Statement from the National African American Gun Association on Las Vegas shootings and gun laws

In light of the tragic shooting incident in Las Vegas in which 58 died, and over 500 were wounded I reached out to the National African American Gun Association for a statement. Phillip Smith,  president of the NAAGA, responded. While I don't agree with most of his response and much of it is what you would expect from a pro-gun organization, he did make some concessions as far as common sense gun laws that the NRA has not. Read his statement below. George L. Cook  III African American Reports.

To: George L. Cook III

Re: Las Vegas Shootings - Perspective

Hello George,

I want to say that first and foremost our Organization The National African American Gun Association would like to express our sorrow and deepest sympathy for the victims and families of the Las Vegas Shooting.
This is a tragic loss for everyone in the United States,  as Americans we all feel the pain from this......

When a Nation is hit with something like this it is easy and almost a natural reaction to point blame to a person, group, or Laws which might fill the void and provide some sort of rational answer...........we want to vent , scream, and talk about how this happened.........that is easy but it doesn't accomplish anything but becomes a divisive tool for certain organizations 
The first target of these conversations is almost always by default "Gun Laws" and how they need to be changed to take away people's rights to own Guns or severely limit them from the General public....typically the discussions range from taking Assault Rifles, enforcing background checks, improving Mental Health infrastructure, and changing the general public's taste for Guns

As in the case of the Las Vegas shooter he was a person who didn't have a previous record and was determined to
complete his mission.  Even the Las Vegas Police and Criminal Justice professionals have stated there was nothing Law Enforcement or the public could have done that would have prevented it.  He was an evil person acting as a "Lone Wolf" set out to do evil things to the public at a Concert.....

The Bigger question to me isn't what we should do next but what we shouldn't do as knee-jerk reaction

What we shouldn't do is start taking Gun Rights away from Law Abiding citizens like myself and millions of others in the United States.  You don't punish the good guys only to give Bad guys even more chances to kill folks because  Law Abiding Americans will now be totally defenseless.  Criminals and Mad Men are always going to find a way to have guns either Legally or Illegally that is a fact................ A good analogy is if you have a individual drunk driver kill several people on the highway and the  first reaction by the Government is to take everybody's car away in society because of the tragic event. That wouldn't seem logical or make sense,  nor does it seem rational to start taking guns away because of some evil person (s) action. 


You Can't legislate or force Morality upon the masses of the public......when you try do that you then become the next Dictator, Communist, or worse a Hypocrite. 
Do I believe in Practical and common sense laws when it comes to Gun Laws ........Yes I do...absolutely !

• No I don't think a person should have a "Bump Stock" because you basically have "Machine Gun" and that is too much 
• No  you can' have a gun if you are on the terror watch list
• No you can't have a gun if you beat your wife and kids and are considered a  serial Domestic Abuser.
• No if you have a violent Felony Record  you can't ever have a gun

We live in a Society where most of us are decent hard working Americans...but on occasion we will see someone lacking "Humanity for his fellow Man and wants to lash out and hurt as many individuals as they can....That is something that can't be corrected by any group of laws or local restrictions........unfortunately that is the nature of some people in society

Philip Smith

National President

National African American Gun Association

www.NAAGA.co

Black gun owners ask: Does the Second Amendment apply to us?

There's evidence that black gun ownership has spiked since the 2016 campaign began. While white Americans have led the liberalization of gun laws in the past decade, black gun carry is becoming a test of constitutional agency.

Like many African-Americans of his generation, Phillip Smith, a Californian in his 50s, grew up without a gun in the house. To his parents, gun ownership was not just politically unacceptable, but morally wrong – a fount, if anything, of trouble and tragedy.

When he moved his own family to the South in 2002, he found a different tradition, where black families, many of them fresh from the farms, had hunting rifles for sport and, to an extent, self-defense. Mr. Smith was intrigued. As he bought his first guns and began practicing at a gun range, he had an epiphany: Perhaps the Second Amendment is the black man’s ultimate sign of full citizenship.

Smith’s crossover into the world of guns and ammo makes him part of a widening attempt to, as he says, “normalize” a black gun-carrying tradition fraught with historical pain and tragedy.

His advocacy for African-American gun rights has turned out to be a potent message. The National African-American Gun Association he founded has grown from 800 to 20,000 members since 2015. Unlike the primarily white and male National Rifle Association, NAAGA is diverse in both color and gender; 60 percent of its members are women.

“The main thing – and I’d be lying if I said something else – is that in the last 18 months the racial tone of the country has tilted in a direction that is alarming, at a minimum,” says Smith, who lives in an Atlanta suburb. “For African-Americans, we’re seeing the same old faces, the same type of conversations we saw in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and we thought they were dead and gone.”

Given that white Americans have led the liberalization of gun laws in the past decade, black gun carry is becoming a test of constitutional agency, injecting what University of Arizona gun culture expert Jennifer Carlson calls the specter of “legitimate violence” into an already tense political climate. Incidents like the June acquittal of the Minnesota police officer who shot Philando Castile, a legal gun owner, during a traffic stop have added to that tension, gun owners like Smith say – as did the National Rifle Association’s silence over both his shooting and the verdict.

For some black gun owners, the question is a stark one: Can African-Americans reasonably expect to be covered by the Second Amendment in a country still marbled by racist rhetoric, attitudes, and acts?

Read more: Black gun owners ask: Does the Second Amendment apply to us?