On Monday, The Hill published a piece titled, “Gun ownership among Black Americans is soaring.” The first line read, “‘In times of uncertainty people want to be able to have the means to defend themselves,’ a law professor said.”
When the outlet published the piece, they shared a link on Twitter, accompanied by an image which appeared to show an armed black militia group.
Gun ownership among Black Americans is soaring https://t.co/eb8ULoz4Ag pic.twitter.com/OyFTYLMXrK
— The Hill (@thehill) April 5, 2021
The article covers an array of cherry-picked topics surrounding the supposed plague of “white violence.”
The “story at a glance” is that “Black gun owners are responsive to white on black violence,” and that “There is a correlation between the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Philando Castile and Black gun owners, according to reports,” with black people “buying guns at a high record rate, partially due to fear and anxiety.”
“Black people owning guns have gone up 58.2 percent, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) — and gun groups like the ‘Not F**king Around Coalition (NFAC)’ consist of armed social justice advocates who demand justice for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, visibly strapped with handguns,” the Hill added.
Later, the article discussed “The National African American Gun Association (NAAGA), a Black alternative to the National Rifle Association (NRA),” which “saw its membership increase rapidly to about 30,000 members” in 2019 following Philando Castile’s death. The organization, which has been in business since 2015, has 75 chapters nationwide.
Setting aside the article’s clear hyper-focus on a tiny proportion of black gun owners — with 0.18% of black gun owners being members of the NAAGA and just 0.02% being members of the NFAC” — it’s important not to miss a central point being subtly made by the Hill — that increased gun ownership among black Americans is bad.
The reason the article’s focus is on minority groups like the NAAGA and NFAC is that they exist in opposition to something. More specifically, something that the legacy media also opposes: The broad generalized issue of “white violence” and “systemic racism.”
Therefore, the Hill slyly takes the broad increase in black gun ownership — which may be in part motivated by the threat of white protestors or “white violence,” whether real or otherwise — and removes all other considerations. The implied conclusion? Black gun ownership is only increasing because of white supremacy, and if it weren’t for white supremacy, they wouldn’t be buying guns!
No. No, no, no. The more law-abiding Americans who can safely own and carry firearms, the better, both for their own safety and the safety of those around them. Cherry-picking the reasons why some black Americans buy guns to explain away their decision to exercise their inalienable rights is simply intellectually dishonest and incredibly cynical.
After all, if you don’t believe that black Americans exercise their rights for the same reasons as others, perhaps you’re the racist in this scenario?
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.