An Interesting Question from the LA Times

So, if the answer is "no," ... Column: Is California ready for more Black people to legally carry guns in public?

If the prospect of a bunch of law-abiding, black citizens, being legally armed has Californians freaking out, does that make them racist?

Although the recent SCOTUS ruling was against a law in New York, California is also a "May Issue" state when it comes to concealed carry. Or it was, anyway.

And when you look at the big cities, like Los Angeles, where virtually no one has a concealed carry permit, the vast majority of minorities are locked out of the self-defense sphere. For their own good of course. At least that's how the Powers The Be™ see it.

You need to rely on the state for your personal security, even though the state has proven time and again that they can't be counted on. (Hello, Uvalde, Texas police department... are you listening?) When seconds count cops are minutes away, and then in a place like Uvalde even when they ARE ON SITE they refuse to act for an hour because their lives are more important than your life.

Still, over the past few years as Americans have stocked up on guns at record rates, it is Black people — especially women — who have been buying them the most. Between 2019 and 2020 alone, there was a 58% spike, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Emmanuel Choice, who runs a Black gun club in Los Angeles, has watched this trend play out in Southern California. Black people are not only buying guns in big numbers, but eager to get the training to follow the law and handle them safely.

Anyway, click thru for the history - the anti-black history - of gun control in California, and more.

And here is a bit that I didn't expect to see in the Los Angeles Times:

Meanwhile, a coalition of progressive organizations, including the Black Attorneys of Legal Aid, the Bronx Defenders, and Brooklyn Defender Services, filed an amicus brief in the case, urging the court to rule exactly as it did.

Their argument? That gun control laws in New York, like California, disproportionately harm Black and Latino people who carry guns for self-defense. They complained of clients who have been “stopped, questioned, and frisked,” and deprived of their livelihoods because they “exercised a constitutional right.”

The Second Amendment applies to all Americans, even if they're poor and minority.