The National Rifle Association has apparently begun its previously mentioned initiative to reach minority audiences, announcing that Youtube celebrity and self-described “urban gun enthusiast” Colion Noir will join NRA News.
Noir appeared in a short clip posted to the NRA News Youtube channel, expressing the necessity for guns in African-American communities.
He tied the battle for gun ownership to the civil rights movement, claiming that black people must be responsible for their own protection. Speaking of the high level of gun violence that prevails in black communities, Noir said: “It’s not a gun problem. It’s not even a violence problem. It’s a culture problem. It’s a poverty problem. It’s a history problem.”
The message reflected many of the NRA’s common arguments, specifically the government’s inability to protect its citizens, and the Obama administration’s plan to systematically disarm America. The Center for American Progress recently reported that blacks make up 56 percent of all victims in firearm homicides, despite making up just 13 percent of the country’s population.
Meanwhile, Noir suggests that the government’s proposed gun control measures are avenues of oppression.
“The same government who at one point hosed us down with water, attacked us with dogs, wouldn’t allow us to eat at their restaurants and told us we couldn’t own guns. . . The only person responsible for your safety is you,” he says in the video. “Cops can’t always be there. Obama definitely can’t be there. Guy telling me to get rid of my guns when I need them the most, isn’t my friend, isn’t looking out for my best interests and doesn’t speak for me or the community that I’m part of.”
Noir’s message seems to willfully ignore the time the NRA spent attempting to disarm the Black Panther Party in the years surrounding the civil rights movement. Furthermore, the use of guns contradicts the largely nonviolent message that led the movement.
