Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Blacks, Las Vegas, and Gun Control
Ken Morgan
11 Oct 2017
🖨️ Print Article
Blacks, Las Vegas, and Gun Control
Blacks, Las Vegas, and Gun Control

“Black ex-soldiers and others defended their neighborhoods in America’s numerous race wars.”

The recent mass murder domestic terrorist attack in Las Vegas rekindled the U.S. bourgeoisie shaped the debate over gun control and Second Amendment Constitutional rights -- the right to bear arms. The 58 persons killed and 547 wounded made it the largest mass murder in American annals.

“Business Insider” quoted U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, the conservative Louisiana politician wounded earlier this year in an attempted mass killing of Republican Congressman practicing for a baseball game. "Look at some of those bills," Scalise said. "Those bills wouldn't have done anything to stop this."

Ultra-rightists blamed everyone but their mama for the calamity. They blamed liberal media. They blamed the NFL football players taking a knee. They devised conspiracies that blamed the killer himself for being an ISIS member.

U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) both came out for stricter gun control legislation. Called a moral victory for the gun-control crowd, the NRA “endorsed restrictions on a device that makes rifles fire faster” – the same devices that Stephen Paddock used, according to the New York Times. Most big business media support gun control.

All these comments and actions stand as two sides of the same bourgeoisie coin. Only the destruction of capitalism will deter domestic terrorism, mass murders. Pro-gun outfits such as right-wing militias, white supremacist groups, stand your ground and vigilante justice groups work in the service of the ruling class.

“Robert F. Williams founded the Black Guard to protect blacks from KKK violence in Monroe, North Carolina.”

Why do we Blacks need the right to bear arms? Recall the battles of the black Deacons for Defense and Justice, founded in Jonesboro, Louisiana, in 1964 to protect the Congress of Racial Equality from the domestic terror of the Ku Klux Klan.

Remember Robert F. Williams, the black activist and author of Negroes with Guns? He founded the Black Guard to protect blacks from KKK violence in Monroe, North Carolina.

Malcolm X said in his “Ballot or the Bullet” speech, “... where the government has proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives and the property of Negroes, it's time for Negroes to defend themselves.”

Black ex-soldiers and others defended their neighborhoods in America’s numerous race wars.

Gun control will not stop blacks from killing other blacks. The dog-eat-dog, inhumane capitalist system remains the primary cause.

Ought cops and others that protect capitalism be allowed to monopolize armaments that now include military weapons? No! The right to bear arms stood as one of ten amendments that protected a portion of the people from government intrusion. Slaves were not included.

We need not forgo our political rights for more cop protection in order to stem gun use.

  1. is bad for our safety, health, and welfare.

Dr. Ken Morgan is a black activist, internationalist scholar. He can be reached at kmorgan2408@comcast.net.

Black Armed Self-Defense

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Power of Black Self-Defense in Lincoln Heights
12 February 2025
When Nazis appear in public they must be quickly dispatched.

More Stories


  • Neoliberalism, Intervention and Anti-Blackness: A Webinar* Presentation
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Neoliberalism, Intervention and Anti-Blackness: A Webinar* Presentation
    20 May 2020
    The elevation of anti-blackness as a kind of universal problem eliminates the basis for solidarity among the colonized and puts some African Americans on the side of U.S. imperialism.
  • Trump vs. Biden: The China-Hating Contest Is On Like Donkey Kong
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Trump vs. Biden: The China-Hating Contest Is On Like Donkey Kong
    20 May 2020
    Trump and Biden promise their fans a roaring hate-fest this election cycle, as they vie for the honor of defending America’s right to full spectrum dominance of every corner of the globe.
  • War House hot spot: Infected West Wing
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    War House hot spot: Infected West Wing
    20 May 2020
    Infector-in-Chief, Boss Tweet, Refuses to mask his lie hole. He insists on leaving out his snout— Normally affixed to CEO posteriors.
  • Identity Politics and Elite Capture
     Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
    Identity Politics and Elite Capture
    20 May 2020
    The trouble is that identity politics is the victim of elite capture in the service of their own interests.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    20 May 2020
    This week a Democratic Party exit, the role of Democratic Party sheepdogs, and the racial fallout of the pandemic in Chicago were on your minds.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us