Sharon Risher, center right, and Gary Washington, left, stand over the casket of their mother, Ethel Lance, following her burial service, the first one for the nine people killed in the shooting at Emanuel AME Church, Thursday, June 25, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
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We have begun, as a nation, to slowly address the problem of the Confederate battle flag. NASCAR recently banned it from events, Mississippi recently removed it from the state’s flag, and more prohibitions are hopefully on the horizon. My own story is an example of that incremental progress: The traitorous flag that flew over the South Carolina Capitol the day mom was murdered was finally taken down a month later, after nationwide outrage.

But the truth is that taking down symbols of hate means very little unless we also disarm people who are inspired by them — and on that front, our nation has lagged woefully behind. We’ve failed to pass any significant federal gun-safety bill in the past 25 years; we’ve allowed armed extremists to brandish long guns at state capitols and intimidate peaceful protesters, and our background-check system remains riddled with gaps and loopholes. One of those gaps, now called the “Charleston loophole,” led directly to the death of my mom by allowing her killer to purchase a gun he was legally prohibited from owning.

So I share my story today, alongside other members of the Everytown Survivor Network, during National Gun Violence Survivors Week, to ask that as we reckon with hate in America, we also take action to disarm it.

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181 COMMENTS

    • The somewhat bigoted Sharon Risher talks about growing up under Jim Crow and uses it along with her mother’s tragic death as qualifiers for her POV. The fixated on white Sharon Risher talks about Jim Crow but failed miserably to define what political party owns the legacy of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, the KKK, Eugenics, lynching, Gun Control and other race based atrocities. That Political Party would be Sharon Risher’s very own Political Party the democRat Party.

      Sharon is fixated on the gun and the white hands that held it and fails miserably to see the gullible murdering perp was filled with hate that originated in her own democRat Party. In the perp’s mind he was carrying on a Jim Crow, KKK democRat Party Family Tradition. All along the roots for the hate began with and remains with Sharon Risher’s very own Jim Crow Gun Control Race Baiting democRat Party…Sad.

      • While I’m very sorry that her mom was killed, Ms. Risher could not be more wrong. Her mom’s death was not caused by the Confiderate battle flag, nor was it caused by “White Supremacy”. Further, having suffered that loss does not automatically confer the kind of moral imperative that legitimates her demand that our constitutionally guaranteed rights should be abridged to attain the kind of gun-control she desires.

      • Isn’t Dylann Roof the poster child for white supremacists?

        Definitely shows the signs of multi-generational inbreeding.

        • No, it doesn’t. Dylann Roof was a psychotic loser who created his own highly individualistic movie.
          Basically, he was mentally unhinged guy who decided that he would go kill some people to attract attention to himself. He did this because he was possessed by an insane anger and was looking for a way to express it. Claiming that he was somehow acting in concert with a larger, ideologically unified, plan-of-rebellion gives this guy way to much credit.

          Basically Roof was bat-shit crazy, wanted to kill a bunch of people to attract attention to himself, and used White Supremacy as a prop in his own private movie. He could have just as easily used militant vegetarianism as a motivating “cause” of his killing spree. The whole deal about the psychology of spree killer is that they have in intense desire to attract attention to themselves by killing people. They are not in any way martyrs.

        • The whole deal about the psychology of spree killer is that they have in intense desire to attract attention to themselves by killing people. They are not in any way martyrs.

          Three days after the shooting, a website titled The Last Rhodesian was discovered and later confirmed by officials to be owned by Roof. The website contained photos of Roof posing with symbols of white supremacy and neo-Nazism, along with a manifesto in which he outlined his views toward black people, among other peoples. He also claimed in the manifesto to have developed his white supremacist views after reading about the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin and black-on-white crime. Prosecutors presented evidence in court of chilling writings from a jailhouse journal he wrote after the attack. “I would like to make it crystal clear. I do not regret what I did,” Roof wrote in the journal. “I am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed.” According to one transcript, Roof told a psychologist working for his defense team that his death penalty wouldn’t be carried out because he’d “be rescued by white nationalists after they took over the government.” Roof actually believed his prison sentence was irrelevant because he would be freed after a coming race war…

        • Again you are wrong. There is no demographic of “White Supremacy” that threatens American society and culture. The good Mr. Roof was/is an unhinged nut-case who decided to star in his own movie.

    • If only we were all big government, big war, anti American progressives like the Republicans started out. Lincoln got approving letters from Karl Marx.

  2. The irony of mentioning armed people quelling peaceful protesters is rich. You’ll never change hearts and minds without physical proof of why they’re wrong. It’ll take a life altering event for that to happen, at a minimum.

  3. We’ve been allowing em to do this sh*t with little or no consequence, of course they feel empowered. I’m afraid when the day DOES come that we say “enough”, it’s not gonna be pretty!

  4. Well if that’s the agenda – disarming whites – then to be ‘equitable’ everyone else (including blacks) would also have to be disarmed, and I doubt that would be acceptable to ‘her people’. And leaving the blacks and other folks ‘of color’ armed, would absolutely not be acceptable to whites.

    • I suspect it *would* be acceptable, as most whites would obey the law and most blacks would ignore it, as they should.

  5. Way to reveal your cards. This anti-White-American movement is likely more racist than anything else America has ever seen. Sure, terrible things happened with the hooded fools, but the rampant murder, rape, assault, breaking and entering, and the way the media tries to gaslight us that it isn’t happening is just unreal. They magnify the old and minimize the current, which in totality is grossly disproportionate. Yet “whites” are still the bad guys?

    I think you’ll find most of us are equally or more aware than what I’ve written and we all suffer from CDH syndrome.

    That stands for Cold Dead Hands.

    • “This anti-White-American movement is likely more racist than anything else America has ever seen.“

      Really? Did you somehow miss the 250 years of government imposed slavery against black Americans? You know, when they were beat, maimed and killed by white people in order to steal their property, labor and children?

      As long as southern white folks continue to have voluntary amnesia about the cost of slavery, we will continue to have disruption and chaos in our country

        • It’s just math, Mac. Miner is on the Disinformation Committee of the board that runs the 1619 project.

