As I mentioned on my bio page, I’m an African American law student who lives in the Chicago area. While in school and at work, I’ve had friends and colleagues assume that I’m anti gun, and invite me to contact my elected officials in support of more (pointless and unconstitutional) restrictions on gun ownership. A few examples:
- One classmate of mine struck up a conversation about the plot to assassinate Obama, and how it showed that we have “too many guns” in America. She then lamented how a friend of hers in Tennessee had a “Glock 9 gun” in his house even know he wasn’t a cop, and by her reasoning, therefore did not need a handgun.
- In a rather random fashion, another classmate of mine invited me to some sort of rally with her church, where they would basically blame guns for the murder of Kiyanna Salter.
- A co-worker of mine blamed the NRA for Chicago’s high crime rate, and was surprised that I disagreed.
- A law professor, who knows that I’m a liberal minded person that cares deeply about civil rights and justice, was shocked when I declined to participate in his anti gun project.
Maybe these people assumed I’m was anti gun because I grew up in and around Chicago, a city full of anti gun politicians. Or perhaps the fact that I’m an African American leads people to impute Jessie Jackson‘s misguided gun control beliefs upon me. Or it could be that they buy into anti gun propaganda, and assume that since I can read I must be opposed to gun ownership. Whatever the reason, I wish that people would remember that guns don’t cause crime, but instead allow law abiding citizens to deter crime. Gun control laws don’t disarm criminals, and instead only make law abiding citizens into easier targets. Criminals like gun control – I don’t. Being a rational and practical person, I support gun ownership rights for law abiding citizens.