Critical Evaluation: Have Gun, Might Shoot
2008-06-30
By DeAngelo Starnes
If rabbits carried pistols, no one would rabbit hunt.
- some Blackstyle wisdom from the Old School
If only the Black Panthers were still around, they might applaud last Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling on the right to bear arms. The Panthers hung onto Malcolm X’s credo that the Black community should understand it had to be willing to defend itself by any means necessary. “By any means necessary” translated to self defense with guns. The FBI knew what the credo meant. Of course, you have to own guns to defend yourself with them. Problem is the ownership of guns might confer target status, depending on the color of your skin and political persuasion. Harkening back to the Panthers, cooperation between COINTELPRO and your local police department focused the bulls-eye on them because the speeches they gave threatened the status quo - primarily because the speech was backed by firepower.
In this economy, with folks losing jobs and homes en masse, often a hand-in-hand occurrence, desperation might inspire the unthinkable. In fact, for awhile I’ve said that the whole country is receiving an across-the-board dose of niggerization. And so the music group War wasn’t too far off when it sung “The World Is a Ghetto.” Cuz now we got some guns, too. Or get to have them.
Appeal to humanity and logic went the way of the dodo bird a long time ago. For example, we invaded a country that was no threat to us under the auspices that it was. And so the best way to achieve peace is to make your neighbor scared. Pull back your shirt and reveal the butt of a Gatt to nonverbally convey “Don’t Start None, Won’t Be None.” And that’s civility in the so-called greatest country in the world.
Gun ownership wouldn’t be such a big deal if they didn’t delude the public into thinking this was a free and open society. You can’t offer “The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” when you shut off avenues you claim are available for everyone to do some boot-strap pulling. The insult breeds resentment. Eventually somebody’s gonna pay, even if it’s communally cannibalistic.
The uproar over the ruling is much ado about nothing. Better be glad for it. Cuz everyone has a right to own a gun. Not just the police or the military. If they’re going to allow guns in society, it’s best to have equal access. Otherwise, dispose of them altogether. And that ain’t going to happen.
Regardless of how you feel about the rulers, they really said nothing that went against what everyone knows to be true. If you invade my castle, I have a license to kill. Raise your hand if that’s not your instinct.
The ruling doesn’t mean you get to do what you want with a gun. States can still regulate gun ownership. You still go to jail if you use a gun to harm someone or separate them from their property.
I say embrace the ruling. Pass the background check and you may own a gun. Learn how to use it and teach everyone in your house the same. Emphasis of responsibility and skill should limit potential harm.
Be aware, though, that statistics demonstrate most victims of an unwanted home invasion find themselves on the losing end of the equation. Which makes sense. You hear a noise that wakes you. Trying to be spontaneous you react by grabbing your piece. How accurate you gonna be with sleep in your eyes? When you kicked ass in target practice, you weren’t waking up from a nap, were you?
I do have a couple of questions. How much sense did the DC ban on handguns really make? And how effective was it? And does the ruling mean the brothas sitting in jail for violating the handgun ban get their sentences reversed? And if they do, how do they get that time back?
Guns don’t kill. People do. That’s where we need to start with problem resolution: the people. Elimination of fear and cultivation of trust is the genesis. Otherwise, to debate the just of the Supreme Court’s right to bear arms decision is an exercise in futility.
DeAngelo Starnes is a writer and attorney. He lives in Denver with his wife and son.
