it just one or two racist customers who have an issue with others who are different than themselves.
The range(s) may have absolutely nothing to do with it. If it were located in an area having a different customer base, say all Asian, you don’t think there might be an occasional comment from some clown when YOU came in the door.
You may expect everywhere to be a perfect indiscriminate civil utopia, especially where gun enthusiasts hang out. Ain’t gonna happen in this world. Yes, degrading comments are demeaning, unfriendly and rude. Recognize it for what it is and move on. I’m sure your friend does not live in a vacuum and can see through the fog.
Get some ice cream.
I’m in Jacksonville. Been to most of the ranges in the area. Both public and private, never experienced anything of what you describe. I’m not your stereotypical looking Jew, my wife is Colombian. Never had any problems. We have met quite a diverse group of shooters, the only thing these people are interested is shooting their guns, and sometimes yours. Thanks to one of these trips, my wife’s lusting after a S&W .38 snubbie was cured and her fondness for a Micro DE was aroused. She loves her new DE.
Please tell me at which range you saw this.
You don’t know what he looks like? Just look at his avatar. He’s a big white cuddly type, bigger than usual nose and ears, kinda stubby appendages. Otherwise unremarkable. Oh yea, he’s got a huge gun too!
@Jax: What is actually funny is that your description works equally well for his pic on the author page with the KSG 🙂
Roscoe. You are arguing with a strawman of what you imagine I said. I never said it was a plurality of customers. Nor did I say the range had anything to do with it. Nor did I say I expect a utopia.
My whole point was that the NRA and shooting in general has a long way to go before it can wave the diversity flag.
JaxD, so you probably know the one place. Gateway shooting club. The dude that was being a tool there was actually a range master. I imagine they are volunteer or whatever, but that was like 5 years ago and he was a bitter old man so he is probably dead by now and the problem has fixed itself.
Gateway is great. We just became members. The ROs we’ve encountered have been helpful. But they don’t put up with any nonsense. Keep the newbies & yahoos in line. Haven’t run into the one you encountered, and glad for it.
Why should the entire community have to bear the responsibility for a single mans opinion? You sound suspiciously like the grabbers who equate all gun owners to murderers and bigots. I propose that you are in fact a bigot. What you witnessed was an opinion different from yours and many others. What you display here is a lack of tolerance for differing opinions. If opinions are really so offensive to you I hear the NY times is hiring people to delete undesirable comments on its web site.
Drew, learn to read. Where did I say all gun owners bore the responsibility?
Second, referring to someone as a slant eye is not a matter of opinion worthy of respect. Don’t play the pointing out bigotry means your the bigot card, sorry that logic died on the vine when most of us left middle school.
live in MD, and i go to a rifle range on the eastern shore often and people have never been anything BUT friendly to me.
I’ve occasionally heard some of the old timers at my range in NYC drop N-bombs, especially when talking about our president.
That has to be pure ignorance or bravado. For all his shortcomings BHO has absolutely NOTHING in common with what is generally considered the definition of n!gger. His African ancestry is pure and not of the slave tradition. He was not raised in some supposed racially oppressed American ghetto. He never belonged to a gang or struggled to make a life on the streets.
He is most likely a Marxist. He may not be a Muslim, but he is certainly sympathetic, his ties to Christianity through the Black Liberation Theology movement are equally tenuous, and he is 50% white American.
Obama is a lot of things, most of them bad, but to minimize those faults by announcing one’s simple racial bigotry only provides Him [intentional capital] with the race card to play that his negro heritage is the only reason anyone opposes him or his policies. Stop it, please.
I have not spent as much time at ranges as many of you, but I also have not heard any racism or controversial remarks, especially not when members of the disparaged race are present. It would take some form of major bigot with an IQ about room temperature to make such comments, seriously, at a venue where the person being insulted was obviously armed. Just sayin’.
