Its appropriate that we start this piece by quoting two giants who's great contributions to African liberation also advanced the overall struggle for human progress. Kwame Ture, formally Stokely Carmichael, was fond of saying that "capitalism will make that which makes sense seem strange while making that which should be strange appear normal." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. un-apologetically accused the U.S. of being "the greatest purveyor of violence on the planet Earth!"
Both quotes are central to this so-called debate raging within the U.S. about guns, who should have them, and whether preventing people from having easier access to them will make people safer. First, to Dr. King's point. We realize that U.S. propaganda is among the strongest in the world. We also know that the ruling classes write the history of the societies they oppress. So, it should surprise no one that the U.S. narrative that this country is a free and democratic country where if you work hard enough, everyone's dreams can and will come true is a lie that's believed by people on every continent on the planet. Christians within the U.S. are taught from birth to believe that this country is blessed by God, above and beyond any other country, and people from outside the U.S. are also taught, and believe, this nonsense. And, today, in this so-called free and democratic society, whenever you express a view that challenges that narrative, there are plenty of people who are going to feel completely comfortable questioning your sanity, despite the fact those people will have absolutely no intellectual basis to challenge your position. If those people challenging you bothered to do even some cursory research of U.S. history, any of them with even an ounce of logic would have to accept that the entire narrative they believe and promote isn't true, has never been true, and can never be true.
Without question, the U.S. was born on the most brutal, vicious, and terrorist violence known to human history. Every descendant of the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere; that means Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, etc., are a clear reminder that their ancestors were systemically and violently wiped out by the terrorists that are officially titled "the founding fathers." Every descendant of Africa is a reminder that the wealth of this nation was built on the backs of our ancestors and the maintenance of that wealth results directly from the continued exploitation of the African continent. Every women is a reminder that patriarchy is the floor plan of this backward society. And, every descendant of Europe is a reminder that working class White people continue to be pimped and exploited by the super rich to serve as shock troops and pawns for a ruling class agenda. That is the real U.S. If you know this true history, then you couldn't possibly be surprised that gun violence is a problem in this country today because you would know that it always has been a problem. And, anytime you steal something, and murder people to protect your theft, you are going to forever be looking over your shoulder. That's why people feel so attached to guns in this society. They know the U.S. stands on a very unstable foundation. And, the super rich have programmed White people to believe to their core that at any moment, the Indians will attack them (not the ruling classes) so they should always stay prepared to circle their wagons. White people are also regularly programmed to think that at any moment, the enslaved Africans will revolt and attempt to slit their throats (not the necks of the ruling classes) and burn this plantation down. These are the actual reasons the Second Amendment, as quiet as its kept, was pushed through in the first place. It was always centered around oppressing our people and making sure white people had the guns to do it.
Instead of understanding those truths, most white people in the U.S. who believe in gun rights today deny the deep white supremacist fears that guide their emotional dependence upon guns. Instead, they argue that they have a right to guns so they can protect themselves from the tyranny of the U.S. government. That's laughable to us African revolutionaries. These entitled white people have never in their lives raised a finger to challenge U.S. tyranny. In fact, they are the first ones to jump up to defend it while they have historically opposed our legitimate efforts to challenge it. And, even if they did challenge it, as we hope one day they can get their heads out of the sand to do, the issue isn't one of them being able to have or not have access to buying guns. It certainly isn't "law abiding people" having guns as opposed to "criminals" having access to them. That's nothing except another fantasy argument put out there by the capitalist ruling classes to keep white people looking at us as the problem (or who they need to protect themselves from) instead of the rulers who cause their suffering in the first place.