      • Government imposed and government allowed are two entirely different things. Better go back and check your dictionary.
        Tell me again who it was that captured the slaves in Africa and sold them to anyone who would purchase them. Could that have been their fellow blacks? Say is isn’t so! How many did they beat and/or murder in the process?
        IF reparations are to be paid by anyone, it needs to come from Africa.
        An additional note, take it however you want. Current day blacks in the US have a life far better than what it would have been if their ancestors never left Africa. They have been there thousands of years, yet it is still basically a third world continent with tribal wars in many places to this day. The country of South Africa used to be a modern, economically viable country. Since blacks have taken control there, it has degraded to a third world country to match the rest of the continent.

        • Perhaps we should send all of the Black descendants of African slaves back to Africa and demand a refund?

        • “Tell me again who it was that captured the slaves in Africa and sold them to anyone who would purchase them. Could that have been their fellow blacks? ”

          Funny, how “they” always seem to forget that. Or, “they” are too stupid (more likely) to even realize that in the first place.

        • And don’t even ask about the ethnicity of the owners of the infamous slave ships. Doing so can get you imprisoned in many countries and even a few US states.

      • Who brought the slaves to the America’s? Who has sold, and continues to sell people into slavery? How long as slavery existed. How long did it exist after we became the United States?

        When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamationsm, what States were not included?

        The hypocrisy of blaming the US for the sins of all of mankind is ludicrous. Slavery as it existed after the Declaration of Independence is only our part of the sin and we have since antoned for our part of it. Our antonment was done with blood and treasure. We are not holding slaves now, but slavery still exists. When people speak of what happened before any of us were alive, how one group owes another, yet turns a blind eye to what still exists, I see people who fall into the group of the permanently aggrieved or the enabler of that aggrievance.

        • By my estimate, which is as good as yours, at the time of the Civil War, slavery had existed right about 20,000 years, but let’s blame America, huh? And it STILL exists, including in America, mostly blacks and Hispanics enslaving their own. We should blame WHITE America, right? For trading with those European whites who bought slaves from African blacks to trade to Americans, in a trade which had gone on for centuries all over the world, but somehow it is all my fault? Kiss my ass.

      • “Did you somehow miss the 250 years of government imposed slavery against black Americans?”

        It seems you missed the 155 years of emancipation government created.

        • Yeah, then the Dems realized there is way more power, control, and wealth in Government than Cotton; and, they can tax productive citizens to pay for the shanty shacks and collard greens and sow belly; and, Dems still get all the black vote. What a plan!!!! So Dems created the Government Plantation, and put not only almost all the blacks, but many whites also on the Plantation. Once a Government Plantation Dweller; always a Government Plantation Dweller. Difficult to fight the Santa Claus Free Shit paradigm.

      • And in your Progressive Woke world view the people of today have to, MUST, be punished to atone for these historic wrongs. More so as the actual guilty are most likely dead and cannot be punished. You take self-loathing to new levels.

        Yes, there are historical wrongs. But since time travel is impossible, and funnily enough banned by CCP directive, there is nothing we can do to either prevent the events from happening or punish those directly involved. Punishing the people of today not only achieves nothing it also increases the division.

      • What exactly does “government imposed slavery” mean? Are you saying, in your stupidity, that the government (mostly King George) forced people to own slaves? The IS government only tolerated it for 64 years, not 250, although your math challenges don’t surprise me.

        • Careful, Carl,

          You’re insulting innocent g****** idiots everywhere by comparing them to Minor IQ.

      • As usual, Miner lies by omission. He said:
        “Did you somehow miss the 250 years of government imposed slavery against black Americans?”

        This is the correct way to state this:
        “Did you somehow miss the 250 years of democrat party imposed slavery against black Americans?”

        And I am willing to bet, Miner still supports those extremely racist and prejudiced democrats.
        If Miner lived before the Civil War, he, as an obvious democrat, would have been really good at enslaving people.

        No wonder he’s always upset. He was born in the wrong century 🙂

        • The Declaration of Independence was issued in 1776, but actual independence was not won until 1781. Before their independence was declared, each state had a group of men to meet and address issues of national concerns. This was the first Continental Congress and their first meeting was in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774 (246 years ago)…
          The Continental Congress had national representation, but they did not have the authority to make binding laws. Their job was to raise armies and conduct diplomacy and they did this until 1781 making “self rule” a THING for only the past 239 years and NOT 250 as some of our more “scholarly, intellectual participants” would have us believe…

      • Ah yes, children must pay for the sins of their parents. The sons and daughters of those who fought and died to end slavery are equally as culpable as the worst racist due to their inherent, original sin of whiteness. No other qualifications necessary.

      • Blacks sold other blacks in to slavery and slavery found it’s way to the New World. Blacks have since sold other blacks in to slavery once in the New World as whites and others did. Slavery has never stopped as currently in Africa we still have blacks selling blacks in to slavery. It’s never been a racial motivation but it has always been an opportunistic motivation.

        That said, since blacks here, some of whom are descendants of slaves and slave traders alike don’t want to live in this country with whites, some of whom are descendants of the whites who fought to liberate their enslaved ancestors, then I suggest they pack their ungrateful racist asses up and go find some other country in the world to live in. Chances are they’ll find their way back to the plantations in other countries too as they sure as hell can’t keep themselves off the plantations here in the USA.

  6. As I recall gun ownership among blacks was a deterrent to southern Democrat white supremacists (aka Dixiecrats). Usually disarming the populace is the first in a series of steps leading to exterminating some portion of the populace, e.g. the portion disagreeing with what the party in power is doing.

    • Among their other sneaky attempts to rewrite history the democRat Party uses Dixiecrats to lessen the impact of their long, long democRat Party racist history. Race based atrocities that happened to Blacks in the South also happened to Blacks in the North, East and West. The democRat Party owns all of it Lock, Stock and Barrel.

