Gun rights advocates repurpose left's arguments on minorities, class to defend 2nd Amendment

Gun rights advocates are repurposing the left's rhetoric on minorities and class to defend the Second Amendment rights of those disproportionately affected by violent crime and gun permitting costs.

For decades, the left has positioned itself as the champion of minorities and the poor by supporting policies such as slavery reparations for African-Americans and free health insurance for those who struggle to afford it.

However, pro-Second Amendment groups argue that the left's pro-gun control stance harms minorities and the working class, who are more likely to be victims of violent crime.

A bill introduced last week in the Delaware state Senate that would require a permit to buy a handgun will have disparate impact on minorities and the working class, Erin Chronister, head of the Women's Defense Coalition of Delaware, told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday.

"When we look at, you know, the most impoverished people, the people that will be impacted the most by this bill, it will be ... households that have women as the head of household," Chronister said.

"[M]ore women who run their households are below the poverty line, especially black women here in Delaware," she continued. "And that's a big impact, you know, especially when women are targeted by certain types of violence, whether it be intimate partner violence, domestic violence, stalking, those sorts of things."

Chronister explained that the bill requires permit applicants to take training and get fingerprinted at their own expense.

A woman's "situation can change in an instant," she said, "and that sometimes means, 'Okay, I really need to go get myself something, you know, a means of adequate protection.' And this bill prevents all of that."

Willes Lee, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel on the National Rifle Association's board of directors, similarly argues that gun control disproportionately hurts the poor and minorities

"Anytime you're going to put a fee, anytime you're going to charge people or keep people from exercising their Second Amendment rights, that's racist, and it's class warfare," he told the John Solomon Reports podcast earlier this month

Gun permit fees aren't a problem for "the rich [who] can afford" them, Lee said, "but the folks who most need to be able to defend themselves and their families, they can't afford those types of fees and taxes. So it becomes, effectively, class warfare, and it's racist in nature."

The pro-gun community has diversified, according to Lee. It is no longer "just male," he said. "Female, men, women, old, young — all of what we would call 'minorities' — have jumped in here." 

"We don't consider women a minority in this movement anymore," he added. "They are mainstream, and the industry's adapted to that. Women are concerned about their families and their own defense, so they've come to the forefront.

"As we've seen all these riots and crime exploding — I'll give you the South Side of Chicago as an example — we've seen more minorities come forward, wanting to have firearms and train and learn how to protect themselves. With the Asian hate we've seen across the nation, we've seen that. Jewish hate, we've seen more of that — all of these people are coming to recognize the importance of the Second Amendment and their ability to exercise their rights."

Over the course of its history, the NRA "has stood up against ... and fought" Jim Crow laws that "effectively stop[ped] blacks from having firearms," Lee noted, adding, "the NRA has been in this fight for a hundred and fifty years." 

The NRA petitioned the Supreme Court in February to hear its lawsuit, first filed in 2018, against then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and then-chief of the state's Department of Financial Services Maria Vullo over a memo issued by the department "to all banks and insurance companies doing business in New York, urging them to 'discontinue ... [business] arrangements' with the NRA and other so-called 'gun promotion' organizations," according to the NRA's website.

Lee noted that an unlikely ally joined the organization early on in the litigation process.

"Eighteen Republican attorneys generals [sic] have signed on to an amicus brief, but the most interesting one is the ACLU supports our position," he said. "We know that it's not because it's the NRA, it's not because they love us, but they understand the right of freedom of speech. And to shut down an organization — any organization, government or not — because they're exercising their First Amendment rights should clearly be seen as unconstitutional. So we're taking that First Amendment case to the Supreme Court."