Gun Culture’s Right-Wing Problem

Groups Like the NRA Ultimately Harm the Cause of Gun Rights

Christian Evans
Aug 24, 2017 · 6 min read
NRA Spokeswoman Dana Loesch in a June 2017 Video

When Philando Castile was killed by a Minnesota police officer in July 2016, gun owners were outraged. Castile was stopped because he allegedly fit the profile of a robbery suspect and was killed by the officer after declaring a legally concealed weapon that he had inside his vehicle.

For gun owners, especially concealed weapon permit holders wary of measures that would infringe on their Second Amendments rights, the fact that Castile was shot despite being upfront about his possession of a legal firearm was a threat to their rights as well.

Officers like the one that shot Castile, Jacob Sullum wrote at Reason, “pose a clear and present danger to law-abiding gun owners.”

One would think that in the midst of this outrage, the National Rifle Association (NRA), the premier gun rights organization in the United States, would come to the defense of a legal gun owner who was doing exactly what is to be expected of a gun owner when stopped by the police.

But instead, the NRA resorted to vague statements at the time of the shooting, and when the officer was acquitted in June, they remained strangely silent on the subject. Breaking the silence, Dana Loesch, a spokeswoman for the NRA, defended the officer’s actions by retorting that Castile was also in possession of marijuana, even though that did not factor into the shooting.

Why did the leading gun rights organization in the U.S. fail to defend a legal gun owner? Notably, Castile was a black man, and the NRA was put in the position of defending a murdered man from a police officer. It was a shameful episode in the NRA’s history, but by no means the first time they have strayed away from being a straight gun rights organization by playing partisan politics.

In addition to lobbying for fewer gun restrictions, the NRA is known for its pro-cop, conservative politics. The “war on cops” narrative pushed by many conservatives since the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 was a primary factor in the NRA’s silence.

Radley Balko argued that the “NRA’s allegiance to cops undermines its credibility on gun rights”, writing in The Washington Post,

A law-abiding gun owner was shot and killed by a cop after doing everything he was supposed to do. It then took more than a year for anyone from the nation’s largest gun rights organization to comment, and when she did, she offered a vague, heavily qualified, quasi-criticism of the cop while implying not only that Castile contributed to his death but also that he might be alive if only he were carrying an NRA Carry Guard card.

Indeed, Balko goes on to produce a mountain of evidence suggesting that when it comes to citizens defending their lives and their property from police officers during no-knock raids, the NRA just doesn’t care. The Castile shooting exposed the NRA’s hypocrisy when it comes to defending gun owners from the brute force of the police.

The trouble with the NRA doesn’t end there. With Obama out of the White House and Trump beginning his term, the threat against the Second Amendment from the Executive Branch had virtually disappeared. In recent months, the NRA has increasingly focused its attention on attacking media outlets, “the left” and Black Lives Matter.

In June, Loesch appeared in a video for the NRA which raised the alarm against Black Lives Matter, antifa groups, liberal Hollywood, the anti-Trump “resistance” and the media. The video endorses using the police to “stop the madness.” The video was quickly ridiculed and condemned for its inflammatory rhetoric.

In a segment on NRATV, guest Chuck Holton hysterically claimed that if Black Lives Matter succeeded, whites would be “tortured and killed,” alleging that this was happening to whites in South Africa and that it would soon reach our shores.

With their ridiculous, over-the-top videos attacking the “left-wing media” and black activists, the NRA is fighting a partisan culture war, not defending gun rights.

Rather than create a broad coalition of pro-gun Americans across racial and ethnic lines and the political spectrum, the NRA is solidifying themselves as an organization for white, conservative gun owners. It’s clear that there is little room for minorities and the left in the NRA. In fact, the NRA and its top leadership have a history of racism.

This is all very troubling from the standpoint of someone who supports a universal right to bear arms. If gun rights is a partisan issue owned by conservatives, Trump voters and right-wing culture warriors, then elements of the left that are skeptical of state power are less likely to advocate for gun rights and more likely to advocate for gun restrictions supported by mainstream liberals.

However, there is a rich tradition of gun advocacy on the left and among civil rights activists. The Black Panthers infamously marched on the California State Capitol in 1967 with loaded guns, leading to increased gun restrictions under Republican Governor Ronald Reagan. Malcom X was shown wielding an M1 Carbine in an iconic photo that demonstrates how important the right to bear arms was to black civil rights activists.

Today, in the age of viral videos showing police gunning down black men and protests in major U.S. cities such as Ferguson, Baltimore, St. Paul and Baton Rouge which has often been met with force by the police departments in those cities, there has been a renewed interest in gun ownership among black activists.

The Huey P. Newton Gun Club and the Black Women’s Defense League are two groups that have recently challenged the stereotype of the white, conservative gun owner by empowering black gun owners and training local defense groups.

The John Brown Gun Club, named after the abolitionist who led an armed revolt against slave holders in the 1850s, had a presence in the crowds outside President Trump’s Phoenix rally on Tuesday, where they said they were defending left-wing protesters from white nationalists. They are part of a larger network of left-wing gun groups under the umbrella of Redneck Revolt, whose website tagline reads, “Putting the Red Back in Redneck.”

It is good that more ideologically diverse groups are embracing gun culture and the right to bear arms as a way to defend themselves from police brutality, Nazis and violent white supremacism. After all, gun rights are civil rights.

Even amidst the changing landscape of gun culture, the NRA remains a threat to the very thing they ostensibly protect. By using rhetoric that exclusively plays to a white, Christian and conservative base, the NRA has harmed the gun rights movement by alienating potential allies.

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that they would stop defending the First Amendment rights of armed protesters like the alt-right and militia groups at the Charlottesville, Virginia Unite the Right rally. This is the unfortunate result of the right’s framing of the Second Amendment.

All of these events illustrate the need for a broader coalition for gun rights advocacy. There are clearly those on the left who recognize the usefulness of arming themselves and appreciate the right to bear arms. There are also those who see armed right-wing militias and extremists as a threat that shows the need to restrict guns.

Those who care about the right to bear arms and the strong gun culture that thrives in the U.S. should be concerned about the right’s rhetoric on gun rights. We need a broader pro-gun coalition that is inclusive of all racial and ethnic groups and diverse ideological backgrounds. The right of self-defense is universal.

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Christian Evans

Written by

Libertarian. News junkie, writer.

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