Gun Control Is ‘Racist’: Black Guns Matter Activist

A handgun on display at the Gun Lady store in downtown Port Jervis, N.Y., on Oct. 10, 2022. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

Maj Toure, the founder of Black Guns Matter, an organization fighting to protect the Second Amendment rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, believes attempts to control gun ownership are steeped in racist ideologies.

In an interview with NTD’s “Capitol Report,” Toure points out the narrative that “guns are only for cops and criminals” and the idea of carrying a firearm being a taboo subject are false and “steeped in the actual racist practice of gun control.” Cities in the Northeast region, which have larger black and brown populations, are the places that have the most gun control and, “ironically, that’s where most of the violent crime is,” he said.

During the great migration period, a lot of black people from the South who were newly emancipated moved to big cities like Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and New York. “That’s when the gun control was created,” Toure said.

“There are a lot of would-be public servants who try to pretend that ... gun ownership is the actual racist thing when, in reality, gun control was literally started to stop black people from having the means to themselves.”

He added that the “PR” that goes along with convincing people that the Second Amendment goes against their interests “flies in the face of the historical context of African-Americans having a rich tradition with firearms in America.”

In recent years, African Americans have become the “largest new gun-buying demographic” in the United States, he said. “We’re pro-freedom. We’re pro-people, we’re pro-America, we are pro-justice, we are pro-accountability. We’re pro the things that make our communities actually solid, safer, more responsible.”

Gun Control

Democrats have taken advantage over the last two years of their control of Congress and the presidency to institute tough gun control measures. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden signed a gun control measure into law that expanded federal background checks for gun buyers between the ages of 18 and 21 as well as added incentives for states to adopt so-called red flag laws, which make it possible for authorities to confiscate firearms from those who “show signs of being a threat to themselves or others” and prevent them from obtaining one.

Democrats have, for years, tried to criminalize “high-capacity magazines” which do not have a clear-cut definition. Last year, legislation was introduced in the Senate seeking to ban magazines holding over 10 rounds.

In an interview with NowThisNews on Oct. 23, Biden said that he is pushing for legislation that will further limit magazines to eight bullets.

Proponents of gun control argue that restricting access to gun ownership would somehow lead to a decrease in shooting incidents.

However, such arguments fall flat when looking at places like Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, which have some of the strictest gun laws in the country but record more gun violence than places with relaxed gun laws. Opponents of gun control have pointed out that it only restricts gun ownership for law-abiding citizens.

A government survey conducted in 2016 among prison inmates found that only around 9 percent of them legally obtained the guns they carried while committing crimes from a store or a pawn shop.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Thomas Hogan, an adjunct fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and a former federal prosecutor, raised concerns about guns being taken away from law-abiding Americans.

“Out of the 350 to 400 million firearms in the United States, how many would be handed in?” he asked. “All the lawful gun owners would hand their guns in, but the criminals would not.”