Posted on 04/23/2012 6:56:40 PM PDT by marktwain
Did you ever think you’d live to see the day when you could make a Venn diagram for ultraconservative commentator Ann Coulter and historic Black leader Malcolm X? Well, if you’re reading this, you’ve lived to see that day.
In an interview on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News program last week, Coulter said that, in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, African-Americans should begin arming themselves.
Here’s the full context of the conversation:
Coulter: We are going to have a trial, but I was just making the point that if what [MSNBC] is claiming happened — that George Zimmerman stalked this young black child just because he was black, shot him dead in cold blood — if that's the case, well, the reaction isn't the conclusion they're coming to on the left which is oh, we need more gun control. Gun control laws have been used historically, they were — they were to keep guns out of the hands of blacks and it was the Republican Party and the NRA that has always supported arming blacks in order to protect themselves from the democratic Ku Klux Klan.
O'Reilly: All right so what you're saying is if MSNBC and NBC News's hypothesis is true that this was a racially biased driven murder, that all African-Americans should take that as a warning sign and arm themselves against that happening to them, therefore, they should support the NRA. They should support the law that gives, allows you to fight back if threatened, and they should arm themselves. That's what you're saying?
Coulter: Yes.
Call Coulter what you’d like, but she is correct when she says that gun laws from early American history were enacted specifically to disarm African-Americans. But is she right in saying that Blacks need to arm themselves for their protection? Not so fast.
This from an article in the National Bureau of Economic Research:
After peaking in 1993, gun homicides in the United States dropped 36 percent by 1998, while non-gun homicides declined only 18 percent. In that same period, the fraction of households with at least one gun fell from more than 42 percent to less than 35 percent. Duggan finds that about one-third of the gun-homicide decline since 1993 is explained by the fall in gun ownership. The largest declines occur in areas with the largest reductions in firearm ownership.
In times of loss, it’s tempting to get angry, and in that anger we can wish some awful things. If you find yourself wishing that Trayvon Martin was armed the night he was killed, stop.
Statistics show that an uptick in handguns means an uptick in homicides and death. And would anything be better if Trayvon had also shot his killer, George Zimmerman? Or what if Trayvon shot first and then was, himself, the one facing second-degree murder charges? Would that have been a better outcome?
Go ahead and mourn the loss of Trayvon — it’s a sad, tragic thing. But wishing for more guns on the streets, as Coulter is doing, is shortsighted. It’s what got us in this mess in the first place.
The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of BET Networks.
Duggan actually seems a serious researcher. A better study that he was involved in with gun shows showed that homicides declined in a statistically significant way in the two weeks following gun shows in Texas.
Does Coulter realize she just gave Obama another idea for a government program?
Cash for Gatts for blacks?
Coulter is right. More law abiding blacks should arm themselves. They need the personal protection and they shouldn’t let the thugs in their community define them.
“The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world… The first step – in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come – is to teach men to shoot!”– President Theodore Roosevelt
Yo Cord!
All the law abiding black folks I know are armed.
It’s the unlawful ones that shouldn’t be armed, and that goes for whites as well.
We have laws that cover that already.
Amen
No they don't.
Anything that shuts O'Reilly up - even for a second - is a good thing.
“. . . encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes. . . “
One view of “Band of Brothers” is the aspect that most of those guys kept themselves and others alive while winning the battle and eventually the war by being good at shooting. It is obvious this skill was developed while they were kids, shooting squirrels and whatever. Their expertise was not taught in basic training.
Coulter is right. More law abiding blacks should arm themselves. They need the personal protection and they shouldn’t let the thugs in their community define them.
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Hear, hear!!!! They shouldn’t have to wait on the police to show up!
I live next to a black community in our town. They had a really, bad problem with crack houses and thugs and the police wouldn’t even go into their area. Then, the community ‘took care of bid-ness’. Problem.....solved!!!! Good stuff! I applaud them!!!!!
Every individual citizen should have at least a 3-gun battery: hand gun; shotgun; and a rifle. Plus sufficient ammunition and accoutrements for that battery. We would all be safer, IMHO.
If she thinks they need them for protection from White racists, she is full of horseshit.
There are many fine Black people who would be fine being armed against the criminal element in most Black areas, especially in metropolitan areas.
I disagree. Look at the crime statistics. Please, no.
So the woman pushes a candidate for president, Mitt Romney, who bans such weaponry.
Well, such lack of moral or political consistency does make her the perfect Romney Republican, I suppose.
I don't believe this junk for a minute. Gun ownership fell during the Clinton administration? He was the original Gun Salesman of the Year with his AWB. The last guns shows before the AWB went into effect were astronomical! I think this author is flat out lying.
The campaign against “Saturday Night Specials” that drove Lorcin and others out of business took low priced pistols away from folks in poor ares who needed them for protection from the vermin in their neighborhoods.
Most guns used in crime are stolen and dirt bags don’t legally by guns for their activities. Almost all the low priced handguns were legally bought for personal protection. A $ 1,100 Kimber is out of the price range for many folks.
Oops. “areas”
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