Gun Control & RKBA
Related: About this forum#WeWillShootBack wants black people to arm themselves in self-defense
http://mashable.com/2015/06/20/wewillshootback/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-linkIf you're afraid for your life, American citizens are told, call the police.
But Taurean Brown, the black man who popularized the hashtag #WeWillShootBack after the church massacre, doesn't think black people always have that option. Brown said police killings of unarmed minorities including Walter Scott, Freddie Gray and Michael Brown in the past year happen far too often for him to trust them.
And if the state can't protect black people, then Brown wants black people to protect themselves.
Were often the first ones that are called upon to be nonviolent," Brown, who lives in Durham, North Carolina, told Mashable. "I want to change the narrative to say that we have the right to defend ourselves, just like every human being.
#WeWillShootBack has racked up more than 25,000 tweets since Wednesday's murders, but it's not the first time that phrase has been used.
We Will Shoot Back is the title of a recently published book by Akinyele Umoja, who heads Georgia State University's department of African-American studies. In it, Umoja chronicles the the armed resistance of black Mississippians in their struggle for freedom against intimidation and violence from their white counterparts.
But Brown said he isn't advocating for the random shooting of white people.
"What Im saying is we have a right to organize ourselves, and defend our humanity," he explained. Were taking the power into our own hands, and not allowing another entity go do that for us.
Communities have a right to form a militia for their own self defense. If the police cant or wont, then the people need to do it themselves.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
UncleTomsEvilBrother
(945 posts)...the current one doesn't seem to be working well for Black folks if the Charleston massacres are any evidence. Maybe the #wewillshootback movement is what is needed.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
sarisataka
(18,633 posts)Is not predicated on skin color. If a person wishes to carry a firearm and is willing to accept the responsibility that comes with it then race should not matter.
Also the use of a firearm should be a last resort when all other reasonable options are ineffective or unavailable. Again skin color should be irrelevant.
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)sarisataka
(18,633 posts)But with what I do know I would have voted for manslaughter.
The victim's color may be relevant- such as a person saying he is there to kill black people before shooting. Some seem to find that statement ambiguous.
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)sarisataka
(18,633 posts)An act does not have to be tied to a specific group with a certain number of official members to ve terrorism
PatrickforO
(14,572 posts)they had try the Zimmerman case. Now, I'm not saying the FL authorities TRIED to lose at all...nope...not a bit!
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)gejohnston
(17,502 posts)the prosecution team was a lot of things: unethical, with held exculpatory evidence (in violation of Florida law), tried to tack on third degree child abuse, which would ensure a conviction, dishonest, but I wouldn't call them incompetent. Judge Nelson did not allow it.
They were simply forced to try a case without evidence because of political pressure.
Fact of the matter is, the media was full of shit. Three eye witnesses saw Martin pounding Zimmerman's head in the sidewalk and forensics backed it up. In fact, the lead investigator said there was no evidence that conflicted with self defense.
Gman
(24,780 posts)That's begging for a lethal injection.
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)racist ass-holes with badges to even think about that on a mass scale .
unblock
(52,208 posts)if certain people are so scared of black people having toy guns, skittles, wallets, single cigarettes, something playing rap music, an attitude, etc., that they kill them in "self-defense", just imagine how scared they'll be when they come across a black person carrying a real gun.
Shamash
(597 posts)beevul
(12,194 posts)virginia mountainman
(5,046 posts)They should have LONG AGO..
ileus
(15,396 posts)A cell phone is a really shitty survival plan when lives are on the line.
pablo_marmol
(2,375 posts)Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)I suspect other black friends and acquaintances are armed, as well (I live in the West, after all), but these are both people I know are armed: I go to the range with them now and then. #Even in liberal Portland, I think a lot of black people see a genuine need to have weapons available to them. When you see what happens all too regularly, it drives home that the days of lynch mobs weren't all that long ago.