Within less than 24 hours, social media was gripped with not one, but two incidents of police shooting and killing armed black men in states where all citizens have the right to carry guns. It seems that, in places in America where carrying is ostensibly allowed, second amendment rights remain out of reach for black people.



On Tuesday night, Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was shot by police responding to a 911 call alleging that a man matching Sterling’s description had threatened the caller with a gun outside a convenience store. The bystander video of the incident showed police holding him to the ground and firing rounds into his body before pulling a gun out of his pocket.

Alton Sterling didn't have to die. It's time to address police violence | Samuel Sinyangwe Read more

The next evening, Philando Castile was riding in a vehicle with his girlfriend and daughter when an officer pulled them over in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Castile, who has a permit to carry, according to his family, was shot four to five times after he informed an officer during the traffic stop he was legally armed. His girlfriend of 10 years livestreamed the aftermath on Facebook while their four-year-old daughter tried to bring calm to the moment: “It’s OK Mommy. It’s OK, I’m right here with you.”

The girlfriend and daughter were then detained and held by police until the early morning hours the next day with no food or water, the mother posted on Facebook after she was released.

Any sane person would assume that groups like the National Rifle Association would jump into action, condemning police for infringing on the constitutional right to bear arms that was apparently violated in both cases. Seven states have open-carry restrictions, and most states require, but do issue, concealed carry permits. And the NRA has pumped significant amounts of money into preserving these rights as mostly democratic lawmakers fight to tighten gun control laws in the wake of repeated mass shootings.

But the NRA has so far remained mum on the deaths of the two black men who appear to be gunned down just because they carried weapons while black.

These aren’t two isolated cases, either. Remember when John Crawford III was shot and killed while shopping at Walmart in Ohio by trigger-happy officers who thought a toy gun in the store was both his and real? Remember when police shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cincinnati while he was playing with a toy gun on a public playground?

As the days crawl forward with communities fighting to understand these tragedies, we will hear about how officers followed some procedure or feared for their lives, or whatever. The NRA will probably continue to remain silent. Black people will struggle with how to even wake up without being consumed with righteous anger.



Images of these two men dying over and over again will monopolize the media, with many people joining in the mourning but not really grappling with the fact that in both, we see non-black officers not only kill men who don’t appear to be a threat, but also who continue to point guns at their dead bodies as if even in death our skin is the most fearful thing one can face.

Hashtags and protests will erupt. Mothers and grandmothers and daughters and sons will mourn on our TVs.

And through all of this grief, we must remember one thing: it’s still feels like it is illegal to be black in America, let alone try to carry a gun in a gun-happy nation.