    • The most strident white supremacists are the black population, closely followed by the rest of the Democrat population. Those comprise the largest part of society which believes the black man cannot make it on his own, must have a white massa to have any chance of success. Need racial discrimination favoring blacks (demonstrating a belief that such discrimination is fine, depending on who benefits) for over 60 years, now, need reparations for something you did not do and did not suffer, just because, need free stuff of all kinds or you just cannot possibly make it BULLSHIT. A black man has just as much ability to make it as a white man, witness Daniel (Chappie) James, Colin Powell, Charles Payne or many others who went and did it instead of whining. Wake up, we have had a black President now (however incompetent), claiming it can’t be done is so yesterday.

    • Sure we do…..you’re a self-parodying clown show.

      You are entirely responsible for your failings, and I no longer give a fvck.

      Own your crap sandwich, losers.

    • No, we honkies prefer to take control of Me, Inc. Pull up our pants so our skid marked panties don’t gross out society, learn to speak intelligible English putting together words to form coherent sentences; freely from our own earned fruits and heartbeats help those attempting to help themselves; get up early and stay late to put in a honest full day’s work; manage our lives for our own benefit; build a personal brand known for other than being highlighted for negative reasons on the evening news; take responsibility to successfully imprint for success any offspring, et el, et el. This country offers equal opportunity for all….not equal outcome. We figure out life ourselves. In America we believe: One Enjoys the Fruit of One’s Own Labor. No Labor; no Fruit; no Joy……aka The DemoRat Santa Claus Free Shit Government Plantation Express. One should proactively become a productive, non-whining, non-hyphenated American citizen. Or, pack up and get a free ticket to a mud and straw hut/Socialist/Communist country of one’s choosing. If you infer anything racist into this comment, you are the racist. This comment applies equally without prejudice or reference to skin color, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual persuasion, anti-Constitution/Bill of Rights leaning, or mental/physical disability.

  9. An interesting note is that black on black crime is responsible for many deaths and there is no call to disarm criminals. Everyone knows that disarmament will only affect honest gun owners, not the criminal element responsible ten fold for the most deaths.

  10. After two hours this morning trying to put a stop payment on a credit card charge I finally just cancelled the damn card and cut it up, then I turned to TTAG looking for some amusement and I’m slapped straight in the mouth with this RACIST bullshit… Are you just trying to piss people off today or is there some pertinent facts that I’m not already aware of about Everytown…

      • Buckle up. There’s likely a lot more coming.

        Thanks for the warning, nothing starts my day off like trying to navigate the shit show of an automated banking system trying to get to a live person who can barely speak English and then being informed that I’m a racist by a RACIST… might have to take a break this week..

      • Maybe there needs to be a National Defensive Gun Use Week, coinciding with the same week these fools parade their propaganda around.

      • @Dan: Idk if I missed an article covering this, but is this site safe from de-platforming ala Parler? Missed reading for a while back in December.

  11. Pretty typical for the progressive left. Everybody knows that this isn’t about “white supremacy” or “racism”, it’s simply about disarming We The People. As was stated by a certain politician, “never let a ‘crisis’ go to waste”….and if it takes manufacturing a “crisis”, then so be it. I mean you have to give the jacka$$es pretty high marks for creativity, but even a blind, deaf & dumb man can see through this BS.

    • and that blind, deaf, and dumb man can sure play a mean pinball…

      in no way am I posting this to troll your comment, after reading the article and then taking more bp meds and a nitro for the chest pain it caused (literally), I saw an opportunity to inject a bit of humor for those of you old enough to get the joke (youngsters-The Who, Tommy).
      I first wanted to write a multi-point serious response to this inflammatory bs “article”, but after reading some comments (and my heart meds kicking in) I decided to take a low hanging fruit for a (bad) joke. everyone please try to have a good day.

        • “It’s actually “that deaf, dumb and blind kid””

          “That 3-Gun shooter has such a supple wrist…”

          “How do you think he does it? I don’t know! What makes him so good?”

  12. I hope stories like this make some of you realize that the point of gun control is to disarm white people.

    The powers that be don’t give a shit about blacks killing each other in their free range urban zoos.

    Revolts have never come from the peasant class, they always come from the middle and upper middle class. This is why policies that hurt the middle class and expand the underclass are pushed so heavily.

    • I hope stories like this make some of you realize that the point of gun control is to disarm white people.

      That has not been the experience in the United States of America.

      The powers that be don’t give a shit about blacks killing each other in their free range urban zoos.

      They just use that as an excuse to enact gun control laws and enforce them against people in those “free range urban zoos”.

      the only time gun control laws are enforced in upper-middle-class suburbs is if someone reports a violation by someone of the “wrong” skin color who recently moved in.

    • This. She also thinks that banning the Confederate flag is working towards solving racism or white supremacy. No law or command can change the way someone thinks.

      • Since this is about skin color:
        I wonder why I don’t see white jews, white gays and white atheists support the 1st amendment displays of the confederate flag???
        Like I see them support burning the American flag. Also their support for whites to burning a cross on the private property of a black person.

        But they don’t support the right of law abiding blacks to open carry guns.

        • Aint this part of the problem (lumping large swaths of people together).
          I’m a white Jew (or at least Jewish Heritage). And I have no problem with the Confederate Flag. I also don’t have a problem with the 3rd Reich Flag. Free speech is supposed to protect the speech you detest, not just the speech you like. I own guns, and think the 2nd Amendment is absolute – give them nukes!
          What I do ask is that one be responsible for their actions. So, if a riot occurs as a result of you flying a Confederate Flag, then you bear at least some responsibility.

        • Chris, maybe you are carefully not looking! I am a white atheist and I support 1A and 2A rights of everyone. What evidence do you have that ANY white atheists or jews or whatever do not? or are you simply PREJUDICED?

          And no, .300, flying a flag of any description does not make you responsible for violence, unless you are the white jew Chris is talking about, 1A means what it says, although it only applies to government actions unlike 2A.

        • There is a “game” that the people I listed like to play with regarding the 1st amendment. I don’t see them supporting the right of black Christians to protest at abortion clinics. And most of these clinics are located in the black areas of the cities. But I do see them supporting protests at military recruiting centers. Interesting how the “enemy of the people”, the Press, never show pictures of black people protesting against abortion??? They only show white people protesting against abortion. Actually abortion protestors come in all skin colors.

