āHistorically, African-Americans have viewed guns kind of like the boogeyman ā āThe master told you not to look at the gun and we shouldnāt touch a gun,āā Smith said. āBut that mindset is changing very, very quickly.ā
Wow, thatās not a loaded statement at all. It sounds like the NRA, but targeted at african americans.
I read it differently, I guess. I take his meaning to be, average black people - people just living their lives, not involved in crime - didnāt have any particular urge to own guns - no āgun cultureā like we white people seem to have. And that the root of that indifference-leaning-towards-avoidance of guns is centuries old. Without doing the research, all I can say is it rings true to me.
With the recent increase (or at least increased visibility due to everybody having a handheld camera nowadays) of cop-on-black violence, that indifference is now changing to acceptance. More blacks are becoming gun owners strictly for the purpose of self defense in day-to-day life.
I didnāt get any sense that Smith was advocating more guns, like the NRA would. <shrug>
This picture is worth 1,000 words at least on the difference in how armed blacks and armed whites are treated by cops.
And theseā¦
