I don’t usually give the pro-gun gang free publicity, but I think that everyone who is concerned about reducing gun violence should take out 15 minutes and look at the recently-posted NRA video with Colion Noir. Nobody would pay Colion much attention if it weren’t for the fact that he’s such an atypical gun owner that he gets noticed no matter what he says or does. He’s Black, hip, cool, a real dude in Armani clothing who talks the talk and walks the walk, the talk being how much funs it is to be into guns. And in particular he talks up the whole issue of armed, self-defense which has become the rallying-cry for the surge in gun sales over the last few years.
Actually, the real reason why gun sales have nearly doubled in the last few years has to do with one thing and one thing only, namely, the Kenyan, or the Muslim, or whatever Donald Trump thinks the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue happens to be. And if someone like Trump or any other red-meat Presidential pretender moves into the People’s House in 2017, I guarantee you that gun sales will fall back down to where they were under George W. Bush, 9-11 or no 9-11.
All the more reason why the gun industry is trying to convince everyone that a gun is the best protection against crime. But there’s only one little problem. Violent crime keeps going down. Or at least it keeps going down in neighborhoods where most gun owners happen to live. Because most gun owners are married, White men who live in smaller cities or rural areas, and these are locations that, generally speaking, don’t experience a lot of crime.
Enter Colion with this video attempt to make gun owning to the demographics that don’t seem particularly interested in buying guns: racial minorities, urbanites, women and millennial men. He’s got them all in this video; more than twenty people appear and most actually have something to say. The only problem is that by the end of the production, you really understand what the industry will be up against when the current White House tenant moves back to Illinois.
The video begins with a very realistic and forbiddingly well-done scene in which a young woman screams her head off because someone has just broken down her door. We then segue to a series of discussions between Colion and passerbys on a Houston street, some conversation snips between him, this guy and that guy, a stupidly-banal verbal exchange between Colion and four old high school friends, the requisite appearance of two hip-looking lesbians, and a final, philosophically-concerned exchange between Colion and his female friend, Ja-Mes Sloan.
In this final scene Colion gives the whole thing away because in responding to the doubts about gun ownership voiced by Ms. Sloan, here’s what Colion has to say: “I have the right to defend myself however I choose to defend myself.” He’s a lawyer and he said that? He has the ‘right’ to decide for himself what kind of a weapon he’s going to use? Even gun-nut Antonin Scalia said in Heller that the government can regulate and even outlaw weapons considered too dangerous for civilian use.
But maybe what we’re looking at in this video is Colion’s own attempt at cinema verité because if I were Colion, I’d be pissed off and frustrated by the time I got done speaking with all these old and new-found friends. And the reason I might feel that way is that not one single person says that he or she would ever want to own a gun – not one! In fact, the only person who expressed an interest in self-defense said she would rather get herself a dog. So here we have a video produced by the NRA which starts out with a home invasion but then says that when push comes to shove, most Americans would rather trust Man’s Best Friend, and that friend isn’t a gun.
I thought it was coincidental that you posted about Colion Noir the day before I had a post on African Americans Carrying Guns.
Some data from that post that is relevant here:
->In Citizen-Protectors, Jennifer Carlson observes that “in Detroit and its suburbs, African Americans have higher rates of concealed carry licensees per capita than white residents” (p. 5). For the state as a whole in 2013, blacks were 14.3% of the population, but 21% of license holders (p. 17).
->This is not a novel finding since “Law-Abiding One-Man Armies,” a study of concealed weapon permitting in Seattle in 1972, found that in all areas of the city the rate of permit applications was higher for blacks than whites.
So, whatever Noir’s interviewees told him, the data show that in some places (at least) and for some time (from 1972 to 2013), African Americans are taking advantage of concealed weapons permitting at higher rates than whites.
Also, even if someone does not choose to personally own a gun — or disclose to an interviewer that they own a gun — general support for gun ownership and its protective benefits is increasing. As National Public Radio reported earlier this year, “According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 54 percent of blacks now see gun ownership as a good thing, something more likely to protect than harm. That’s up from 29 percent just two years ago.”
Now, you may think all of these people are foolish for thinking this, but you shouldn’t deny that it is happening.
One last point. You take Noir to task for saying, “I have the right to defend myself however I choose to defend myself.” You ask: “He has the ‘right’ to decide for himself what kind of a weapon he’s going to use?” This seems to me an unfair interpretation of what he was saying. I think he was saying he has a right to defend himself with a gun if he chooses — even if others would choose different means and those others should not dictate to him what he should choose. I don’t think at all that he is saying that he could choose a fully auto machine gun, an RPG, or anything like that.
David: Youâre being a little naïve. When Collins says that he has the âright to defend himself any way he chooses,â heâs just parroting the latest NRA mis-information which is an effort to make self-defense not only acceptable, but normal. And what you end up with is âstand your groundâ laws which are the most insidious way to promote CCW and what was funny about that video was that most of the other people, when questioned, expressed not only concerns for a âstand your groundâ strategy, but made it clear that guns werenât for them.
As for the public opinion polls that you cite, let me ask you a question: 46% of all Republicans believe that Obama is a Muslim. And this means what? It means that Fox is watched by Republicans who believe that what Fox says is true. Thatâs all it means.
At some point you have to confront the fact that the actual number or Americans who own guns is going down. And it doesnât work to try and foist the old canard that âwell, people donât want to admit to owning a gunâ in a poll. That may have been true 30 years ago, although it was never tested, btw, but it certainly isnât true today. The reality is that each year the % of Americans who own guns drops by 1%. The overall population increases by .09%. Get it? So what you do is get current gun owners to buy more guns.
Which is all that Collins or Colion or whatever his name is tries to do. I just found it interesting that he couldnât find a single buyer in his entire video.
MTGG:
What is the reality here? I have heard the black rifles, ARs or whatever you want to call them have helped gun makers stay afloat (except perhaps Colt) and companies like Marlin that did not make them are not doing as well. Dan Baum in his book about gun guys gave me the impression the black rifles were being bought by younger people and using video games was one way the younger buyers got interested in buying the toys. This goes counter to the idea of fewer and fewer older guys buying more and more guns. Perhaps buying more and more by fewer and fewer is true of other types of guns rather than the modern sporting rifles but sounds counter to the trend you talk about.