Black Americans and guns

G

Guy B. Meredith

New member
I live in the SF Bay area and work for Xerox. I belong to three different clubs and have shot at 6 different ranges in the area.

I get the feeling that the black community actually has a prejudice about blacks and firearms. First, in the clubs white and pan Asians are well represented, but despite being in the Oakland and Richmond areas blacks are poorly represented. For the most part those I do see at the range are LEOs.

Second, Xerox has a highly diverse employee population and I work with quite a few black professionals. They are not gun friendly. In one instance I showed two black managers the Black Man With a Gun web site and they nearly wet their pants.

The impression I get is that my black acquaintances do not trust their fellow African Americans nor themselves with guns.

Of course, this is the SF Bay area and that might count for something.

Anyone else with similar experience? Does anyone have insight into the sensitivity?
 
I have to agree with some of what he says. I do not see the black community represented very well in the gun community. I think black society contributes alot of it's ills to guns and their effects on the younger community.

Here in Oregon I have never seen a black person at my range that was not a police officer and only one black regular at my gunshop.

Even when I lived in Alabama where the population was 1/2 black it was the same story.
 
I live in the SF Bay area and work for Xerox. I belong to three different clubs and have shot at 6 different ranges in the area.

I get the feeling that the black community actually has a prejudice about blacks and firearms. First, in the clubs white and pan Asians are well represented, but despite being in the Oakland and Richmond areas blacks are poorly represented. For the most part those I do see at the range are LEOs.

Second, Xerox has a highly diverse employee population and I work with quite a few black professionals. They are not gun friendly. In one instance I showed two black managers the Black Man With a Gun web site and they nearly wet their pants.

The impression I get is that my black acquaintances do not trust their fellow African Americans nor themselves with guns.

Of course, this is the SF Bay area and that might count for something.

Anyone else with similar experience? Does anyone have insight into the sensitivity?
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Are you kidding me? Why does it have to be the "black community"? You are digging your own grave with people of reason. Unfortunately, there aren't too many of those people left.
 
Before someone gets their panties in too much of a knot and screams racism about this, I'll point out that what Mr. Meredith is saying is (a)his observation and (b) is not a racist statement or viewpoint.

I also live in the SFBA, though at the south end of the bay. There are at least 4 ranges nearby and 8 within an hour's drive. In over 30 years of visiting public ranges I have encountered few African-American shooters as a general rule. Maybe I'm not going on the right days or at the right times, however. Most people I see on the ranges are white, Hispanic or Asian with occassional sightings of Indian shooters (had to help a novice Sikh get earmuffs on while he wore his turban:) ).

My own opinion is that in certain areas it may be an economic thing due to the expense of shooting - $10 hr plus ammo, targets, gas, etc. More affluent black gun owners may do what a fellow coworker did, which was to do his target shooting while camping in national forests instead of at a range.

There may be something to many African-Americans perceiving guns as "bad" due to living in certain communities (such as Oakland and Richmond which have high rates of black-on-black crime). But I have also found it to be both enjoyable and educational to talk with gun owners who happen to be black. There are some interesting differences of opinions to be discovered and discussed.
 
Black Americans and guns ?

Who cares ? Really what is your point to this thread. Why not Mexicans or Indians or any other race ? You have too much time on your hands.
 
Are you kidding me? Why does it have to be the "black community"? You are digging your own grave with people of reason. Unfortunately, there aren't too many of those people left.
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I'm not following you here. I am a reasonable man of reason. Are you saying he shouldn't say this because of stereotypes associated with blacks, or because it isn't ok to talk about it, or because he said "Black"? I don't see anything unreasonable about what he said there.

I live in PA and agree with his assessment, in my own range experience. Its either been LEOs or a group of males that were practicing gun saftey bad enough to eventually be asked to leave by the RM.

I will second BillCA's notion. I think it is the above-lower-class that end up being members of the firearm community. (If only because handguns are expensive!) I think for many well-to-do/well-to-do enough to shoot regularly), they have rejected black stereotypes of all shades, one of which comes from rap culture and includes guns.

I think this is a very interesting question. I hope reasonable discussion does not find itself attacked as racist just because people are talking about a minority and its actions (or percieved actions) in general.
 
I also live in the area and agree with what you are saying. Most black gun owners I know are military or retired military and are absolutely responsible and outspoken advocates for RKBA. They buck the unspoken urban stereotype of which everyone is afraid to mention. Sure, there is plenty of that going on around here as well, but no more than any other race which has unfortunately bought into modern-day ghetto pseudo-culture.

Unfortunately, I have encountered some of the worst racism I have ever experienced in this area within the gun-retail community...and I don't use that term lightly. It is so bad that I don't even feel comfortable discussing it with my black friends and acquaintances. It just makes me feel sick thinking about it, considering how outstanding these people I know are. They deserve better.
 
