Let's be really loud and clear here. At least one primary objective of the Second Amendment was to protect the rights of armed gangs (they call them militias), not all civilians. If you seriously study the history, you will find that although the amendment was ratified in December of 1791, the major authors of this amendment were originally, James Madison, and finally, Thomas Jefferson. You see, old Jeff was a racist to the core and a foul and terrible man, but I can't deny the fact that he was certainly a visionary. He knew that chattel slavery as an institution, where Africans were forced to be the property of whites for 350 years, would someday come to an end. He also knew that much of the Southern way of life was built around and dependent upon this cruel and inhuman slave system. So, in order to try and insure the security of the union, he wanted to create an amendment that would insure that the South's racist way of life would be protected.
For serious students who study this question, you will find that Madison's original version of the Second Amendment said "security of a free country." This would make sense because the U.S. had fought a war for independence against Britain just a few years before that, so it's reasonable that since the U.S. was now a nation, the amendment would be written within a national context. So, the question is, why was the word "country" taken out and substituted with "state" as has been the case with the Second Amendment since 1791? The answer is Jefferson reworded the amendment to say "security of the state" because he wanted to insure that when slavery did end (which it did as a legal institution 72 years after 1791), that Southern states would have the legal right to protect their political and economic stronghold over African people.
This was exactly what happened when slavery ended as the plantation industry capitalized on the verbiage in the Second Amendment to hire those armed gangs I spoke of in the first paragraph. The sole purpose of those gangs was to go out and terrorize free Africans into staying on the plantation. These armed gangs were big business. Any sane person can understand why. Large numbers of Africans were in a huge hurry to get as far away from the South and the horrors of chattel slavery as they could. People came together. Wagon trains were established and people struck out to go North, West, anywhere, that wasn't a Southern plantation. This mass migration threatened to destroy the plantation industry which was the foundation of the South's economy. So, these thug gangs were hired to go out and terrorize these innocent African people into turning around and heading back to the plantation South. During this time, the Northern cities had a fewer number of free Africans, but there was fear among the white populations of these folks settling near them, so City Watch groups were established and these groups were able to successfully use the Second Amendment as shield to justify their gun terror against African people.
So, with this type of history in this country, it's no surprise that white people in Houston plan to march in the 5th Ward African community with assault rifles, supposedly to protest their right to carry and own weapons. Don't confuse my message. If you are expecting an anti-gun message here, that's not my point. I don't believe guns should be as easy to acquire legally as they are and I think the fascination with guns in this society is dysfunctional and extremely dangerous, but since all the people who seem to want to do harm to people like me have guns, I'm forced to take side with Gil Scott Heron's famous lyrics: "when the other folks give up theirs, I'll give up mine!" In the meantime, I'm definitely a gun owner, but I'm also an African so I can't ignore history. White supremacy and capitalism, hand in hand -always - project this image to everyday people of all races in this society that African people are violent and must therefore be contained. Most white people, who know absolutely no African people, or at least don't interact with us on any type of regular basis, believe this programming. Examples are recent rants by idiots like Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling. As much as many white people want to pretend otherwise, those two aren't exceptions. It's just with social media, dysfunctional views and practices are much easier to expose now. So, this is the perception that is dominant in this society today. In fact, since white supremacy is universal in it's application by the capitalist system, many Africans believe that our people are more violent and therefore shy away from visiting our communities ;under this fear that something will happen to them. This is amazing when you think about it because although our youth are subjected to intense security in inner city schools, it's the white suburban schools where shooters keep shooting and killing civilians. While our communities are besieged as unsafe, it's malls, restaurants, and university campuses that are turning into some of the most potentially dangerous places you could visit. So, there's no question that the main source that people should be worried and fearful about is this same capitalist system that is promoting all of the backward propaganda in the first place.
So, we aren't mad at white people for being afraid. We will encourage conscious white people to talk to your kith and kin. You people are fools if you think we are going to let you intimidate us with your guns. Those days are long over. We have guns just like you do and many of us, because of the brutal conditions that capitalism has forced us to live through in these inner cities, have experience using them. More experience than your fantasy fascination has afforded you. So, the best thing that can happen is that you take your focus away from us because we are not the people causing your pain. It's the capitalist system you need to be angry with and once you get over the anger, then you need to start organizing to create better conditions for everyone.
As for us, African folks have seen this movie too many times to be confused. The majority of us understand quite clearly that the Second Amendment, the constitution, and everything associated with it was not written to protect any of our interests. We also understand that the National Rifle Association is a racist organization that stands for gun rights for white people. This is illustrated by their support for the racist Mulford Act in California in 1967. This was the law that was generated and passed specifically to stop the Black Panther Party from carrying weapons in their police patrols in the Bay Area. These young African women and men were carrying guns to confront police terrorism in our communities. They were carrying them legally and the NRA and the state government conspired to stop them. So much for the right of very citizen.