          Since this is about skin color. I looked up what Rev Sharon Risher looks like. She looks like the kind of Pastor that Margaret Sanger made deals with, back in the 1920s and 1930’s. Sanger was the founder of Planned Parenthood. She made deals ($$$) with Pastors in the black churches. Deals that encouraged black pastors to preach having fewer children and to get abortions. The founding purpose of Planned Parenthood was to reduce and finally eliminate the “black Problem:” in the USA.

          Now you have a Reverend who is working for an anti-civil rights group. The Rev. Sharon Risher is a member of the Everytown Survivor Network, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action. Both organizations are just as anti civil rights as the Klu Klux Klan. And they have the same goals.

          My Jewish stepmother taught me many things about Jewish people. I know my skin color and her Jewish heritage would qualify me for a one way ride in a cattle car in 1944 Germany.
          The people I listed are very happy to have a Revered who looks like Sharon Risher supporting gun control. They will give her a platform to speak from. But they would never give a platform to the Reverend Kenn Blanchard. He has podcasts on guns, motor cycles, and working on being a better Christian. Back in the 1990s he and others, helped to get several states to pass CCW laws. And for those that don’t know. This was a planned organized lobbying action, at the national level by the NRA. Because of their efforts you have “shall issue”, CCW in I think 8 or 10 states now. That didn’t have them before.

          “Black Man with a Gun: Reloaded Paperback”

          https://www.amazon.com/Black-Man-Gun-Kenn-Blanchard/dp/1618080873

          “White Supremacy” is the dog whistle for the white and black Left wingers. They don’t support civil rights for blacks. This “game” is about making sure blacks don’t learn about their civil right to Arms.

          As I said before:
          “It was a white Jewish ACLU lawyer, democrat, California State Senator Alan Sieroty, who cowrote the most racist gun control law in modern US history. The Mulford Act. It was a white “pink hand” man, Tom Ammiano, who got elected to the San Francisco school board. This racist white gay man voted to destroyed the 2A education and rifle teams in the SF city school system. That was his reason for getting elected to the board in the first place. Yea[r]s latter he would write the California law making rape and stalking victims wait an extra ten days to get a gun.”

          https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/etienne-and-thomas-the-2a-must-apply-to-everyone-equally/

          I’m sorry if I offended those who really do support civil rights. But I know based on the comments I have read over the years. There are a few who make the claim, but don’t really support civil rights.

    • Absolutely. All their bullshit does is make people hate them even MORE. But, they’re too stupid to realize it. Keep it up, assholes…

  14. Passing laws doesn’t “disarm” anyone or anything, and King Biden doesn’t have the men or means to do what this woman would actually like to see done.

  15. All through history politics is diverted from the proper direction by personal tragedies that are weighed far heavier in the public conscious than the rights of society as a whole. The most dangerous of diversions, it is the road to the gates of opposition and tyranny.

    • Well if people would actually take the time and learn about the constitution, the federalist papers, the works of various classical and enlightenment authors, old greek and roman works, and history in general then maybe they’d realize what our country was envisioned to be, what is currently going on, and what a dangerous path we are all on.
      Unfortunately it seems many are incapable of handling an idea that is contrary to theirs, let alone entertain a logical thought. Cause “morally right” is more important than facts.

  16. If it were not for Armed White People stopping her very own democRat Party Slavery the somewhat bigoted Sharon Risher would still be picking cotton. You won’t ever hear such individuals demanding Reparations from their own despicable democRat Party. The party that owns the legacy of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, the KKK, lynching, Eugenics, Gun Control and other race based atrocities.

    Black Americans have been purchasing a whole lot of firearms lately and I hope the majority are purchasing based on never allowing democRats wearing sheets to storm their homes again. Frankly speaking Sharon Risher…A Black American belonging to the democRat Party makes as much sense as a Jew belonging to the nazi party. Chew on that instead of chewing on the Second Amendment.

  17. So her mom’s killer broke the law to acquire a firearm he was prohibited from owning, but those laws don’t count because those laws are over 25 years old and (apparently) criminals only obey new laws so we need new laws to keep blacks from killing other blacks for white supremacists. Got it. I think…

    • Funny thing.. There have been laws against murder since the first civilized society set up camp (or Moses went up the mountain if you prefer) yet somehow thousands of people die by the deliberate, intentional actions of another human being every year (not all by guns) and those laws have been unchanged for “THOUSANDS” of years… No significant changes have been made to current gun laws because none are needed.. Just ENFORCE what is already on the fucking books…

    • If you think that stating verifiable statistical facts about the racial distribution of murders while providing links to the actual FBI data in question makes one a racist, then…

      You might be a leftist!

  21. Of the 10,000 Asian/Pacific Islanders who have been murdered in recent decades, roughly 2,300 have been murder by Blacks and about 5,000 have been murdered by other Asian/Pacific Islanders.

  22. Take a gander through the comment section under the article at their site. And these are the people supposedly calling for “Unity”. It’s like they’ve never looked in a mirror.

  24. Don’t blame all white people for the failures of other races, besides, it’s not about race. It’s about upbringing and heart. Either you were raised right, or you weren’t, either you’re a good person or you’re not. It’s that simple, these race baitiers seek to divide, not unify. It doesn’t get much more evil than that.

  28. Applauds the removal of the flag of a oppressive government that commited violence to suppress black Americans.
    Demands that a government with a history of supressing black Americans have the sole use of tools to commit violence.

  29. I love the irony that she didn’t use “supremacism” (the belief or political movement arguing that one group is better than all others), but “supremacy” (a fact – as in “air supremacy”, etc.). I guess, per the Smithsonian, expecting a writer to know words is a Eurocentric peculiarity.

  31. The flag hated by the deluded “anti-symbol” bigots because it oppresses them as slavery personified, was NEVER a national flag of the Confederate States of America. It was adopted by the Army of Northern Virginia in 1861 as a battle flag (there is more history to the battle banner that predates that war). Apparently, the primary reason for adopting the flag, with an “X” cross, was to distinguish it from the US flag and other “stars and bars” types of flags used in the field. The distinctive “X” was important as a rally point for troops in the midst of the smoke and chaos of battle, especially important to the all volunteer and under trained (initially) Army of Northern Virginia. Later, after the remarkable successes of the ANV and it’s Commanding General Robert E. Lee, other state militias in the Confederacy also adopted slightly differentversions of that battle flag.

