May 29, 2020
By Mark Chestnut
The news out of Minnesota continues to get more dire by the minute, with rioters, who are angry over the killing of a handcuffed black man by a police officer as other officers looked on, becoming more and more violent and destructive.
Video of the encounter, in which officer Derek Chauvin knelt on 46-year-old George Floyd’s neck until he was dead, while Floyd repeatedly pleaded for air, is extremely hard to watch. While the officer and three others at the scene were fired over the killing of Floyd, who was not fighting back at the time, there’s little doubt in most people’s minds that a serious crime has been committed and that appropriate charges should be filed—and the sooner the better.
However, when no charges had been filed by Wednesday, protests in Minneapolis began to get more violent. By Friday morning, police stations were burned to the ground and more than 175 businesses had been destroyed or damaged . Instead of choosing to defend the police stations, Minneapolis’s Democrat mayor, Jacob Frey, chose to retreat instead .
With chaos ensuing, many business owners, both black and white, are in fear for their livelihoods and the businesses that many have worked for years to build. Consequently, a recent Twitter video out of St. Paul, Minnesota, showing a number of black men armed with semi-automatic rifles (even though the caption called them “automatic rifles”) came as little surprise.
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From AR-15s to a KRISS pistol with a brace to an AK-type pistol with a 30-round magazine, the men are shown solemnly standing guard in front of a number of businesses. Such a show of solidarity by law-abiding black gun owners is to be commended, not condemned as many in the “mainstream” media will likely do.
In fact, armed Americans of all races have been protecting their lives and livelihoods for decades. And those doing so now in Minnesota and other areas run counter to several lies often told by gun-ban groups and gun-hating politicians in their efforts to curtail the right to keep and bear arms.
First, even though cynical, anti-gun Democrat politicians like to pretend the black community is on their side as far as gun control is concerned, that’s totally untrue. In fact, with the Democrat party becoming more anti-gun seemingly by the minute, the Second Amendment is one issue many black Americans are leaning more “Republican” on as years pass.
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Second, the lie that America’s gun owners are mostly white racists couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, most white gun owners see the constitutional right to keep and bear arms for what it is—a protection for all Americans regardless of race. On the other hand, those who work to disarm law-abiding Americans wish to disarm blacks as well as whites.
Lastly, the current situation in Minneapolis shows how completely wrong the oft-parroted contention that “nobody needs a 30-round magazine” really is. Anyone hoping to protect themselves, their families and their property from a large mob intent on mass destruction might actually want to go much bigger than just 30 rounds. In fact, one man in the Twitter video has what looks like a 100-round drum mag.
While Chauvin was finally arrested on Friday afternoon, we can only hope and pray that Minnesota authorities quickly charge him and the others who stood by and watched it happen. All four officers, like any accused, should get a fair trial by jury and then serve whatever punishment is imposed upon them by the court.
In the meantime, those in Minnesota and other places who need to protect themselves and their businesses from carnage and destruction—whether white, black or otherwise—should be grateful that anti-gunners, despite their best efforts, haven’t yet been able to destroy the right of all law-abiding Americas to keep and bear arms.
Freelance writer and editor Mark Chesnut is the owner/editorial director at Red Setter Communications LLC. An avid hunter, shooter and political observer, he has been covering Second Amendment issues and politics on a near-daily basis for the past 20 years.
