Gun ownership has risen in the United States during a time of pandemic and widespread protests, a pattern that typically should please republicans and their special-interest sponsors, like the NRA.
But in this case, republicans are using the increased purchases of guns, and the owners’ willingness to carry them on the streets, as a dogwhistle for lawlessness and chaos because the gun owners are African-Americans.
As Politico notes, membership in Black-oriented gun ownership groups has risen since the start of the year. The National African American Gun Owners’ Association has seen increases of its ranks as great as 2,000 per day, an amount that would equal to annual memberships previously.
The spike in Black ownership has not gone unnoticed by either republicans or its media echo chamber. As largely peaceful protests swept across the nation in the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police, the White House, Congressional republicans and Fox “News” took to the airwaves stoking fears of rioting and “mob rule.”
As demonstrated by a June 24th interview on Fox “News” by Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, the imagery of Black people expressing their Second Amendment rights is characterized as dangerous, while images of white people aiming rifles at federal agents during the Bundy ranch standoff was described as patriotic.
Republican Georgia Senator @KLoeffler – an @NRA darling who champions gun rights for her white constituents – calls open carry by Black Americans “mob rule” and says it endangers civilians and law enforcement.
https://t.co/cZz8hB7CEj— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 25, 2020
The fluidness of conservative support for guns based on the color of the owners’ skin is not new. Ronald Reagan and the NRA supported gun control provisions after photographs of Black activists carrying guns in California were circulated in newspapers around the country in 1967.