    The actual Confederate States of America flag (there were three different approved versions, Bonnie Blue and two Stars and Bars versions, the first “Stars and Bars” is the most recognizable) is still evident in several state flags. The Stars and Bars are still flying over Georgia and (modified) North Carolina. An adaptation of the Battle flag of the Confederate Army in Florida (itself modified from the ANV battle banner) flies over Florida today. Likewise, Alabama and Mississippi state flags are modified versions of flags that flew over Confederate battalions. Even the state flags of Virginia, South Carolina, and Louisiana intentionally recall the Bonnie Blue flag that predated the CSA but was the first flag adopted by the new nation.

    I believe it important to bring attention to the combat origins of the flags, and to the citizen soldiers who served under those flags. Confederate citizens, who answered their nation’s call to arms, did not serve because they were slave owners, nor because they were racist, they served because they were patriots. The citizen soldiers of the South were no more racist than the citizen soldiers who were drafted by the northern states to serve in northern state units. It is notable that MORE slave owners served the northern US Army, than served in the CSA.

    I make these points because, in the context of real history, the arguments of professional racists and the bigots of the democrat party are patently false, misleading, and patronizing. Millions of people lost loved ones in the war of 1861-1865, millions more were displaced and their lives severely damaged by the oppression of Reconstruction. There is no valid reason to vilify anyone today, based upon what happened (or didn’t happen) in the 1860s.

    • “Confederate citizens, who answered their nation’s call to arms, did not serve because they were slave owners, nor because they were racist, they served because they were patriots.”

      “Their nation” was the confederate states of America, a treasonous group of former American citizens who took up arms against the duly elected Republican president of the United States of America.

      They were not “patriots”, they were traitors to America and the Constitution.

      And they fought to perpetuate the enslavement of African Americans.

      The very definition of racism, when one race believes that they are supreme above another and entitled to steal the labor, property and children of another race.

      • They were patriots to their individual states. These United States are just that: individual states united under a federal govt. The states themselves were meant to have final say except where mentioned in the constitution. And then, as now, most people just want to live their lives in peace from others who would force their ideals onto them, or force them into indentured servitude.
        But hey fuck do I know? Apparently there are medical doctors saying there are infinite genders, and “professionals” and “educated” individuals telling me how I should live and what I should think.

      • Miner49er, you sir, are pitifully misinformed. I choose not to attack your misstatements point by point, but I cannot leave your falsehoods unremarked.

        The citizens of every state in the United States, as designed by our founders, are first and foremost citizens of their state. Only as individual states, working in cooperation and agreeing to abide by a mutually accepted constitution, did (and does, still today) the Union exist. Not one phrase within the US constitution, nor the Articles of Confederation, nor the Declaration of Independence, nor even any statute rule or law existent in 1860, prohibited any state from voluntarily removing itself from the union. There was no treason by any member state. There was only the overt and intentional act of the federal government (led by President Lincoln) to deny the dissident states their rights. Only by war imposed by the North, led by Lincoln, did the concept of indivisibility come into existence.

        Since less than 3% of the non-slave population of the southern states were slave owners (and 10% of slave owners were Negroes), it would be absurd to assert that 97% of the Confederate States population were fighting for slavery. Simply put, they were NOT. In real context, even the slave owners themselves were unlikely to be fighting a war to defend something that the President of the opposing Northern United States insisted that the US would not change! That tiny minority of slave owners in the Confederate States (and in the several, non CSA, United States where slavery was permitted until 1867) were very aware of the cotton gin, mechanical harvesters, and advanced ag sciences that were changing both the cotton and rice growing industry. Agricultural slavery on the North American continent was going to end within a decade or two – and EVERYONE knew it, Northerner, Southerner, American, British, Spanish, French, even the free Negro. Why would anyone fight a war to keep something that was about to end? The idea of slavery in the Confederate states (but not the United States) as a preeminent issue only came to the forefront in mid 1863 when Lincoln determined he needed leverage to keep Great Britain from entering the war on the side of the CSA.

        The sources of the conflict between North and South in the states go back to the 1830s when industrialists in New England began using their new wealth to influence Senators and congressmen. By the mid 1840s that influence led to several protectionist statutes that protected northeastern business by preventing competing businesses in the south, forcing restrictions on where southern ag products (cotton and rice) could be sold, imposing tariffs and taxes on cotton and rice, and penalizing shippers who transported those products anywhere except New England. The (bought and paid for) Senators and Congressmen who pushed these laws through Congress, were threatening even more onerous laws, and Lincoln was believed (perhaps incorrectly) to be willing to sign and enforce them. Among the laws ready to be introduced by the democrats were, a new tax on slaves (evidence that the democrats were not planning to end slavery), and a law preventing the establishment of any industrial facility or manufacturing plant south of the Mason-Dixon line (a means of preventing the southern states from producing harvesters or cotton gins – another way the Northern democrats could force continued slavery). It is interesting the the democrats promoted laws that would force continued slavery while publishing speeches attacking the institution of slavery – It sounds so 2020 of them!

        Sir, please educate yourself with reality, with real history, and with truth. The leftist, class dividing, bigoted talking points of the democrat party are not true, were never reality, and serve only to extend the hatred and divisiveness.

      • “And they fought to perpetuate the enslavement of African Americans”

        A wee bit more complicated than that I’m afraid. It had more to do with self determination and power being vested in the industrial north. We are seeing a similar effect today, power is in the hands of a few who don’t give a shit about half of the country.

        It’s coming unfortunately. Only no one will be able to rationalize why the “rebels” were wrong to fight back against the liberals and progressives. They will be few areas under complete control by one side or another and few states where one side can lay claim to controlling territory. This one is going to be a lot messier so they want to disarm as many people as possible so they can get rid of their enemies once and for all. God knows they don’t want to lose and history is written by the winners.

