Gun control laws will only be changing in the United States “once black people start getting guns,” said Joy Behar, co-host of The View, during a recent episode of the show. She faced backlash quickly.
Behar was addressing a direct response to an anecdote shared by guest host Lindsey Granger about a black man in Connecticut who she claimed built his own AR-15 assault rifle because the law in the state doesn’t allow him to buy such a weapon. She argued that it was “odd” that he was black, adding that “most AR-15 owners are ex-military, over the age of 35 and married.”
Behar then intervened, interrupting Granger. “Here’s the thing: once Black people get guns in this country, the gun laws will change. Trust me,” Behar said.
The co-host was presumably alluding to the facts of 1967, when a state bill banning the open carry of loaded firearms with no permit, the Mulford Act, was adopted in California. It was considered by many as an attempt to limit the power of the Black Panther activist group, which routinely conducted armed patrols at the time.
The latest data provided by the National Firearms Survey and released in July 2021 shows that gun ownership is demographically quite diverse, with 25.4 percent of guns owned by blacks, 28.3 percent by Hispanics, 19.4 percent by Asians, and the majority, 34.3%, were owned by whites.
Another survey from the same year by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) investigating gun ownership in the country found that at least 5.4 million people purchased a gun for the first time in 2021.
About 44% of retailers reported seeing an increase in the number of black people buying guns that year, adding to what the NSSF reported was already a 58% increase in gun ownership among African Americans from 2019 to 2020, per reports.
The top reason people bought a gun for the first time in 2020 and 2021 was, according to the National Firearms Survey and NSSF, self-defense. The reports revealed that there was a correlation between the increase in Black gun ownership and anti-Black violent incidents, including the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.
The latest available data from the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer indicates that anti-black crimes were the most prevalent among hate crimes compared to other hate crimes such as anti-white, anti-Jewish, anti-gay and anti-Latino crimes, with 2,871 anti-black hate crimes in the entire year.
On the other hand, black Democrats were also found to be more likely than white and Hispanic Democrats to agree that gun violence is a big problem in America. According to a Pew Research Institute survey, 82% of black adults said gun violence is a very big problem, by far the largest share of any racial or ethnic group.
By comparison, 58% of Hispanic adults and 39% of white adults see gun violence the same way. 73% of Democrats view gun violence as a major problem as opposed to just over 18% of Republicans who agree with that view (73% versus 18%).
This story syndicated with permission from Frank at trendingviews.com