No Guns For Blacks

As a military man and gun owner who tends to favor sensible gun control, I often find myself torn on gun issues. As such, I try to stay knowledgeable about the latest news. Recently the NAACP has been pursuing a lawsuit against gun manufacturers in a federal district court in NY. Here's the disturbing response of several gun dealers:

Due to the lawsuit initiated by the NAACP, we can no longer sell firearms to African-Americans. We are sorry for this, as African-Americans have rights and needs for self-defense as strong as anyone else. This was not our choice, but was forced upon us as we cannot afford such litigation.

Huh.

I happen to think there is a lot of room for moderation on the issue, and am glad to see President Bush has pledged to support a re-authorization of the Assault Weapon Ban (though I still think it a bad bill written by people who really don't understand firearms).

Likewise, the Virginia rule that one cannot buy more than one handgun a month seemed a good, moderate, reasonable way to end Virginia's status as a feeder state for guns used in crimes in the Northeast. Nonetheless, testimony in the NAACP trial shows that Virginia is still the top source of crime guns in New York, including three of the top five dealers to whom gun used in crimes can be traced. That's shameful.