Clearly, there can be no serious question of gun control without centering that question around the guns and weapons controlled and operated by the state e.g. the government. The U.S. government has more weapons than every other government on Earth. That is an ill refutable fact. And, that U.S. government has used those weapons against everyone on Earth. That's another ill refutable fact. The U.S. has killed millions of Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Panamanians, Libyans, Iraqis, Afghanis, Congolese, Angolans, as well as thousands of people each year who live in this country. This is again, ill refutable. If you asked the average person in the U.S. which nation is more violently oppressive against its people; the U.S. or Cuba, most people wouldn't hesitate in telling you Cuba. Even many so-called "progressive" thinkers in this country would struggle to properly answer this question. If you actually compare U.S. police with Cuban police, U.S. police kill thousands of people every year. Many of those people are unarmed and a disproportionate number of them brown people, Trans people, and people with mental illness. Cuban police have only killed a few hundred people in 59 years since the revolution came to power. Just for the record, records of U.S. police murders haven't been adequately tracked since 1959, but even the most conservative estimates would have to say at least 20,000 to 30,000 people have been killed by U.S. police during that 59 year time period. High estimates would be as many as 60,000. For Cuban police during the same time period, its no more than about 400 deaths. Although most people may not have data, people generally understand these contradictions I'm pointing out. That's why most people today in the U.S., don't trust the U.S. government, especially police agencies, military, etc. And, the best testimony to the corruption activity inside of the U.S. military is those who have served within it. So, with this backdrop, there's no question why people resist any idea of disarming themselves while the U.S. government continues to proliferate weapons of destruction against humanity.
That's not to say that the solution is people stockpiling guns. That is without question not the solution. People accumulating guns is without question a problem today because of the extremely low level of consciousness in the U.S. today. Disproportionately, youth and people who live their lives with no interaction with guns at all, are the ones who suffer from gun violence in this society. To stop this, what's needed is mass political education where people can begin to understand this true history of where this country actually came from, where this country is going, and why if you aren't a part of the super rich, you should separate yourself from that picture and start building something better. Since this government is determined to insure its political and economic interests stay unhindered, unlike revolutionary Cuba, this political education isn't going to come from this backward capitalist country. So, the only way we are going to have this mass political education is if we get the masses of people to become involved in independent revolutionary organizations and efforts that include a mass political education program. Political education cannot happen on an individual basis, although we know that many of you apparently hold the naive belief that it can. All one has to do is look at how ineffective this approach has been to see clearly that is a fantasy. Our problem is the majority of people are not involved in any organization. No process to organize their communities, their neighborhoods, not even their households. You can see the problems with this clearly just by looking at your social media channels. Whenever something happens, people react and are all over the place. This is the manifestation of a disorganized society. If we had mass organization, which would naturally have to include mass political education, then we would organize people, with and without guns. That way, we could help people understand on a mass level that the purpose of their guns isn't for them to use against the most oppressed segments of society, but to organize to use them against their oppressors. This is what the U.S. government is really afraid of. And, this is the real discussion we should be having. Not mental illness and/or whether you and I should have certain types of guns while no one is questioning why billions of our tax dollars are spent on neutron bombs that kill people, but leave buildings intact. That gets to Kwame Ture's quote. In this society today, its normal to pay for bombs to kill thousands of people. Its normal for normally reasonable people to see no problem with denying schools funding to buy paper and pencils for students while then turning around in a day and having a knee jerk reaction that all teachers should have guns. Let's break that down quickly. In a school of 100 students, you can't afford pencils for all of them which would cost about $30.00, but the next day you want to buy Sig Sauer 9 millimeter pistols for them which will cost about $20,000.00. That's just an example of Kwame's point of how insane people in this country are when again, no one is even mentioning the billions spent on military hardware to do what to whom? Police hardware to do what to whom?
