Are gun control policies racist? According to activist and Philadelphia City Council candidate Maj Toure, the answer is yes. Of course, the progressive media would rather the American public remain ignorant of the bigoted roots of the gun control movement, but it is a serious issue nonetheless, and Toure is doing something about it.

Liberty Nation spoke with the activist to discuss his work with Black Guns Matter, an organization dedicated to educating inner-city residents on firearm safety, gun laws, and other issues related to the Second Amendment.

Black Guns Matter goes to cities across the United States, where members hold seminars to train participants in firearm use and safety. But they don’t stop with proper gun use; they also provide de-escalation training to help individuals avoid a violent situation in which a firearm would be used. Toure and his partner were inspired to form the organization when they identified a problem that affected many in the black community.

Maj Toure“We just keep seeing people catch the same case,” Toure explained. “Everybody got a gun possession charge. Everybody. I’m not talking about dudes that was like being violent or any of that. I’m talking about dudes that had a firearm to protect themselves and they get caught with a possession charge.”

Toure also discussed the impact a possession charge could have on an individual seeking to defend himself. “He loses his job and employment options; then it’s a cycle.” The activist explained that when he was a musician, he often traveled around the country, and he would hear this story over and over again. “So by traveling around with music before doing this work, I would have those experiences with so many guys, and I was like ‘damn, these dudes are just missing information.’”

The data confirm Toure’s assertion. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, about 51.2% of those charged with illegally possessing a firearm in 2012 were black. These are not all individuals involved in gang violence; they are otherwise law-abiding people. It was after hearing a number of these stories that Toure decided to take action:

“So I was like, okay, we can solve this. You know we’ve been able to serve the community that way, you know, but that was the original reason, just to cut down on some of the trauma and negligence, and quite honestly people went to jail for stuff that’s preventable.”

The activist launched Black Guns Matter when he saw that many were pushing for voter registration drives. “And I was like, that’s dope, but we also need license-to-carry drives,” he said. “So me and my partner created something — it was supposed to be an event — and then, you know, some of the people came, and they wanted more and more of these things, and it just kept spreading.”

As the organization held more and more events, people in cities located in New York, New Jersey, and other states asked Toure to hold seminars in their areas. From there, Black Guns Matter has launched a number of tours for inner cities across the nation to educate the public about properly obtaining and using firearms.

When asked why so many in the inner city are arrested for possession charges, he indicated that there were several factors involved: “I think it’s a mixture of having a heavy distrust for government. I think it’s the lack of good police/citizen relations,” he said. “That needs to be fixed. You know it’s damn near impossible to afford the $500 fees that they impose on people for their fundamental right to go buy something.”

The objectives of Black Guns Matter go beyond just firearms. Through his organization, Toure wishes to use a “holistic approach” to get proponents “politically active and supporting candidates that are in alignment with removing some of those fees and things of that nature.”

Anyone who follows Toure has likely heard him repeat his mantra on firearm restrictions: “All gun control is racist.” Indeed, the movement to regulate gun ownership, like abortion, has deep roots in anti-black racism. The original gun control laws were designed to prevent newly freed black slaves from owning weapons with which they could protect themselves from hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

So why would today’s Democratic politicians make it so difficult for black Americans — many of whom live in high-crime areas — to defend themselves? Toure’s answer was blunt but apt: “because they are either stupid or racist.”

He elaborated: “It’s either you’re dumb and you’re not aware that this actually doesn’t fix the problem — and we have the data to show that it doesn’t — or you believe that the people in these poor areas have a genetic predisposition to killing each other as soon as there’s a gun around, and there’s no other factors involved.”

The activist added: “If you’re dumb, we can educate you. If you’re racist, we expose you.”

Toure and Black Guns Matter have seen much success in their efforts to educate inner-city dwellers, but his ambitions don’t stop there. While his activism is a crucial component of his pro-Second Amendment work, he realized it was also essential that he work within the governmental system to effect positive change. For this reason, he has decided to run for a seat on the Philadelphia City Council. He decried the empty solutions proposed by the leftist gun control crowd, referring to them as “cotton candy solutions.” He said:

“So you know we have the data. So again, you’re either unaware of the issue and the data and the stats and the math at hand, which makes you a horrible politician, to make policy based on some stuff you’re unaware of. Or you’re aware, and you’re doing it for political talking points. But that’s not actually like a solution. I mean, it’s a cotton candy solution with no actual substance to it. You taste it and it’s gonna wither away as soon as you put it on your tongue.”

When Toure refers to “cotton candy solutions,” a term he says he got from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), he is describing proposals that “give people a feel-good moment, but it doesn’t solve it.” Indeed, many on the left who push for additional gun control measures in the wake of a mass shooting have trouble explaining how their proposals would have stopped the attack. As for his reason for running for office, Toure explained:

“It makes no sense and does me no justice if I inform everybody in every ‘hood across America to be safe and responsible gun owners and then here comes the politician in every one of those cities across America, and with the swoop of a pen outlaws all the guns.”

With Democrats like Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) pushing gun confiscation, Toure’s reasoning seems disturbingly prophetic. He remarked that he is fighting “two battles now,” educating people about their rights and being “the person inside city hall helping to protect their rights.”

Toure also insisted that proponents of the Second Amendment need to “start pushing back against these very unconstitutional, racist, and anti-human rights laws.”

The activist has more to say about the inner city, in part two of this piece, where he will discuss what the Republican Party is missing when it comes to earning black votes.

This article was originally published on Liberty Nation.

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