I could see, however, that a “Good ole boys” gun club that was until recently entirely segregated might contain some prejudiced Neanderthal members who thought they could or should be able to say such things and get away with it. It is a shame, but some narrow-minded bigots do still infect our midst – and I can attest that they are not limited to any particular skin shade. It would probably not be difficult in or near some large urban areas to find “ethnic” shooting ranges where OFWGs would be persona non grata.
Ha ha! Especially when that bigot likely assumes that the “n!gger” he is bashing is certainly a gangbanger.
Really Manimal; what gun range do you go to that “every single time” you go you hear racist comments? What I hear at gun ranges are truthful comments about the delusion and denial of gun grabbers and the tyrannical over reach of government; but not racist comments; especially towards Asians.
I usually only hear praise for Asians as a group; they statistically have a higher percentage that start businesses; a higher percentage that get advanced degrees, they generally have very strong family values; they show that even first generation immigrants; with hard work and a good education; can succeed here America.
It’s called hyperbole, replace the phrase “every time” with frequently or often if it will get your panties out of your ass.
Ah, Manimal; you know when you start being derogatory; “get your panties out of your ass” you know you were in the wrong; your being defensive; so when you feeling defensive; you attack. Just graciously acknowledge you were wrong and you would get a lot more respect.
Incorrect.
For all their societal faults leading up to and during the Second World War, I think that even a brief consideration that their “slanty eyes” would make it difficult for Asians to aim at and hit a target would be disproved by the millions of people in the Pacific Theater who were all too successfully shot by Japanese, Chinese and Filipino troops.
Korea and Viet Nam only put an additional emphasis on how utterly ludicrous such a statement is on its face. (Pun intended)
Never heard anything of the like in Iowa, SD, or ND. Anyways… You get a mass of people together and you are going to have some racists in there. Big tents draw in a range of quality of thought. Its like saying I will only start listening to music once they get rid of all the misogyny and racist slurs out of rap.
Good point. Any large enough group will have its bad apples.
Slanty eyes give us Asians an advantage — wider peripheral vision and less reflected light to give away our position, like those slit covers snipers use. Plus we always look like we’re about to draw on you.
Not to mention Asian women are just plain hot.. no question about it.
I shoot in rural Ohio and have shot in Idaho and Arizona and never heard racism like that when attending a range. Sounds like you either just had bad luck or are making this stuff up.
It reminds me of the guy who always thinks people at the gym are judging him. People go there to do work, not waste time opining on you.
When I go to the local ranges here in So Cal. I’m the minority as a not-really-that-old not-too-fat white guy.
Wow. I never knew there was so much racism in Tr0llville.
Funny that… The one time I heard a “gook” comment about how their relatives in the “nam” couldn’t hit shit, I went over and excused myself from that group of asshats I did not know. I found out they were third generation ‘moung hilanders and were shooting either their grandpa’s M-1 carbines or comercial bought MOA at 50yds. Much better than the asshats! Not to mention better educated and spoken as well. By and by I showed them the scars where the other guys supposedly cool not shoot.
A great day at the range with good people in St. Louis.
If you see something,say something. Confront them (politely) and let them know that sh!t aint tolerated. More often than not, there is one asshole that is leading the crowd, a crowd that ordinarly wouldn’t entertain such nonsense
Well said!
err… written!
I personally make it a habit not to avoid stupid people doing stupid things, especially with guns with them.
Living in a town of self important retired hippies, they like to brag how tolerant and diverse they are, that they tend to be more paternalistic and condescending than any gun owner they might call racist.
We don’t need an openly gay team member.
Define “we.”
I can define it: TROLL.
“We” as in myself, Tom, and a plethora of other Americans who have grown tired of witnessing such profanities of the profane era in which “we” find ourselves.
What century are you from?
Does your town square still have pillories and stocks in it?
I’m amazed how many people have swallowed the gay propaganda.
Maybe you should start your own blog, The Truth About Gays.
It was inevitable, Tom. First they tell us that Negroes are people, then they tell us that women can vote… we all knew it’d come to this, eventually.
