Arms, Race

I just watched XXX: State of the Union on cable. I should have gone with the turpentine cocktail when I had the choice.

All in all the flick was about as worthless as I expected. Bad acting, worse plot, and all sorts of extravagant scenarios that simply don't happen in DC. Ice Cube has proven he can act. I don't know why he chose not to in this flick. Samuel L. Jackson couldn't save it, nor could a delightfully wicked performance by Willem Dafoe, as the eeeevil Secretary of Defense hellbent on assasinating the liberal Wiener-in-Chief.

There was one scene that caught my attention, though. Ice Cube, whose charachter is a master of espionage, is posing as a preacher heading up some black religious lobby, talking to a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. The NRA man asks him for advice on how to attract black folks to their upcoming convention. Cube snidely replies [paraphrasing] "Don't play country music...and tell your members to stop shooting black people."

I laughed out loud. You mean to tell me that we have some widespread problem of NRA members going around shooting blacks? Please...the only group with a widespread propensity for shooting black people, is, well, black people. Young black men, to be specific.

Here lies the unspoken underpinning of the entire gun-control debate: race. Indeed, the entire issue of crime revolves around it. And it seems that virtually everyone, on both sides of the issue, goes to great lengths to avoid saying so.

Fact: whites are afraid of blacks. When white people think of crime in America- drugs, gangs, murder, muggings, robbery, home invasions- they think of young black males. Young black males wearing baggy clothes, doo-rags and sneers. Young black males like the ones they see mugshots of on the nightly news, always wanted in connection with some violent crime or another. Young black males like the ones they see on MTV and BET, endlessly posturing and posing and bragging about what thugs they are, how they run drugs, rob people, kill people, how many times they've been shot (apparently not enough) and so on. Black kids, and an ever increasing number of white kids, go out of their way to emulate these numbnutses, and then they wonder why white women pull their purses in close or cross the street whenever they see a black kid coming toward them. Whites are (and have to be) endlessly mindful not to make a wrong turn in the city, and of what exit they take off the freeway. They can't simply walk where it's convenient. A white guy going to see the latest crappy independent film at the Charles Theater in Baltimore after dark knows he can't just park a few blocks away on North avenue and walk to the theater if the area in the street in front of it is crowded and the parking garage is full. Odds are his car will be broken into if he does (which is why there's always ample parking on North ave.), and the odds that he will be harassed or worse by the local hoodrats greatly increase (this goes double if "he" happens to be a "she"). To them, black = danger. The stats bear them out.

So allow me to translate: when the average rank-in-file proponent of more gun control, particularly a white one, says something like "we need to get rid of guns because we have too much crime" what they really mean is "I'm afraid a nigger will shoot me if I ever happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." Very few are actually worried about white people owning guns. The suburbs and rural towns are stocked to the hilt with them. In my little Maryland town, you'd be hard pressed to find a house without at least one rifle or shotgun in it. Yet crime remains low, accidents few, and homicides non-existent. The town does have a small black population, and right now several of its boys are reaching their formative adolescent years. They're starting to look like the homies in the rap videos. When they walk down the street in a pack (usually about half-a-dozen or so), white folks take notice. They're suddenly mindful of their cars; whether they remembered to lock them or what they might have left in them. They look for signs that the boys might be casing them, or houses. A group of young white males does not receive this kind of attention. Folks don't worry about whether or not they're packing heat. But in the back of their minds, they always wonder if the black kids might be.

Out in the country, of course, this isn't really a huge cause for great fear or anxiety. The odds that these kids, black or white, will actually attack people are pretty slim. The kids are as aware as anyone else that breaking into someone's house is very likely to mean coming in on the business end of someone's firearm. When virtually everyone in a town is ready, willing, and able to defend themselves, their families, and their property with lethal force, and everyone knows this, the effect is that they rarely have to.

In areas with strict gun control laws, which are almost always high population centers, the story is quite different. People who are forbidden by law from arming themselves are easy prey for aggressive types who could give a rat's furry ass what the law is. In the major American cities, the latter are almost always black. So are their victims, for the most part. The vast majority of prison inmates are blacks who commited crimes against other blacks. The criminals are usually armed, usually in violation of numerous gun control laws. The victims are usually not, usually because they're obeying the same laws the criminals don't care about. Still, we keep hearing that if we just pass more laws to restrict the ability of the law abiding to defend themselves, they'll be safer. No one in their right mind actually believes this (granted not everyone in the gun control lobby is in their right mind), but it doesn't matter. The people, predominately white, who espouse this idiocy and work to pass it into law can't get past the mental image of the snarling black thug, of whom they are so afraid, and their mistaken belief that more gun control will de-fang him.

Note also, that when gun control advocates and especially politicians go on their tirades, they almost always talk about exceptions and provisions for "hunters" and "collectors". This is what these folks think white gun owners are all about. It's not true. Go to any forum site that focuses on guns, the second ammendment, gun laws, etc., and you'll find the pro-gun people going on primarily about self defense. True, many of them are hunters, and a fair number are also collectors. But all are folks who understand that telling a thug, of any color, that he can't carry a gun, or assault, rape, rob and murder people, doesn't mean he won't. The primary reason they support the right to keep and bare arms is so they can better defend themselves and their own in the event, however unlikey it may seem, that they should need to against bad people.

But alot of people, especially politicians, don't seem to know this. So allow me again to translate: whenever you hear a politician say something like "I will work to ban handguns and 'assault' weapons, but will protect the rights of hunters and collectors", what he really means is "don't worry white people, we're not really coming after your guns, just those damned savage jungle bunnies."

Black folks who live in high crime areas seem often to have more sense on this matter than white liberals in the 'burbs. When you are surrounded by danger, and have no one to protect you but you, you tend not to support the idea of being disarmed by your government. Don't believe me? Walk around North ave. or Anacostia and ask the average resident what they think on the matter. Try not to get robbed while you're doing it.

As for those black kids out in my little country town, I normally see them walking in the direction of the little park with the ball court and the fishing pond at the end of town. Often they're carrying a basketball. Sometimes they carry rods. Makes sense. I doubt they'll ever be much trouble, or at least no more than any adloescent boy is. But everyone's eye will always be on them, regardless. I'm sure they are not unaware of this.