My thoughts after reading this thread
ya know, until this thread I never really thought about it, but out of the three gun ranges I attend (two in Houston and one in Monroe Louisiana) I see VERY few black people shooting there compared to whites and others. Both Houston and especially Monroe have a fair sized black population. In Houston along with Mexicans and other Hispanics, blacks are the largest minority population. In Monroe they are THE largest minority population.
In fact, in Houston, I think I see more oriental people at the ranges shooting than black folks. There is one black man at the indoor range I attend (in fact...ironic as it may seem to this thread's subject...I think he is the manager and I thinka CHL instructor)
The outdoor range I sometimes go to in Houston has, last time I was there, mostly Hispanic and Oriental range officers. Five years ago or so I remember when ti seemed like it was nothing but rednecks shouting at everybody like they were drill sergents (has a lot of people out there and a lot of rules to enforce...which is why I typically don't go there)
But as far as black shooters at the range, never stopped to look specifically for this or that race, I don't think I do see very many blacks.
The one black man I ever did notice at the indoor range was a middle aged man in plain clothes wearing a police duty belt with what looked like a M-66 revolver. (he was carring a wheelgun and had a police holster which is what caught my attention)
I seem to remember reading an article in Southern Partisan magazine a few years ago that discussed how much Hunting was a key part of Southern Culture among not only whites but blacks too. How the southerners, black and white, preserve the tradition of hunting and see the value in it as being in touch with nature and being a key part of growth as a man.
I would guess that urban blacks (where most live....indeed most of the american population in general has been urbanized over the past 50 years) who mostly live in the slums and ghettes experiencing black on black crime and such every night of the week would lean towards being anti gun (and as they are poor I would guess you wouldn't find them paying range fees and buying guns in the stores) Middle class urban blacks, like most urbanites, would probably be less favored towards guns.
Rural blacks on the other hand, like rural whites, who live in the country and have their own land in the South, I would think would likely be favorable towards guns and the hunting culture.