Gun control that isn't about disarming the state is another propaganda scam. The issue isn't how many guns people have, its how politically ignorant the people are who have them. If we had mass political education, people wouldn't even see the need to have 30 guns when they are so confused about why they need them in the first place. The mass proliferation of guns is simply the result of living in a capitalist consumer society where everyone is guided by values of fear, where self esteem is determined based on possessions. Where toxic male masculinity is permitted to operate unchecked. All of this is addressed through educating your people. When we do that, the value of people becomes dominant, unlike this society where people are viewed as commodities (thus making it easier to kill them). When people value people, when people are humanized, instead of dehumanized, it becomes much more difficult to kill them in the nonchalant way we have become accustomed to seeing here today. Plus, with mass political education, people are educated not only on how to value people, but how to work with people through difficult conditions. Show me a person who is against organization and I'll show you a person who's organizing skills e.g. how to work with people through difficulty, are limited to non-existent because anyone with strong organizing skills knows this is our only solution. Organization and mass political education creates a greater ability to resolve problems collectively and patiently. Conflicts are de-escalated and reduced, thus decreasing the chances of violence and definitely decreasing people seeing the need to even have gun stockpiles in the first place. In African societies, if an argument breaks out on the street, people are likely to get involved and the collective values and consciousness intervenes so that the person misbehaving is held accountable by everyone. This means people who don't even know this person. When myself and A-APRP organizers took a bus from Accra, Ghana, to Takaradi, Ghana, one of our cadre members, Baba Seku, changed seats on the bus to talk to one of the other organizers. When the bus started to pull out, all the people on the bus yelled out to the bus driver because people thought Baba Seku was being left behind. These people didn't know him. They just have a high level of humanity that is completely absent within the U.S. This is the type of collective consciousness that mass political education brings to a society and obviously, its this type of consciousness that creates true safety for all of us.
So, start telling your white gun owning relatives, friends, etc., that they can't claim they need guns to protect themselves from government tyranny while they support this government's tyranny against everyone else who isn't them. And, stop telling brown people not to have guns. While we are literally being shot down like dogs on the street by everyone who wakes up frustrated because of their own pathetic lives, we need to get organized to address that oppression by any means necessary and available to us. And, let's start telling everyone that the issue isn't bourgeois "right versus left." The question is the people protecting themselves against the oppressive state and organizing themselves to create a society based on justice and forward progress for all living entities. Until this is our priority, you will keep seeing mass shootings because mass shootings in the capitalist U.S. are as American as apple pie.
Both quotes are central to this so-called debate raging within the U.S. about guns, who should have them, and whether preventing people from having easier access to them will make people safer. First, to Dr. King's point. We realize that U.S. propaganda is among the strongest in the world. We also know that the ruling classes write the history of the societies they oppress. So, it should surprise no one that the U.S. narrative that this country is a free and democratic country where if you work hard enough, everyone's dreams can and will come true is a lie that's believed by people on every continent on the planet. Christians within the U.S. are taught from birth to believe that this country is blessed by God, above and beyond any other country, and people from outside the U.S. are also taught, and believe, this nonsense. And, today, in this so-called free and democratic society, whenever you express a view that challenges that narrative, there are plenty of people who are going to feel completely comfortable questioning your sanity, despite the fact those people will have absolutely no intellectual basis to challenge your position. If those people challenging you bothered to do even some cursory research of U.S. history, any of them with even an ounce of logic would have to accept that the entire narrative they believe and promote isn't true, has never been true, and can never be true.
Without question, the U.S. was born on the most brutal, vicious, and terrorist violence known to human history. Every descendant of the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere; that means Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, etc., are a clear reminder that their ancestors were systemically and violently wiped out by the terrorists that are officially titled "the founding fathers." Every descendant of Africa is a reminder that the wealth of this nation was built on the backs of our ancestors and the maintenance of that wealth results directly from the continued exploitation of the African continent. Every women is a reminder that patriarchy is the floor plan of this backward society. And, every descendant of Europe is a reminder that working class White people continue to be pimped and exploited by the super rich to serve as shock troops and pawns for a ruling class agenda. That is the real U.S. If you know this true history, then you couldn't possibly be surprised that gun violence is a problem in this country today because you would know that it always has been a problem. And, anytime you steal something, and murder people to protect your theft, you are going to forever be looking over your shoulder. That's why people feel so attached to guns in this society. They know the U.S. stands on a very unstable foundation. And, the super rich have programmed White people to believe to their core that at any moment, the Indians will attack them (not the ruling classes) so they should always stay prepared to circle their wagons. White people are also regularly programmed to think that at any moment, the enslaved Africans will revolt and attempt to slit their throats (not the necks of the ruling classes) and burn this plantation down. These are the actual reasons the Second Amendment, as quiet as its kept, was pushed through in the first place. It was always centered around oppressing our people and making sure white people had the guns to do it.
