There’s no way this will end well. The Oath Keepers, an anti-government group made up mostly of current and former law enforcement and millitary personnel who are not fans of current gun laws (and mostly caucasian, we might add), have been patrolling the streets of Ferguson during the protests marking the one-year anniversary of Mike Brown’s killing. Now the group is saying it will arm 50 black protestors in Ferguson with AR-15 rifles, basically daring police to shoot them while offering the group’s protection, of course.
“Every person we talked to said if they carried they’d be shot by police,” said Sam Andrews, head of the Oath Keepers chapter in St. Louis County. “That’s the reason we’re going to hold this event, and it will be a legal demonstration. I’m sick and tired of law enforcement who doesn’t think they have to abide by the law. They’re narcissistic and that guy (the county police chief) discredited my men.”
Team Blackness also discussed a Kansas abortion clinic that was evacuated due to a possible bomb. Fun times.
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trollhattan
You can say that again, yikes! When has “moar gunz” ever improved anything? Never, that’s when. Here’s hoping the (legitimate) protesters tread very cautiously. Those other guys can crawl back to Montana and that mine protest against the BLM (the other one) over the–not making this up–White Hope Mine.
Idiots.
sigaba
Fascinating.
Rasputin's Evil Twin
@trollhattan: Moar Gunz has done wonders for Somalia.
No, wait…
redshirt
Are the police doing anything to contain the Oath Keepers?
Luthe
I will be shocked if they get any takers. What black person in St. Louis County would be dumb enough to wave a gun at cop right now? I’d say it was like waving a red flag at a bull, but that would be insulting bulls…
CONGRATULATIONS!
That’s what it takes to get a wingnut to even give lip service to the idea that black folks MIGHT have some rights. Of course, what he’s really trying to do is start a race war.
Linda Featheringill
Do you suppose that the Oath Keepers are trying to set up a shooting war? In which LOTS of black folks wind up dead?
Is this today’s version of Helter Skelter?
Are they smart enough to promote such a plot?
Roger Moore
A number of people here have suggested that mass, armed protests by blacks are the best chance we have at getting gun control, with almost everyone else suggesting that it would be suicidal for blacks to try it. I guess we can see which side the protesters in Ferguson agree with.
Adam L Silverman
@CONGRATULATIONS!: actually it’s an article of faith among 2nd Amendment absolutists/maximalists that gun control has always been about keeping firearms for self defense purposes out of the hands of African Americans. And this is what they’re testing. So if there are any problems it would be evidence of the racism behind 2nd Amendment restrictions. The belief about the anti-African American nature of some firearms regulations are partially correct. As Reconstruction gave way to Jim Crow white supremacists across the South actively tried to disarm African Americans – both long time freed persons and those much more recently freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Union’s victory in the Civil War. It is also accurate that the Black Panthers showing up at the California legislature to observe the legislature and peacefully protest carrying rifles and shotguns led to the first set of gun restrictions during the Civil Rights era – signed by Governor Reagan himself! What this, however, misses is that there were other, non-discriminatory attempts to regulate firearm usage, if not ownership. This includes one of the first Federal mandates issued by President Washington requiring militia eligible men to maintain a specific amount of powder, shot, and wadding; early state level restrictions on the buildings (not in wood, okay in stone) in which powder and shot could be stored over concerns of fire hazards; western territorial, state, and municipal restrictions that required firearms be checked when entering cities, which was the immediate proximate cause of the shoot out near the OK Corral; restrictions that were put in place during prohibition that arose from the bootleggers and organized criminal uses of machine guns; and the original prohibitions on concealed carry based on the norms/mores of the times that only a criminal or one with bad intent would conceal carry a weapon. I highly recommend Professor Adam Winkler’s book on the political and legal history of the 2nd Amendment: Gun Fight. He also covers the internal to the 2nd Amendment community politics of the Heller lawsuit and uses that case as the unifying theme around which the other portions of the book are organized. Winkler also addresses how the meaning and understanding of the 2nd Amendment – politically, legally, and societally – have changed over time. It’s an excellent read.
boc
Someone said ‘fascinating’ and I totally agree. At some point in the latest Ferguson protest, MSNBC read the precepts or commandments of Oath Keepers, and if one followed those to the letter, the logic led to a conclusion the men were there NOT to intimidate blacks, but support their 2nd amendment rights or whatever.
This post makes me believe that a little more. What the ramifications might be, well it’s irresponsible not to speculate.
bluefoot
I wonder what percentage of the Oathkeepers (or any of the people saying the best chance to get gun control is for armed African Americans to openly carry) would be willing to get professional-level makeup to appear black and then carry guns around Ferguson. I’d be interested to see how far their beliefs would go in that instance.
sigaba
@bluefoot: Sounds like a Michael Moore/TV Nation segment.
Chris
@Roger Moore:
The response to heavily armed black demonstrators won’t be to place more restrictions on guns, it’ll be to place more restrictions on black people.
Cervantes
Mind-boggling.
@Roger Moore:
Both groups could be correct.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Adam L Silverman: Hey, thanks for the reply. I knew most of that – one of the rare firearms owners here.
I still maintain that what this jackhole is trying to do is start a race war, or at a minimum a pissing match which is guaranteed to get a fair number of black folks killed. No person with a shred of a conscience could urge a person of color to grab an AR or equivalent and march in front of the police in Ferguson, MO, not today, no matter how many white folks are with them.
JustRuss
So, people who work for the government, or used to, trained on the government’s dime? Uh-huh.
Adam L Silverman
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I’m now up to speed and didn’t mean to seem to lecture you.
John Revolta
Aha. I’ve been confusing these nuts with the Promise Keepers (a different set of nuts) until just now. Anyhoo,
“Every person we talked to said if they carried they’d be shot by police……..That’s the reason we’re going to hold this event”
Ummm, paging Dr. Freud?
The Other Chuck
@JustRuss: Being former government employees isn’t itself a mark of hypocrisy, not nearly as much as politicians running for elected office who claim government is the bad guy. I mean, Vietnam Veterans Against the War would be subject to the same charge…
Of course it always seems to be the crushing tyranny of a Democrat being elected that drives these troglodytes, so fuck them sideways with their rifles anyway.
rikyrah
I just had to LOL reading this. So simple. So true.
There is nothing, in the history of the United States, that could make anyone with sense, believe that this will end well.
And, especially, if you have been Black in America longer than 3 days.
Duane
Paul in KY
@Chris: I don’t think our black citizens are stupid enough to take them up on their offer.