Don’t even get me started on that funky idea that Catholics are not all traitors. Especially the Irish.
Their are some disadvantages too going down a check list for your diversity hires.
Are there disadvantages to spelling properly, too?
Oh yes we do. A pistol packing, trigger pulling drag queen…I nominate Rupaul as TTAG, NRA spokesperson.
Along with a couple of lesbians. And a black hemophilia black Jew with public sexual identity issues. The tribal list is endless.
You said black twice.
But props for making me wonder what someone with a bleeding disorder has to do with discrimination….
Hemophilia is more common in Ashkenazi Jews than the general population. Due to the ritual circumcision, they were the first to discover it. A history of hemophilia in the family is one reason a Jew would not be circumcised.
Maybe he is trying to cram as many stereotypes in one sentence as he could.
I believe that Dennis Rodman is a confirmed prohibited person….
Right. My neighbor says I don’t need a standard capacity magazine either. We all have things that we don’t need but we want and/or are useful. Some gays have guns. Deal with it.
Several gay families in my neighborhood. Some of them even have “Stand and Fight” bumper stickers on their cars.
Probably don’t need no liberals with guns either do we?
Not worried about them, they disarm themselves.
If that were true we wouldn’t need to cling to ours so bitterly.
I’m an armed liberal. And you can try to come and take them if you want them.
There are two ways to read your comment. The first, and honestly the one I think you meant, is incredibly homophobic. A person’s sexual orientation does not automatically negate their natural, civil, and constitutionally protected rights.
The second, which I don’t think you meant, is that we don’t NEED an openly gay team member. I think stating it that way would be correct. The NRA does not actively work to keep any socio-ethnic group out. By saying that they NEED to allow them in can be perceived as apologizing for something they’re not guilty of (God this almost sounds like I’m defending the NRA…).
Black people, Hispanics, gays not joining an organization because of perceived discrimination, and it really is ONLY perceived, is just as racist/homophobic (heterophobic?) as the organization is believed to be. But it wouldn’t be politically correct to call that out for what it is….
All of that said, those socio-etchnic groups are not gun owners in the percentages that non-Hispanic whites are. So yes, as gun owners we SHOULD reach out to them and educate them on RKBA. But there’s something that doesn’t quite sit right about saying we NEED to……sounds like we’re making up for some wrong doing.
“socio-etchnic’, so homosexuals are an ethnic group? Or are you having a hard time calling it what it is, a mental illness?
And here is the root of the problem.
Probably with an emphasis on the “social” part in that case. Please disarm yourself and never associate with gun rights again. I’d like to be able to own AR-15s in 30 years and if I can’t it’ll be the fault of people like yourself inextricably tying the 2A to this Moral Majority nonsense.
And just when I thought the trolling couldn’t get any worse…
Please take this out back.
A phobia is a mental illness; it seems that you may have one.
It seems that no one has noticed that he did not say that gays should be discriminated against. He merely states that he finds them morally incorrect, as do I and many others, and that he does not want one to be a leader in our movement.
“I don’t want one on my team” is textbook discrimination. It’s not only government that can discriminate.
Well, now, it seems like someone’s manhood feels threatened.
Reflecting diversity is great. Creating it is fraudulently disgusting. Thank you for recognizing the difference.
Creating it artificially? Ever heard of the Pink Pistols? This a gay rights organization devoted to bringing 2A rights to the often physically attacked gay communities in the country. Started in SF, but I imagine they’ve spread out since then. Founded by a guy who was tired of getting beat up on his way home at night by gay bashers like Tom.
Indeed. I used to shoot with the Pink Pistols in Virginia.
On this theme, there is some controversy as to whether or not “gays” recruit into their ranks. I personally don’t care if they are recruited or just born that way. I had a cousin who was obviously homosexual in his mannerisms by his fifth birthday and eventually died of AIDS in San Francisco.