Instead of understanding those truths, most white people in the U.S. who believe in gun rights today deny the deep white supremacist fears that guide their emotional dependence upon guns. Instead, they argue that they have a right to guns so they can protect themselves from the tyranny of the U.S. government. That's laughable to us African revolutionaries. These entitled white people have never in their lives raised a finger to challenge U.S. tyranny. In fact, they are the first ones to jump up to defend it while they have historically opposed our legitimate efforts to challenge it. And, even if they did challenge it, as we hope one day they can get their heads out of the sand to do, the issue isn't one of them being able to have or not have access to buying guns. It certainly isn't "law abiding people" having guns as opposed to "criminals" having access to them. That's nothing except another fantasy argument put out there by the capitalist ruling classes to keep white people looking at us as the problem (or who they need to protect themselves from) instead of the rulers who cause their suffering in the first place.
Clearly, there can be no serious question of gun control without centering that question around the guns and weapons controlled and operated by the state e.g. the government. The U.S. government has more weapons than every other government on Earth. That is an ill refutable fact. And, that U.S. government has used those weapons against everyone on Earth. That's another ill refutable fact. The U.S. has killed millions of Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Panamanians, Libyans, Iraqis, Afghanis, Congolese, Angolans, as well as thousands of people each year who live in this country. This is again, ill refutable. If you asked the average person in the U.S. which nation is more violently oppressive against its people; the U.S. or Cuba, most people wouldn't hesitate in telling you Cuba. Even many so-called "progressive" thinkers in this country would struggle to properly answer this question. If you actually compare U.S. police with Cuban police, U.S. police kill thousands of people every year. Many of those people are unarmed and a disproportionate number of them brown people, Trans people, and people with mental illness. Cuban police have only killed a few hundred people in 59 years since the revolution came to power. Just for the record, records of U.S. police murders haven't been adequately tracked since 1959, but even the most conservative estimates would have to say at least 20,000 to 30,000 people have been killed by U.S. police during that 59 year time period. High estimates would be as many as 60,000. For Cuban police during the same time period, its no more than about 400 deaths. Although most people may not have data, people generally understand these contradictions I'm pointing out. That's why most people today in the U.S., don't trust the U.S. government, especially police agencies, military, etc. And, the best testimony to the corruption activity inside of the U.S. military is those who have served within it. So, with this backdrop, there's no question why people resist any idea of disarming themselves while the U.S. government continues to proliferate weapons of destruction against humanity.