      • A very ignorant and fact slacking statement. you might want to do a bit more research on your savior Abraham Lincoln as well. He was no saint to say the least. He bullied and manipulated congress to do his biding and lastly put slavery in his reasoning for war. In all actually the North wanted the Souths resources, at cost. They also felt entitled to this. The South said pack sand, continued to do business with other countries. The North in all of its holiness decided to steal from said states, threaten and bully. The South rose up, as free, sovereign states, as they are entitled by the US Constitution. You Mr. Miner, are not only very ignorant, but a non-reading, judgmental little fool. The history books are there.

        • Your Dewness, you failed to mention that the North was getting its ass handed to it, largely because nobody was interested in dying to make big corporations richer by stealing from the South, they couldn’t raise an army. So, quick like a bunny, somewhat honest Abe does quick about face and allows that the war is all about slavery, and issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which cranked up enlistments in the North and decreased enthusiasm in the South, since most soldiers never dreamed of owning slaves, why die for the ability?

    • Another point is that before the “Civil” war, our states were like a confederation of countries. They made the laws, they collected taxes, a person was loyal to his state, not to the federal government. At the time, the federal government minted money and smoothed the moving of goods across state lines, they did not set policy or make laws for the common man.

    • On June 30, 2020, Mississippi relinquished their state flag, the last U.S. state flag to have incorporated the battle flag in its design. On November 3, 2020, Mississippi voters approved a new state flag, without the battle flag. The new flag is currently pending final approval from the Mississippi State Legislature..

      A Confederate flag flies on the grounds of the Marion County Courthouse in Florida.

      FL state flag is St. Andrews Cross on a White background..
      The St. Andrew’s Cross is not unique to the Confederate battle flag. The reason that the CSA put the St. Andrew’s Cross on its flag is the Scottish heritage of the South…

      St Andrews Cross also appears on the Scottish flag (white on a blue field) but most interesting (at least it should be to Risher) is that the flag of South Africa also features that discomforting symbol in red bordered by white on a blue field…

      The navy jack (or ensign, which was carried by some ground troops, is the rectangle flag most commonly used today… The actual Battle Flag was square…

      Andrew (the first disciple of Christ) was martyred by crucifixion in Patras. He was bound, rather than nailed, to a cross, as is described in the Acts of Andrew. He was crucified on a cross form known as “crux decussata,” which is an X-shaped cross or a “saltire.” Today this is commonly referred to as “St. Andrew’s Cross.” It is believed Andrew requested to be crucified this way, because he deemed himself “unworthy to be crucified on the same type of cross as Jesus.

      It’s too bad that alleged Christians hate/fear a basic Christian symbol so much that they would have it destroyed…

      • oh my, you dared to state actual historical facts!! somewhere a progressive’s brain must have just melted.

        a serious point i would like to add is that your statement ended referring to Christians/Christian beliefs, and to the populist majority these days we Christians are equivalent to a domestic terror group.

        • these days we Christians are equivalent to a domestic terror group.

          When did that ever STOP being a thing…

        • Up in Arms,

          When I was in law school, we learned that the proper objection was “Objection, Counselor, assuming facts not in evidence”. If Minor Annoyance has a brain, he has done a masterful job of camouflaging it.

    • Georgia Bob, and the others below who also labored manfully to educate the ineducable moron, Minor IQ,

      Minor Annoyance has probably never heard of the Morrill Tariffs, the “American System”, or the various other acts of economic oppression visited on the Confederacy by the “enlightened” politicians of the North. Your efforts to educate this poor naif are well-intentioned, but doomed to failure. Minor Arseburns has never met an inane Leftist trope he didn’t embrace as revealed wisdom. Save your efforts for someone with at least a semblance of intellect; Minor Annoyance is bereft of any.

    • Thank you. Well written.

      One of my pet peeves is when a battle flag is called the Confederate National flag.

      along with calling the US a Democracy instead of a Republic, and magazines called clips.

      Slang like gatz, heaters, packing heat, popping caps, strapped ect are about the same level of lazy thinking and speaking.

      nevermind, it’s been a long work day.

  32. “One of those gaps, now called the “Charleston loophole,” led directly to the death of my mom by allowing her killer to purchase a gun he was legally prohibited from owning.”

    So the government knew of a person so dangerous, that he was to be barred from possessing a firearm, lest he likely hurt people, but they left him to roam free? If that person had been prohibited from purchasing, would that have lessened his hate, or his desire to act on that hate? He could have simply waited for church to be over and used a car to run the parishioners down and they would still have lost their lives. Then where would we be? Would you have railed against his ability to possess a car? I suspect not. Solving root cause, not focusing on means and pushing the bigotry of the law abiding as a solution, is how we move forward together.

    • The “Charleston Loophole” argument is truly demented. The FBI knew there was an issue with his BG check within minutes on April 11th, 2015. They didn’t follow up within 3 days. They didn’t follow up within 3 weeks. They didn’t deny the sale until 2 weeks after Roof had been arrested for mass murder.

      The solution to this is not to hold the rights of all Americans in bureaucratic limbo, the solution is to make those bureaucrats do their jobs. Because of law enforcement isn’t doing its job, what good are more laws?

      • I thought he had a prior of drug possession which turned out to be a misdemeanor, not a felony? Correct me if I’m wrong. Also, just because you’re in possession of drugs does not within itself make you an unlawful user. So was he technically prohibited or not? If he was prohibited, then it still wasn’t a loophole. It was a failure of a government process. You’ll never solve a problem without first discovering and stating the actual problem.

        • Simply “possessing” a listed substance is considered a felony, actual use is an additional charge…

        • depends on what he was convicted of, what the lawyer got him, plea bargain and other factors as to which would bring about his actual sentencing and/or punishment.

        • depends on what he was convicted of, what the lawyer got him, plea bargain and other factors as to which would bring about his actual sentencing and/or punishment.