That said, I have never heard of bigoted homosexuals physically attacking heterosexual men in public, but gays are subject to frequent and often violent attacks themselves. They have as much right, and probably a more frequent need, to exercise their RKBA as any other American.
Gun rights absolutely are NOT political, any more than free speech rights are the purview of one party or the other. However, it seems that anti-gun action is only coming from one side of the political spectrum. Natural, spontaneous diversity in the gun rights supporting ranks is to be expected, for we have learned that an armed populace cannot become an oppressed people.
On the other side of the coin, I hope that a diversity of race, ethnicity, orientation and such does not portend a softness of our actions to take back ground lost to the anti-gunners. There is room in our movement for everybody who loves freedom, but no room for leftism.
Yeah; statists need not apply.
I have to disagree vehemently.
What we and our children are taught is that there are three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial.
As an immigrant from behind the iron curtain, and as Malcolm X and the California Black Panthers realized, there are actually FOUR branches of government, with the fourth being the Second Amendment.
That not only makes the Second Amendment political, but it makes it a potent political power in the hands of the people. It has to be wielded carefully and responsibly but as one of the speakers in the video said: it is the essence of America.
Anti-gun is only coming from one direction? I guess Reagan is now magically a leftist. It seems many people forget who actually signed much of the current anti-gun stuff into law.
The Republicans and the Democrats are part of the same branch of government, as DrVino points out, and hence are part of the problem, not the solution; both the legislative and the executive branches of government have historically been against the right of the people to keep and bear arms, a tradition that is thousands of years old. May have something to do with “self-preservation”. Unarmed sheep are more tractable, pay their taxes, and serve the State when called, without questioning authority. Free men think about it first.
How easy it is to pretend that the majority of anti Second Amendment legislation all through our nation’s history has not been promoted, pushed and passed by the Liberal/Progressive left, up to and including the current batch of proto-fascists, and pretend that the nemesis of the Progressives, Ronald Reagan, is somehow responsible for every insult perpetrated against the Second Amendment in the last 150 years.
If you are a dedicated leftist and you think you fully support the Second Amendment, you are delusional, because your support of the Liberal/Progressive agenda totally refutes your claim.
Absolutists need not apply. But to play by your rules, if the republicans had absolute control over the government they would try to take your guns. Period.
Sorry cliff, that’s just not true, ask a black panther.
So the NRA wants to distance itself from its image as a repository for OFWGs. I can certainly agree that the NRA should broaden its appeal to a wider spectrum of America’s citizens.
So what’s wrong with that? It’s the apparent acquiescence to the ‘politically correct’ liberal propagandistas’ portrayal of old (not necessarily fat) white guys as being somehow less than honorable or worthy of respect and deference. That’s horseshit. OFWGs (Old Fu*kin White Guys) have *earned* and maintained their place of respect and honor in the history of America, *way beyond* anything the anti’s and progressives have accomplished or are advocating for the betterment of this country.
Simple minded narcissistic self-centered liberal socialist progressive antis and Democrats forget who it was that built, fought for and advanced this country to the powerhouse it is today; they are anti-American apologists who are doing everything they can to tear those achievements down – all in the name of “progressivism’ which is actually “communism”. Sixty years ago, they’d have all been blacklisted! The NRA best not distance itself from its OFWG base just to appease and appeal to this bunch of leftists.
The NRA *should* offer a wider more current image by modernizing its organization to appeal to a broader range of mainstream citizen customers; go for it, it’s long overdue. It’s called inclusion; but don’t even *think* of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
It’s not a race that built this country; it was an idea. Anyone that believes in individual freedom; that government will neither help no hinder the practice of ones spiritual beliefs; neither helps nor hinders creating ones dreams; that support and defends the constitution and all the enumerated and un-enumerated rights which restricts government power; especially the second amendment.
Then your sexual orientation, your race, your ethnicity nor what you believe as to the existence of a higher power is not the issue; if you are fellow traveler in being a free man or woman, then I call you brother and sister.
