Safety first. That’s the mantra of gun owners all over the country. But for the growing number of Black women who are changing the idea of what a gun owner looks like and comes from, gun safety takes on another meaning.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a total of 464 mass shootings took place across all 50 states this year alone. Putting gun violence at the heart of partisan debate. And while there are Black women who champion for more gun restrictions, many are taking up arms in their own defense.
The National African American Gun Association alone boasts more than 40,000 members, the majority of whom are Black women. Therefore, the causes for the uptick in gun ownership amongst Black women deserves a closer look.
Director of Marketing & Media Manager for NAAGA and member of the Bass Reeves Gun Club, Kia Glenn, tells Little Mental Sky that Black women are the fastest growing segment of gun owners in the country, and that African Americans now account for at least 60% of all gun owners. But threats that disproportionately impact Black women are the core reason for this trend.
And the Coronavirus pandemic only isolated these concerns, making them more prominent in the African American community.
If we all learned anything from being quarantined back in 2020, it’s that police brutality is a real and consistent threat for the Black community. And despite mobilized forces that advocate against the killing of unarmed Black men – thought leaders such as Kimberlé Crenshaw know Black women are just as susceptible.
According to a recent article published in Psychology of Violence, Black people are over four times more likely to be injured from police intervention than their white counterparts, and “frequently being monitored, followed, and pulled over by the police is a chronic strain as it is ongoing.”
But if the killings of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery has taught us that Black lives matter, then the killing of Breonna Taylor has proved that the value of Black women’s lives is still up for debate.
Artist, activist and member of the Greater Bay Area Chapter of NAAGA, Tracy Brown, is one such Black woman who purchased a firearm for the first time during the pandemic.
“I started seeing the societal writing on the wall. . . I noticed the rise of white supremacy, and also the outwardly complicit behavior of politicians justifying, allowing, and supporting said behavior in our society. Instead of sitting around saying, ‘that’s not right, that shouldn’t be happening,’ I was like, ‘it’s probably time to think about protecting my home, my family myself with a firearm,’” says Brown.
Violent crime in urban communities is another long-standing cause of psychological distress for women of color. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, “Black people are more likely to be victims and or know someone who was a victim [of] homicide.”
NRA Range Safety Officer, USCCA firearms instructor and NAAGA member, Akeithea Bost, says there’s inter-communal violence and intra-communal violence, and Black women should understand that if they are victims of a crime, it will most likely be done by someone who looks like them. “If we really are honest with ourselves, as black women, on who our biggest enemy or threat [is]. . . it’s gonna be someone that looks like me,” says Bost.
Not because Black people are inherently violent toward each other, which is a notion perpetuated by the idea of Black-on-Black crime, but this is mostly due to factors such as poverty and close proximity within underfunded neighborhoods.
Additionally, this proximity during the pandemic fueled increases in domestic violence cases throughout the U.S. Bost says many of the Black women who step foot into her training facility, Blac Armed, are escaping circumstances of intimate partner violence. “Even before the pandemic, I guess leading into it, there has been an uptick in that violence. People were losing jobs, people [were] home more, intimate partner violence just shot through the roof,” says Bost.
Black women also face greater financial and emotional stress due to wage disparities while often being the sole provider, factors such as single motherhood and living in communities with higher crime have much to do with the decision to purchase a gun for the first time.
The National Partnership for Women & Families reports that Black mothers are more likely to be the breadwinner for their families than mothers who are white or of other minority groups. In fact, 79 percent of Black mothers are the sole providers for their household, yet they are paid 58 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.
Since lower incomes often correlate with and higher risks of facing crime, single Black women and single Black mothers who make lower wages and live in poorer neighborhoods are enforcing their second amendment rights as a means of protecting their children and their homes.
But even for Black women who are economically stable, whether they are corporate executives or have highly advanced degrees, the threat of being a target still lingers. “So now that you’re an executive, or you’re calling the shots, or you’re a business owner – you’re actually more likely to be a target,” says Bost.
But the fact still exists that increases in gun ownership coincide with more gun violence. Many anti-gun reformists are concerned with growing numbers of Black women adopting the conservative ideology of a “good guy with a gun.” However concerning this health crisis is, this arguably undermines the importance Black women place on firearm safety practices.
Bost, who is also a Black Belt in martial arts, conducts a program called MBA, which stands for Mind, Body, and Arms, which stresses the many ways women can practice self-defense without a firearm. Self-defense can involve being educated on where to place security cameras in your home, where to hide if you’re in danger, or even how many steps are in your home if the lights are out.
But the most important thing to consider, according to Bost, is self-reliance. Putting your trust in your significant other and or law enforcement perpetrates a false sense of protection, says Bost, considering that these support figures can become a threat at some point.
“I understand that fear right especially if you’ve lost someone to gun violence,” says Bost, “but a lot of that fear I think comes from just a lack of education and how close it was to home. The other part of that would be that, um, I don’t think they realize that it can save their lives as well.”
On the other hand, receiving firearms training can enable women to assist their significant other in the instance of a home invasion. Or, if something happens to your husband or partner, you will have the knowledge needed to give yourself and your family a fighting chance.
“We are harmed constantly, and nobody cares. So, oftentimes we’re put in a position where we have to defend our own lives, says Brown.
That’s why many other Black women, like Brown, have not only purchased their first firearm within the past two years, but have also taken the necessary training to operate their firearms responsibly.
“I believe that if you’re going to own a gun you have to be safe,” says Brown, “So I started taking classes to learn how to be a safe gun owner. Then I joined a local gun club, a black gun owners club so that I could learn how to be a safe firearm owner in a supportive and safe environment.”
There are NAAGA chapters across the U.S. that not only offer training, but also give Black women a space to feel empowered and affirmed as they seek out tactics of self-preservation.
At Blac Armed, Bost says she gets many repeat trainees who are timid around firearms when they begin, but when they walk out, she knows they have left with newfound confidence.
“When it comes to them feeling safe, they seem to be more confident. When you’re more confident that you can protect yourself or that you can protect your children, whether if it’s with a firearm or just the mindset. . . all of that together makes them feel safe,” says Bost.
For these reasons, firearms put Black women at mental ease about perils plaguing their communities.
And according to Brown, “some of the best shooters on the range are black women,” she says, “But we’re warriors, that’s who we are. So that’s where spirit and where energy comes through because black women can shoot. “