          On March 2, 2015, he was questioned about a February 28 incident at the Columbiana Centre in Columbia, in which he entered the mall wearing all-black clothing and asked employees unsettling questions. During the questioning, authorities found a bottle of what was later admitted to be Suboxone, a narcotic that is used for treating either chronic pain or opiate-abuse addictions and that is abused as a recreational drug; Roof was arrested for a misdemeanor charge of drug possession.
          According to James Comey, speaking in July 2015, Roof’s March arrest was at first written as a felony, which would have required an inquiry into the charge during a firearms background examination. It was legally a misdemeanor charge and was incorrectly written as a felony at first due to a data entry error made by a jail clerk. Despite this, (Roof would not have been able to legally purchase firearms under a law that BARRED UNLWFUL USERS of or ADDICTED to any controlled substance,”) such as the Suboxone, from owning firearms..

          On December 15, 2016, Roof was convicted in federal court of all 33 federal charges (including hate crimes) against him stemming from the shooting; on January 11, 2017, he was sentenced to death for those crimes. On March 31, 2017, Roof agreed to plead guilty in South Carolina state court to all state charges pending against him—nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony—to avoid a second death sentence. In return, he accepted a sentence of life in prison without parole. On April 10, 2017, Roof was sentenced to nine consecutive sentences of life without parole after formally pleading guilty to state murder charges…

        • From Wiki:
          “…authorities found a bottle of what was later admitted to be Suboxone, a narcotic that is used for treating either chronic pain or opiate-abuse addictions and that is abused as a recreational drug; Roof was arrested for a misdemeanor charge of drug possession.”

          So he wasn’t a felon, or a prohibited person, correct? This is an important fact considering all of this “loophole” talk. Suboxone is a US Schedule III drug.

        • MADDMAXX, that explains some things, but I don’t think your post wasn’t there when I made mine. Look at the time and date. Maybe it was sent to moderation hell? Weird.

          “Roof would not have been able to legally purchase firearms under a law that BARRED UNLWFUL USERS of or ADDICTED to any controlled substance”

          I don’t think the he can be considered an unlawful user unless he admitted it. Possession doesn’t necessarily equal use. If he just kept his mouth shut, then they could only get him for possession. Do we have a record of him admitting unlawful use?

        • It’s fuzzy at best, the March 1 arrest was mistakenly recorded as a felony and was not corrected until after he attempted to purchase the gun… The police officer’s arrest report states that Roof had admitted that he knowingly possessed Suboxone without a prescription. It’s possible that the police officer’s statement in the arrest report about what he said Roof told him would have sufficed to justify the FBI’s blocking the sale to Roof.. Current or even recent use is not required but an inference of current use may be drawn from evidence of a recent use or POSSESSION of a controlled substance… Anyway, he wasn’t charged with illegally possessing a firearm, he was charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (the murders) whether or not he was lawfully eligible to purchase the gun is pretty much a moot point because if he wanted one badly enough he would have got it one way or another… My opinion is that YES he was lawfully eligible on April 11 due to the lack of some sort of drug test and/or the filing of a formal charge… Arrest alone, even for a felony, without an indictment, a formal charge or a conviction is not grounds for exclusion from purchasing a firearm… It’s all in the interpretation of some pretty obscure language as the user/addict thing…

      • The 3-day release was not a loophole. It was to stop the FBI from “abusing the process” by dragging out NICS checks to long periods. Otherwise the FBI would give the job of approving NICS checks to the summer intern to do while on their lunch break.

    • If your mom and her friends had been suitably armed and trained, he might have killed one or two before his parts began being disassembled, but not all. And the state would have saved a lot of money on courts and jails, etc.

  34. I will never stop busting my sides with laughter at the irony that the UNITY, DOWN WITH HATE, INCLUSION OF EVERYONE assholes are the most divisive, spiteful, bitter, disgusting human beings extant. I’d argue that group is on par with African Warlords, drug cartels, and Commie organ camp guards as far as pure malice goes. But they’re probably the only ones who think they’re good and righteous.

    • to support your statement, I have a case study example. a person I have known for over 40 years has resided in KY, TN, GA, FL, and has spent the last 5 years in san fransisco. he is a very intelligent man, but his dedication to his job (rather than choosing a home state to be dedicated to & finding other employment) caused him to relocate to all of these locals. while he was raised and lived most of his life in those “horrible Southern bastions of bigotry,” he declares that by FAR san fransisco is the MOST RACIST place he has ever lived.

  35. Umm, 2 white domestic terrorist Timothy McVay and Ted K never used firearms to commit their terror?

    Should we shut down mail? And ban U haul rentals?

    Might as well make pressure cookers a ATF registered destructive device? (Boston marathon bombings)

    Oh and a tax stamp required for every plane Boeing /airbus builds (9-11-01)

  36. I’m puzzled by her ignorant statement here about the confederate flag “prohibitions are hopefully on the horizon”

    I don’t care about that flag but the government can’t put prohibitions on it. The 1st amendment protects all speech, not just the popular speech.

    This woman really isn’t very bright, it shows how desperate the WP is to publish such dribble.

  37. *laughs in FBI statics*

    I kinda hate to be ‘that guy’ but we know exactly the hows and the why’s of virtually every gun related death in the USA. Sadly, we can’t really do anything about it given the nature of the crimes, but we know that ‘white supremacy ‘ has sweat f*ck all to do with it.

  38. “The defining photograph of the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6 was that of aN APPARENTLY UNARMED man strolling through the broken halls …” FIFY

    But, of course, the response to an attack committed with pole arms (at best) is to pass more gun laws.🙄

  39. This is just more BS from the radical liberals. I’m a Hispanic Vietnam veteran, and none of these liberals are ever going to disarm me or any of the 200 plus million Americans who own firearms.. Not only that, I hold a CC license in 31 states, and will continue to carry for the protection and safety of citizens, for my family and for myself. We must always keep an eye out for these lying, radical, liberal bigots to shut down their hateful anti-American speech and rhetoric.

  40. Christian blacks need to start reading the bible on their own. Instead of having someone else tell them what’s in the bible. Martin Luther had a great idea. Read the bible for yourself. They would find plenty of examples of innocent people using “machine guns” to defend themselves against “agents” of the devil. And the skin color of the devil doesn’t matter. Male or female. The devils “agents” can change color and sexual orientation.

    Any Christian, skin color doesn’t matter, who relies on the government for protection is not following what god intended for Christians to do. And they are commenting a sin. By blaming the problem on something or someone else, that is not causing the problem in the first place.