Agreed; and when any extremist ‘progressive’ group (antis, you listening) singles out a segment of the citizenry for special derogatory attention and suppressive action, it has nothing at all to do with their purported practice of ‘inclusion’; its division, exclusion and dismissal. Disempowerment is their goal.
We people of the gun are by nature, on the whole, inclusive if for no other reason than to improve our lot as a group while being attacked for our beliefs and honorable activities. Anyone willing to take part in gun sports is welcome to join; we’ll teach them the ropes, too.
Elitist socialist progressive antis’ are really good at talking out of both sides of their mouths at once. We see it with their rhetoric on gun confiscation all the time. Until the antis open their minds and accept others as having valid opinions and ways of life that differ from their own world view – and leaves us alone, I have no time for them. Nor should the NRA.
Nonetheless we must all be wary of them, lest they succeed in imposing their will on the rest of us, to everyone’s detriment.
I’ve always found the cry for “progress” somewhat vague, nebulous and in my distrust of such terms found myself asking: “Towards WHAT, exactly?”
“OFWGs (Old Fu*kin White Guys) have *earned* and maintained their place of respect and honor in the history of America, *way beyond* anything the anti’s and progressives have accomplished or are advocating for the betterment of this country.”
Talk about narcissistic and self-centered.
A good book on this subject is the just-published “Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms”, by Dr. Nicholas Johnson. It’s an excellent history.
thanks for the heads up, just added it to my wishlist.
So Farago what’s the plan here; is the NRA going too tour college campuses tacking up flyers that read “all gay, lesbian, Latino, Asian, visible minority female and otherwise protected and favored people with a readily recognizable ethnic skin tones or easily identifiable homosexual orientation are eligible for a job as an NRA commentator. Debate skills, public speaking ability and stage presence will factor into the hiring decaion unless you bring three or more pre-qualifying factors too the table e.g (white Mexican transsexual Jew) in which case your competancy will not factor inn at all.
So you’re saying every single current NRA member is competent?
I wasn’t talking about membership.
It says commentator right in the comment; granted the thing is hurriedly thrown together I had places to be but give it a rest the NRA can’t just run out and hire a check list of protected minority’s it won’t sell well to any but the most boneheaded in the targeted group, it’s just to blatant.
Well, Sammy, if you join the NRA, m0r0ns will be well represented.
“Well, Sammy, if you join the NRA Trolls will be represented.”
Not an FIFY, but an additional thought. – Cliff
I was referring too commentators not members but interpret as you wish.
There seems to be some bigoted commentary here along the lines of “Why should the NRA include these people?”
I pose the more logical question: “Why should the NRA not promote the idea that these people are not EXCLUDED?”
Why does the NRA need a brace of minority commentators too prove everyone is included? Where do we go with that? The NRA is not CNN any hires made on the basis of race or minority status will be torn apart in the media.
The comments here are way off topic from the article, but as a minority, let me dispel any notion that prejudice doesn’t exist. Maybe you personally haven’t heard any comments — it doesn’t mean they don’t happen. Learning self-defense helps give one a thick skin, so I don’t get bothered by well-meaning but stupid comments like “I really love egg rolls” or “I served in Okinawa.” I am bothered when my patriotism is called into question. You can have your opinion about “hyphenated Americans,” but just because “American” comes after “African,” “Asian” or “Irish,” it doesn’t mean our allegiance is elsewhere.
My family is a collage of White, Black, Latino and Asians, and myself ( Italian Jew)..We are all adopted or from mixed marriages.. Never once has anyone offered up an opinion about their skin color or ethnicity when it came to shooting,or our general love of collecting firearms..
HOWEVER I can tell you on more then one occasion where liberal minded fucks have voiced reverse racist comments towards my white sister when she was disciplining her black son for being an idiot in public ( a black woman told my Nephew, “Nigga, don’t let that white girl talk to you like that! )… racism is out there to be sure.. But My experience has been mostly ignorant liberal Blacks attempting to play the white guilt card. Thats when i pull out my wallet and show the family…oh, and the occasional liberal School Teacher probing for race related issues into our family…. Thats always an interesting confrontation at the PTO meetings, we normally countered that with a few of us showing up to address their ” concerns” it’s out there for sure, But you would be surprised at who the real racist’s are.