That's not to say that the solution is people stockpiling guns. That is without question not the solution. People accumulating guns is without question a problem today because of the extremely low level of consciousness in the U.S. today. Disproportionately, youth and people who live their lives with no interaction with guns at all, are the ones who suffer from gun violence in this society. To stop this, what's needed is mass political education where people can begin to understand this true history of where this country actually came from, where this country is going, and why if you aren't a part of the super rich, you should separate yourself from that picture and start building something better. Since this government is determined to insure its political and economic interests stay unhindered, unlike revolutionary Cuba, this political education isn't going to come from this backward capitalist country. So, the only way we are going to have this mass political education is if we get the masses of people to become involved in independent revolutionary organizations and efforts that include a mass political education program. Political education cannot happen on an individual basis, although we know that many of you apparently hold the naive belief that it can. All one has to do is look at how ineffective this approach has been to see clearly that is a fantasy. Our problem is the majority of people are not involved in any organization. No process to organize their communities, their neighborhoods, not even their households. You can see the problems with this clearly just by looking at your social media channels. Whenever something happens, people react and are all over the place. This is the manifestation of a disorganized society. If we had mass organization, which would naturally have to include mass political education, then we would organize people, with and without guns. That way, we could help people understand on a mass level that the purpose of their guns isn't for them to use against the most oppressed segments of society, but to organize to use them against their oppressors. This is what the U.S. government is really afraid of. And, this is the real discussion we should be having. Not mental illness and/or whether you and I should have certain types of guns while no one is questioning why billions of our tax dollars are spent on neutron bombs that kill people, but leave buildings intact. That gets to Kwame Ture's quote. In this society today, its normal to pay for bombs to kill thousands of people. Its normal for normally reasonable people to see no problem with denying schools funding to buy paper and pencils for students while then turning around in a day and having a knee jerk reaction that all teachers should have guns. Let's break that down quickly. In a school of 100 students, you can't afford pencils for all of them which would cost about $30.00, but the next day you want to buy Sig Sauer 9 millimeter pistols for them which will cost about $20,000.00. That's just an example of Kwame's point of how insane people in this country are when again, no one is even mentioning the billions spent on military hardware to do what to whom? Police hardware to do what to whom?
Gun control that isn't about disarming the state is another propaganda scam. The issue isn't how many guns people have, its how politically ignorant the people are who have them. If we had mass political education, people wouldn't even see the need to have 30 guns when they are so confused about why they need them in the first place. The mass proliferation of guns is simply the result of living in a capitalist consumer society where everyone is guided by values of fear, where self esteem is determined based on possessions. Where toxic male masculinity is permitted to operate unchecked. All of this is addressed through educating your people. When we do that, the value of people becomes dominant, unlike this society where people are viewed as commodities (thus making it easier to kill them). When people value people, when people are humanized, instead of dehumanized, it becomes much more difficult to kill them in the nonchalant way we have become accustomed to seeing here today. Plus, with mass political education, people are educated not only on how to value people, but how to work with people through difficult conditions. Show me a person who is against organization and I'll show you a person who's organizing skills e.g. how to work with people through difficulty, are limited to non-existent because anyone with strong organizing skills knows this is our only solution. Organization and mass political education creates a greater ability to resolve problems collectively and patiently. Conflicts are de-escalated and reduced, thus decreasing the chances of violence and definitely decreasing people seeing the need to even have gun stockpiles in the first place. In African societies, if an argument breaks out on the street, people are likely to get involved and the collective values and consciousness intervenes so that the person misbehaving is held accountable by everyone. This means people who don't even know this person. When myself and A-APRP organizers took a bus from Accra, Ghana, to Takaradi, Ghana, one of our cadre members, Baba Seku, changed seats on the bus to talk to one of the other organizers. When the bus started to pull out, all the people on the bus yelled out to the bus driver because people thought Baba Seku was being left behind. These people didn't know him. They just have a high level of humanity that is completely absent within the U.S. This is the type of collective consciousness that mass political education brings to a society and obviously, its this type of consciousness that creates true safety for all of us.
So, start telling your white gun owning relatives, friends, etc., that they can't claim they need guns to protect themselves from government tyranny while they support this government's tyranny against everyone else who isn't them. And, stop telling brown people not to have guns. While we are literally being shot down like dogs on the street by everyone who wakes up frustrated because of their own pathetic lives, we need to get organized to address that oppression by any means necessary and available to us. And, let's start telling everyone that the issue isn't bourgeois "right versus left." The question is the people protecting themselves against the oppressive state and organizing themselves to create a society based on justice and forward progress for all living entities. Until this is our priority, you will keep seeing mass shootings because mass shootings in the capitalist U.S. are as American as apple pie.
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