“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.
- 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.
The demands for justice at home and abroad must not be sacrificed on the altar of what is called pragmatism. The false choices presented by liberalism can undermine the movement altogether.
A May Day 1928 essay by Black communist Williana “Liana” Jones Burroughs – aka Mary Adams – recounts the history of African revolt in the Americas.
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BAR contributor Ann Garrison continues her reporting from the Horn of Africa. She is now in Eritrea.