What constitutes a “reverse racist” comment? I understand it was a black man against a white woman, but why does that make it “reverse?” What would you have called it if it was a Chinese man talking to a white woman? Sideways racism?
it’s reversed when the offending person is the offended person…
society is so hypersensitive that just mentioning reverse discrimination is offensive…. For me to use the “N” word in my post it had to await moderation.. this is what we have been reduced too..
Wat.
That makes no sense. If I, as a white guy, go into a predominantly black neighborhood and am treated poorly because I’m white, is that racism, or reverse racism? Here’s a hint: it’s the first one. “Reverse racism” is a semantic trick. Racism is racism. Period.
Thats just everyday at my house. I’m a Asian guy who married a white girl. 😉
Most likely that’s not racism so much as “being married” 🙂
Yeah??.. I did too..nothing like that Asian persuasion!
There’s no such thing as reverse racism. It’s an oxymoron. A semantic impossibility.
The “progressive” left has got everyone thinking that racism has one single, natural direction: it all flows from the inherently oppressive white people toward their perpetual victims, “people of color.”
It cracks me up that in their search for the perfect term, they basically came full circle, right back to “colored people.” On the other hand, they’ve also been diabolically clever about it. White people, in the new progressive lexicon, are notable only as an absence. White isn’t a color. Whiteness is only to be demeaned, diminished, and pitied.
The dishonest nature of the term says everything about the movement that created it. The only people I’m really worried about are those who want to take away our rights and freedom of choice. Give the progressive left another 75 years to work unopposed, and men and white people will occupy the same place in Western society that women and black people did 100 years ago (if Western society still exists at all). They’re making progress, all right…just to a reversed version of the same old crap.
This is one of the reasons why I’m so obsessed with the Second Amendment and the central place guns should have in our society. They’re only hunks of metal and plastic, but they represent the most fundamental right of all: the individual right to defend our own lives and loved ones. In that context, color doesn’t matter. Hell, right and wrong don’t even matter. The criminal who threatens to kill you jis definitely doing wrong, but he values his life as much as you do yours, and has just as much right to fight to keep it. (You wouldn’t expect him not to try preserving his own life when you turn the tables, would you?)
So the more, the merrier, I say. We don’t have to agree on everything or even be unfailingly polite to each other. We’ll just agree not to purposefully harm each other, and somehow we’ll rub along tolerably well. Just observe the basic safety rules, and we’re good to go.
Okay…end rant. Hard to stop once it gathers momentum. 🙂
‘Sexism’, of course.
It’s the usual fallback for lefties when racism is inapplicable.
Have you seen the series of guest posts over at the Volokh Conspiracy about Professor Nelson’s new book, “Negroes and the Gun”? He’s promoting the book, naturally, but as an encouraging sign, the posts about this topic appeared after the Volokh Conspiracy made the move to the Washington Post website. This means that they received much wider distribution than they would have back at Volokh.com. It’s not front and center of the mainstream media… but it is there.
I am heartened by this development.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/01/30/negroes-and-the-gun-the-early-naacp-championed-armed-self-defense/
http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07290bsacCongressofRacialEquality.pdf
Shorter than a book, but a good paper on the racist origins of gun control in the US. It’s the amici brief filed by the Congress of Racial Equality in the Heller case.
Oh, by the way. We’re all on the same side when it comes to the 2a, here’s the link to the ‘Pink Pistols’ amici brief in the same case.
http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacPinkPistols.pdf
There are three problems at work here regarding self defense , the RKBA, and non traditional participants.
