According to Enlightened Visions, the Christian organization behind this video and 13 others like it, “In 2014, 2,160 black men were killed at the hands of unnecessary violence. We wanted to challenge the stereotypes associated with black men, in America. The Shots Fired Campaign features 28 unarmed, black, men describing the various ways that they defy the stereotypes.” According to this project . . .
an armed black man is a negative stereotype. Which may well be true, in that many if not most black Americans support gun control laws and/or the politicians who promote gun control laws. Leaving law-abiding black Americans like Mr. Adams disarmed against criminal predation. And government tyranny, under which the African-American community suffered in no small measure.
All Americans have a natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Short of the draft, there is no legal method to compel a citizen to exercise that right. Nor should there be. But lauding unarmed Americans as somehow “special,” seeking to demonize lawful armed self-defense, is not the answer to “gun violence.” It is, in fact, a way to increase it.