As NRA membership wanes, America's largest black gun group is thriving

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The country's largest and best known gun rights association, the NRA, is losing board members amid a spate of deadly mass shootings. But another, lesser-known gun organization is thriving: the National African American Gun Association, the largest minority gun group in the country.

The group was founded by Phillip Smith, who fondly remembers the first time he fired his 9 mm pistol at a gun range.

"I felt free," Smith said. "I had a chance to kind of have some power in my hands."

Smith formed the first chapter of the National African American Gun Association, or NAAGA, in Atlanta.

"
I didn't think I'd get more than 30 people…" Smith said. But in just five years, NAAGA has started 75 chapters with more than 30,000 members, over 90% of whom are black.

"We have folks from every walk of life," Smith said. "Black doctors, gay, straight, Republicans, Democrats. You name it, we have it … We're not monolithic in why we're all here. We have different reasons."

As NRA membership wanes, America's largest black gun group is thriving
 
How do the mass shootings have anything to do with the NRA losing members? I guess that is one way to skew things.

Edit: It is awesome that black people can join a group that they feel represents them. It is sad, and not at all unexpected, that they don't feel the NRA is that group.
 
It is good that the black people value the 2A.

I hope they vote that way.

I found it curious that the black woman in the story was so worried about white nationalists when the FBI says that 95% of black people are killed by other black people.
 
I found it curious that the black woman in the story was so worried about white nationalists when the FBI says that 95% of black people are killed by other black people.

Because they don't use ARs, only White Nationalists do (very rarely).
 
It is good that the black people value the 2A.

I hope they vote that way.

I found it curious that the black woman in the story was so worried about white nationalists when the FBI says that 95% of black people are killed by other black people.
CBS News story. Of course the concern with be some hillbillyass boogieman.
 
It is good that the black people value the 2A.

I hope they vote that way.

I found it curious that the black woman in the story was so worried about white nationalists when the FBI says that 95% of black people are killed by other black people.
It’s not necessarily about the likelihood of an occurrence.

Mass shootings are statistically pretty rare, but when something happens many people respond by getting a pistol to carry, switching to a bigger gun, adding magazines to their carry system, or many other things. Meanwhile, they experience a much greater risk of dying in a swimming pool than being killed in a mass public shooting. They’re even still more likely to be threatened by a junkie in a parking lot, but that possibility freaks out a relative few.
 
It is good that the black people value the 2A.

I hope they vote that way.

I found it curious that the black woman in the story was so worried about white nationalists when the FBI says that 95% of black people are killed by other black people.

It's a matter of grasping tangible icons. As a comparison and without any sort of evidence, I would assume that school age children are more afraid of school shootings and AR-15's than pools and cars. Though they are more likely to die in a car crash and or drown, latching on to a(to them) counter culture item, rather than what's most likely to do them harm, provides them with a feeling of control as well as a physical item to direct fear at. No one wants to die, and by choosing an item to easily direct fear towards, they have by proxy, made themselves safer. It is of course, an eminence front, as Pete Townsend said "a put on".
Just my humble opinion on a very complicated matter.
 
It just hit me when reading this post: naaga. NAAGA? Naaga please... change your name.
Lol I know. I had something similar in my post like "damn they were one letter off" but realized it was a couple of letters so I said eff it lol
 
Good. There are plenty of firearms enthusiasts and owners who can’t identify with or support the NRA’s positions, and they seem to welcome an eclectic group of people. I would love to see instances of their members go from owners to enthusiasts (if not so already), and then introduce the next generation to this wonderful community. I’ll do some more research on them and decide if I want to kick over $29 to them.

Yes, I carry for defensive purposes, but my foray into guns was with my dad teaching me to shoot skeet early in life. I left that for a while to focus on golf, but came back to it while getting my MBA because a (now) good friend brought it up randomly in a conversation. I’ve shot skeet and clays, 3-gun, pistol matches, hunting, and was recently introduced to IDPA. This is a wonderful hobby/pursuit.
 
The article says "As NRA membership wanes..." I don't think the NRA has lost many members. And we need more members now than ever. The toxic media keeps trying to convince people that the NRA is about to fall apart.
 
How do the mass shootings have anything to do with the NRA losing members? I guess that is one way to skew things.

NRA threw us under the bus with bump stock BS, with friends like that, who needs enemies? They also f***ed up in the wake of parkland instead of just shutting up, and played right into the antis hands on that stupid f***ing townhall thing with rubio.... what a shit show that was. RKBA advocates have little to no failth that the NRA will do anything productive to preserve our rights at this point, they've been impotent for over a decade now.
 
The article says "As NRA membership wanes..." I don't think the NRA has lost many members. And we need more members now than ever. The toxic media keeps trying to convince people that the NRA is about to fall apart.

The media sucks but it's not completely wrong, the NRA is basically a roiling dumpster fire at this point and not looking good. I hope serious reform can take place if they flush out wlp, etc... but im not very optimistic.

-Mike
 
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