Problem One- Patronizing BS from the leftist side of the house.All you Democrat gun owners better hear this well, because as a biracial man I find it degradingly offensive to be called a victim . A man who says I’m a nigger out of context is just ignorant. A man who says I’m a predestined victim by virtue of my skin color is not only racist, but has insulted my very character as a man. I can change the mind of an isolated soul who’s never seen a black man not in a mugshot shoot.I won’t even discuss the topic with someone convinced I’m a victim.
Two, there’s some serious cultural baggage regarding the NRA and ethnic cultures.In many urban parts of America the NRA is less welcome then Al-Qeida .Thanks to our media and disarmament politicial lobby, millions think the NRA is composed of old white men in suits smoking cigars, plotting when the next shipment of Assault Weapons can be sent to the ghetto.Gotta solve that marketing problem first.
Three: I broker no offense, but the OFWG demographic will soon be the Dead Fuggin White Guy category. Women, minorities and…heavens to Betsy, GAY PEOPLE are the statistical majority of the future. Pretty soon old guys like Jeff Quin with mile long beards and banjo music in tbe background will be a thing of the history books. (No offense to Mr. Quinn intended, BTW. I love his reviews and down to earth tone.)
We can either find a way to get the Dominican Girls ,Black guys,and Asians to take up the slack on RKBA defense in the future, or watch them vote us and our guns into ” El Carcel”.
Thank you. Exceptionally well said.
Amen. If we ofwg’s don’t get our acts together and start forming alliances with gun owners that don’t fit our mold we may soon be the ones on reservations.
Nitpicking, but gay people will never be a statistical majority. It’s not biologically possible.
Still, you’re right. Very well said. We gun people need more of everybody, especially people from the various groups who, for various reasons, are convinced that we don’t want them. (Or are they convinced that they don’t want us?)
Just like a right that no one dares to exercise isn’t a right at all, a right that the voting majority doesn’t want will slowly die.
Nice strawman, why do you assume others assume you are a victim? It’s almost like you believe you… Are a victim?
On points two and three, ok. A good start would be to stop demonizing others based on what you misunderstand their political beliefs to be.
I know plenty of old fat white guys, a few of them cops. And they are racists, no bones about it. The funny thing is, these guys also seem to be as smitten with Colon Noir as much as the rest of us. I guess that reveals an ugly bit of hypocrisy, but maybe it’s a sign that Colin is helping to open some minds, too.
In a Milwaukee Wi shooting range no one would even notice, much less care about race etc The diversity in our sport/right is a good thing, Randy
As a Chinese immigrant. I feel asians are a big population that are gun owners but their isn’t a key figure head to push gun rights, although Top Shot winner Chris Cheng could assume both roles of Asian 2A advocate and represent the gay community.
“While we await a female African-American NRA front-of-the-house commentator…”
I nominate this woman to the NRA to represent African-Americans in the US:
He kept repeating what she was saying… signs he was losing the debate
They should just hire “the words most interesting man” as spokesman.
Great video.
On another note, TTAG should review Prof. Nick Johnson’s new book, “Negroes and the Gun”, this being Black History Month and all.
The liberal college town in which I live surprisingly is bringing Robert Williams’ son in to talk for Black History Month, but for all i know, he might not support gun rights as much as his father.
I was just reading about the Dred Scott supreme court case back in the day. In writing for the majority opinion, Justice Taney said:
“It would give to persons of the negro race, …the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, …to sojourn there as long as they pleased, to go where they pleased …the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.”
He is affirming what we already know; that free men, among other rights, keep and carry arms wherever they go. He is also proving that the origins of gun control in America are racist, and really boil down to people control, not the attempt to reduce violence or crime.
I myself am glad whenever I see any persons shooting at the range , I especially am glad to see more women involved in the shooting sports , in the end it is going to take all of us pro-gun folks to fight for our 2nd Amendment right . Be prepared and ready. Keep your powder dry.
As a new gunner, as well young black man, Ive had some great conversions with some really nice “OFWG” about guns and been given a lot of helpful advice. Even in Tucson, Ive never had a problem at any of the local shooting ranges.