The truth is that we know that many of these gun toting white folks only support gun rights as long as they are the only people that have them. I've been to too many shooting ranges and my skills are good enough that I have seen the looks I get when I'm there with my Malcolm X, Huey Newton, or Che Guevara tee shirts. I frighten these people. Whether they admit it or not, I've seen that look my entire life. So, we Africans know. For you white people who really want gun control, we can tell you how you can get comprehensive gun control overnight. Just start arming African people with assault rifles and the laws will come tumbling down with the same precision that the sun follows the moon.
For serious students who study this question, you will find that Madison's original version of the Second Amendment said "security of a free country." This would make sense because the U.S. had fought a war for independence against Britain just a few years before that, so it's reasonable that since the U.S. was now a nation, the amendment would be written within a national context. So, the question is, why was the word "country" taken out and substituted with "state" as has been the case with the Second Amendment since 1791? The answer is Jefferson reworded the amendment to say "security of the state" because he wanted to insure that when slavery did end (which it did as a legal institution 72 years after 1791), that Southern states would have the legal right to protect their political and economic stronghold over African people.
This was exactly what happened when slavery ended as the plantation industry capitalized on the verbiage in the Second Amendment to hire those armed gangs I spoke of in the first paragraph. The sole purpose of those gangs was to go out and terrorize free Africans into staying on the plantation. These armed gangs were big business. Any sane person can understand why. Large numbers of Africans were in a huge hurry to get as far away from the South and the horrors of chattel slavery as they could. People came together. Wagon trains were established and people struck out to go North, West, anywhere, that wasn't a Southern plantation. This mass migration threatened to destroy the plantation industry which was the foundation of the South's economy. So, these thug gangs were hired to go out and terrorize these innocent African people into turning around and heading back to the plantation South. During this time, the Northern cities had a fewer number of free Africans, but there was fear among the white populations of these folks settling near them, so City Watch groups were established and these groups were able to successfully use the Second Amendment as shield to justify their gun terror against African people.
So, with this type of history in this country, it's no surprise that white people in Houston plan to march in the 5th Ward African community with assault rifles, supposedly to protest their right to carry and own weapons. Don't confuse my message. If you are expecting an anti-gun message here, that's not my point. I don't believe guns should be as easy to acquire legally as they are and I think the fascination with guns in this society is dysfunctional and extremely dangerous, but since all the people who seem to want to do harm to people like me have guns, I'm forced to take side with Gil Scott Heron's famous lyrics: "when the other folks give up theirs, I'll give up mine!" In the meantime, I'm definitely a gun owner, but I'm also an African so I can't ignore history. White supremacy and capitalism, hand in hand -always - project this image to everyday people of all races in this society that African people are violent and must therefore be contained. Most white people, who know absolutely no African people, or at least don't interact with us on any type of regular basis, believe this programming. Examples are recent rants by idiots like Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling. As much as many white people want to pretend otherwise, those two aren't exceptions. It's just with social media, dysfunctional views and practices are much easier to expose now. So, this is the perception that is dominant in this society today. In fact, since white supremacy is universal in it's application by the capitalist system, many Africans believe that our people are more violent and therefore shy away from visiting our communities ;under this fear that something will happen to them. This is amazing when you think about it because although our youth are subjected to intense security in inner city schools, it's the white suburban schools where shooters keep shooting and killing civilians. While our communities are besieged as unsafe, it's malls, restaurants, and university campuses that are turning into some of the most potentially dangerous places you could visit. So, there's no question that the main source that people should be worried and fearful about is this same capitalist system that is promoting all of the backward propaganda in the first place.
So, we aren't mad at white people for being afraid. We will encourage conscious white people to talk to your kith and kin. You people are fools if you think we are going to let you intimidate us with your guns. Those days are long over. We have guns just like you do and many of us, because of the brutal conditions that capitalism has forced us to live through in these inner cities, have experience using them. More experience than your fantasy fascination has afforded you. So, the best thing that can happen is that you take your focus away from us because we are not the people causing your pain. It's the capitalist system you need to be angry with and once you get over the anger, then you need to start organizing to create better conditions for everyone.
As for us, African folks have seen this movie too many times to be confused. The majority of us understand quite clearly that the Second Amendment, the constitution, and everything associated with it was not written to protect any of our interests. We also understand that the National Rifle Association is a racist organization that stands for gun rights for white people. This is illustrated by their support for the racist Mulford Act in California in 1967. This was the law that was generated and passed specifically to stop the Black Panther Party from carrying weapons in their police patrols in the Bay Area. These young African women and men were carrying guns to confront police terrorism in our communities. They were carrying them legally and the NRA and the state government conspired to stop them. So much for the right of very citizen.
The truth is that we know that many of these gun toting white folks only support gun rights as long as they are the only people that have them. I've been to too many shooting ranges and my skills are good enough that I have seen the looks I get when I'm there with my Malcolm X, Huey Newton, or Che Guevara tee shirts. I frighten these people. Whether they admit it or not, I've seen that look my entire life. So, we Africans know. For you white people who really want gun control, we can tell you how you can get comprehensive gun control overnight. Just start arming African people with assault rifles and the laws will come tumbling down with the same precision that the sun follows the moon.
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