  41. I have noticed that the people who hate the confederate flag also hate the American flag. And like to burn it.
    They also want civilians disarmed. So the so called “Rev” Risher doesn’t support civil rights. Except she does support the 1st amendment for herself.

  42. One’s heart has to go out to someone that has lost a loved one to a shooting…….or a drunk driver accident, or a slip/trip/fall fatality, or a true COVID-19 falality, et el. One understands the grief and need to bring sense and purpose to their loss. But, the bad guy with a gun…..or the mentally deficient guy with a gun……or the TERRIBLY DISTRAUGHT FAMILY MEMBER OF A GUN SHOOTING VICTIM…….or the Feelz-Gooder Social Do-Gooder….. or the the “hair-on-fire, we’re-all-gonna-die” contingent……are the politician’s easily manipulated Useful Idiot Tools to achieve his power and control agenda.
    A politician with a law never stops a bad guy with a gun…..or a F150, or a fertilizer bomb, or a pressure cooker bomb, et el, et el.
    He only controls the good guys which is his true agenda.
    In 1958. the late Col Jeff Cooper, handgun expert and founder of Gunsite Academy, stated, “Killing is a matter of will, not weapons.
    You cannot control the act itself
    by passing laws about the means employed.”

    The new agenda for humanity requires that no one will have the capacity to fight back. It has been said: “Our Task of creating a Socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed.” No other explanation is possible.
    History has repeatedly demonstrated that disarming good people in the name of making bad people harmless only eventually facilitates politicians shooting their own countrymen. History…learn from it or be doomed to relive it.

  43. Aaa COME ON ITS NOT A WHITE OR BLACK THING , NOR BLUE OR RED POLITICAL THING . NOR , WHO DOES OR DOES NOT OWN A WEAPON .
    ITS THE PEOPLE THE PERSON , GOOD VS EVIL . KEEP GOING AFTER THE BAD ONE’S , AND LEAVE REST OF US GOOD ONE’S ALONE . DUAAA .
    DO NOT DEFUND THE POLICE DEPT . GOOD PEOPLE SHOULD / MUST STAND UP AGAINIST THE EVIL ONE’S .

  47. Man that is some 5d level chess running there

    guns in America are racist?

    SO??? there is or was some great plan to get blacks in America to fight over some ‘thing’ and that ‘thing’ being Drugs and shoot FAR more of each other than any ACAB cop ever could?

    Then ship the guns into gun free cites like “Chicago? and only arm the blacks that shoot one another?

    now that is planing!
    tinfoil hat anyone?

  48. Anybody that promotes overthrow of the Republic should be disarmed and offered a airplane ride to the country they prefer.

    I hear Venezuela is quite the vacation spot. Along with various locales in central China, the former vassal states of the Evil empire previously known as the CCCP, certain portions of California ….

  49. Translation: We can’t kill the white devils as long as they are armed. But if we disarm them, we can kill them with impunity.

  50. The more these morons call people nazis or racists, the more people will actually turn to and embrace those ideologies.

  53. so the not so subtle subtext is: we have to disarm WHITE America…
    it’s OK if blacks have guns…just not whitey…
    did I get it right?

  54. I love these so called symbols of hate as perceived by blacks. what about raised fists with the black power verbiage? or t-shirts with Che on them? How come it is a symbol of hate when blacks say it is so. Or even white liberals that pander to the rhetoric? anything can be called a symbol of hate. like wearing an apartheid shirt with the African continent on a t-shirt, by a black American. the same answer I give to every article like this. read history, do honest research. these knee-jerking black people are ignorant. and the parkland survivors and others who “survive” these events. as a survivor of the last 51 years, I have no real beef with anyone, except haters of America, and of course the elite. who can with a snap of their fingers turn off the entire world. don’t be fooled, we are programmed to hate each other by these people.

    • P.S. the “Charleston loophole”, was actually written by Chuck the cock face Schumer.

      There is no “Charleston loophole”.. Just a series of bureaucratic fuckery that let that stupid shit fall through the cracks..

      • yes, my point exactly, it was not a loophole. it was introduced I believe by schumer and also approved that way. so it is in a sense the dems fault if they want to try and use that excuse.

  57. Hey Ms. Risher,
    Sorry for your loss. Now you and your racist clown show can go eff yourselves. Hard!
    Have a nice day.

  60. America is not a white supremacist society. How do I know this? Because, in 2018, of 590,000 violent interracial felonies, blacks committed 537,000 of them against whites. If America truly were a white supremacist country, there wouldn’t be a black person with a pulse to be found within it’s borders.

    This also points to the lie that black people are somehow the victims in our society. In truth blacks are the greatest victimizers of other races. Anyone who’s lived in a black neighborhood knows the ubiquity of the hustling mindset. This worldview allows them to cast themselves victims when they reap the fruits of their own bad decisions. Hence the constant screeching about white supremacy. It’s much more convenient, and much less effort, to blame whitey as opposed to figuring out birth control, valuing education and making it through the day without committing violent felonies.

  61. There is a distinct lack of mention of handgun violence. Handguns are the primary weapon of choice for black on black violence and murder which 97% of those offenders are African Americans (87% of all whites are murdered by some one who is white) The University of Florida published a study in US Today that stated homicide was the leading cause of death for black males 44 and under. Furthermore white males over the ages of 50 have 4 times the suicide rate vs the general population and handguns are the leading method of committing suicide for middle aged and older white males. Yet there is zero focus on hand guns. Banning long guns especially AR15s isn’t about reality it is about perception.

  63. We’ve failed to pass any significant federal gun-safety bill in the past 25 years

    Is she implying that the
    – 1968 Gun Control Act
    – 1986 Hughes amendment
    – 1996 Lautenberg Amendmen t

    were abject failures?

    One of those gaps, now called the “Charleston loophole,” led directly to the death of my mom by allowing her killer to purchase a gun he was legally prohibited from owning

    ..which is a failure of federal law enforcement.

    Of course, gangbangers who sell guns in back alleys (you know, where abortions used to be performed prior to Roe v Wade) do not bother to perform background checks.

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