Blacks should have right to bear arms in U.S.

In the debate over gun regulation in America and the reluctance of both the Congress and state legislatures to enact tighter controls, we are often compared to democracies around the world as distinguished from America by tight controls on gun possession. In those countries, deaths from guns are dramatically lower.

Another distinction is that those countries are also described as homogeneous in population, meaning, presumably, people of the same race and ethnic background. Is the strict construction of the Second Amendment and state’s rights in any way influenced by features and demographics that distinguish us from other democracies?

America is heterogeneous in its make-up — racially diverse, so what is the implication of that? Is race a factor in how America views conflict and threat? Are our gun rights governed by a fear of others? Are our stand-your-ground rights and Second Amendment rights applied equally?

In an article published by Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, “The right to bear arms should extend to black men, too,” he cites the cases of black men who thought they had the same open-carry gun rights as whites but died because that was not the case.

In light of the killings in the Fort Lauderdale airport — one of the locations that Sen. Greg Steube is proposing for gun rights extension — and the racial implications of extending gun rights in a nation where rights are not always equal, we ask that Sen. Steube reconsider his efforts. They may further endanger us.

The Manatee Sarasota Democratic Black Caucus.

This story was originally published January 12, 2017 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Blacks should have right to bear arms in U.S.."