I just moved from the Atlanta area, and really can't speak about the Dallas area where I am now having been here only a couple of weeks. That said, back in Georgia there were no shortage of blacks at the range I normally frequented. For that matter, there seemed to be more blacks than any other ethnic group, about what the actual racial mix of the area is. In other words, there didn't seem to be any particular "culture of avoidance" in the black community back there in Ga -- at least not any more of such a culture than with any other ethnic group.
But I have also found it to be both enjoyable and educational to talk with gun owners who happen to be black. There are some interesting differences of opinions to be discovered and discussed.
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+1.
The more I do so, the more I find that there is much more common ground than not. I have noticed a tendency towards their preferring "trendy" handguns as opposed to the more traditional designs I'd select, but that "trendy" tendency is not limited to them by any means. I've also noticed more of the "low budget" guns with the blacks, most likely because that is what they have and they really can't afford better. I guess you just have to use what you have, a Hi-Point is much better than nothing at all when it comes to home defense. Then again, the guy (who happens to be black) just down the street I used to go fishing with on a regular basis has one of those "Ring of Fire" ZAMAK .380s, and he certainly could afford better if he wanted better. I mean, he has a spiffy house, a new Chevy truck and a new Ranger bass boat. He just doesn't see the need to upgrade his handgun. Everyone has their own priorities...
 
Are you kidding me? Why does it have to be the "black community"?
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wow, the above quote states how messed up folks are talking about race,
how sad.

I've noted the same in my area with CHL classes which I've taken a number of times and never seen a black person in class.
 
Kenn Blanchard addresses this in his book Black Man With A Gun. I'd quote some it, but my autographed copy is at home.

www.blackmanwithagun.com/site/pastorupdate.asp?sec_id=140000845

"It became a multi-ethnic and diverse club with chapters all over. Our goal was to start chapters in all the states where there were a large number of African American firearms enthusiast and provide them a club that fostered lawful and responsible gun ownership. This doesn’t seem like a big deal unless you realize that black people have been conditioned not to trust or openly admit gun ownership. It has been illegal for a person of color to own a gun for so long that it will take some time before we as a people accept the truth. So that is my job. We are to grow, educate, motivate and bring my people together so that we can come out of the closet and stop being used as pawns in the politics of the . The idea was sound. It just doesn’t pay to be right.

Until the day when the phrase Black Man with a Gun is no big deal, I’ll be here. In fact, if you are a law abiding, gun owning, voting citizen of the regardless of race, you are probably a black man with a gun too."
 
My experiences at GA gun ranges mirror gb in ga's experiences. I shoot at a WMA range in rural GA. Also shoot occasionally at an indoor range in the N Atlanta area.

There's no rational accounting for the behavior of "men" in San Francisco, regardless of race.
 
My point is that I do see a broad spectrum of people at the range, but one of the largest segments of the local community does not participate.

Think of that as a large voting block if that helps get around worries about race.

By the way, the Indian/Pakistani and Middle Eastern communities are also under represented and they are becoming a larger segment of the local population so maybe I should expand the question to include them.

The difference is that I know and encounter many more African-Americans than Indian, Pakistani and Middle Eastern and have less opportunity to influence the latter.

In any event, the question is whether there is some self imposed barrier as seems to be the case with the professionals with whom I work. I had missed the statement by Kenn Blanchard that johnbt sites though I've seen Kenn's messages in these forums and have been to his web site for solid reference information.
 
Over 90% of African-Americans vote Democratic. That should tell you all you need to know about the mindset of African-Americans.
 
You have to remember that blacks make up a much smaller percentage of the population than whites. While the numbers wouldn't exactly jive with equal representation it does make the "problem" seem less severe.
 
Over 90% of African-Americans vote Democratic. That should tell you all you need to know about the mindset of African-Americans.
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Really? And what is that? I grew up in WV where almost everyone voted democrat and almost everyone had at least a rifle.

In your last post you called into question the masculinity of one group of people (when a person does that it just makes me as unsure about their masculinity as they obviously are about their own) and in this one you label a group as a certain mindset and then denegrate that mindset. :rolleyes:
 
In your last post you called into question the masculinity of one group of people (when a person does that it just makes me as unsure about their masculinity as they obviously are about their own) and in this one you label a group as a certain mindset and then denegrate that mindset.
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And off we go to the gay area. Sorry I didn't get that at all from his post.
 
Over 90% of African-Americans vote Democratic. That should tell you all you need to know about the mindset of African-Americans.
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Someone can vote Democratic for a lot more reasons than gun control. Were I a black man looking at the Republican party I'd probably vote Democratic as well.

Of course, I'm white and I generally vote Democratic. So go figure.
 
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