In 2021, there were 142 fatalities for every 100,000 Black Americans, a 74 percent increase since 2014 and a figure that dwarfs the homicide rate for other races. “Homicide rates are as much as 23 times higher among Black men, and as much as nearly four times higher among Hispanic men than among white men,” the WSJ analysis found.
Unfortunately, the people who run the cities where Black Americans live are not up to the task of addressing this problem. During the recent midterm election campaign season, Republicans hammered Democrats for their soft-on-crime policies, which Republicans argued contributed to the increase in gun violence. In response, Democrats downplayed the matter, calling the criticism an attempt to fear-monger, or racism.
But for Black families, the reality on the ground is very real. And it’s devastating.
Yet time and time again, instead of defending Black lives, Democrats focus on the wrong thing: They try to curb gun ownership instead of gun violence.
President Joe Biden recently indicated that he plans to get a bill passed that would ban “assault rifles” during the lame-duck session before the next Congress takes session next year. In so doing, the President played to the Democrats’ pattern of focusing on high-profile mass shootings instead of on the quotidian violence in Black and Latino communities, which accounts for far more victims than mass shootings.
But pushing for more gun restrictions on law-abiding gun owners isn’t just the wrong approach; it will directly contribute to the problem that desperately needs solving.
Curbing legal gun ownership has a disproportionately negative impact on Black Americans because it hinders their ability to defend themselves where law enforcement has failed to do so.
To put it simply, the Democrats’ gun control laws are racist to their core. And it’s time to admit it.
— Jeff Charles in Let’s be Honest for Once, The Democrats’ Gun Control Laws Are Racist
