“While there is no data on whether legally armed white or black people are shot at higher rates in the United States, experts on implicit bias said that negative stereotypes of black people would suggest that they are at a greater risk of having their actions or intentions misinterpreted when they carry guns.”
That’s the befuddled not-to-say misleading money shot in the middle of the New York Times article Police Shootings Highlight Unease Among Black Gun Owners. Presented complete with incendiary, irrelevant images (as above).
The majority of John Eligon’s and Frances Robles’ article focuses on the founder of the less-than-inclusive Huey P. Newton Gun Club. Which leads to this equally incendiary remark:
“I don’t condone the killing of anyone, black, white, brown, poor,” Mr. Balogun said, adding that he nonetheless viewed the violence against the officers as a response to “years and years and years of injustice.”
“Nonetheless.” Cute. The Times’ reporters could have interviewed Colion Noir, black NRA member, YouTube star and Dallas resident. Or Rick Ector, African American Detroit firearms instructor and proponent of responsibly armed Americans (regardless of race). Instead we get Balogun. Selection bias much?
And talk about chutzpah. The same august journal that never misses an opportunity to promote civilian disarmament wants readers decries a “Second Amendment” gap for black gun owners.
“It’s really just getting at what we know to be a pervasive stereotype of blackness and criminality,” said Robin Wright, a researcher with the Kirwan Institute at Ohio State University who studies implicit bias. “If you see a black person with a weapon, you don’t assume that it’s legal.”
Put more bluntly: “Skin color is synonymous with crime,” said Jasmine Rand, the lawyer for a man who was shot by the police, and later died, in Florida.
Maybe that’s because gun control was created to suppress black gun ownership, Second Amendment infringement supported the African-American community and the politicians feeding upon it. Like this:
Anyway, to further their narrative the authors cite the case of Earl D. Brown, a security guard gunned down by — you guessed it — white cops. Who were exonerated.
“Honestly, I hear the N.R.A. talking about the right to bear arms,” Mr. Brown’s widow, Gloria, wrote in an email on Thursday, referring to the National Rifle Association. “He had the right to bear his that night; they just never told us he wouldn’t have the right to life. It seems like white men and police officers are the only ones who have the right to bear arms in this country.”
The Times should get off the fence. Either support all Americans right to keep and bear arms in its editorials or STFU.