On Sunday's AM Joy, during a discussion of her interview with pro-gun liberal rapper Killer Mike, host Joy Reid suggested that the NRA had railed against President Barack Obama because he is black, and MSNBC contributor Toure Neblett accused the pro-gun group of not doing anything to defend minority gun owners.
The segment seemed oblivious to a recent video released by NRA TV's Colion Noir which recounted NRA's history of defending gun rights for blacks, including in recent years helping residents of Chicago and Delaware sue for their gun ownership rights.
Toward the end of the show, after her interview with Killer Mike from the previous segment, Reid went to Neblett for his reaction, and he wrongly seemed to suggest that the NRA was founded as a reaction to the Black Panther movement of the 1960s. Neblett: "If he (Killer Mike) wants to talk about increasing gun ownership, right, where is the NRA for black and brown people? It starts as a reaction to the Black Panthers, as you note."
After noting the cases of Philando Castile and John Crawford -- innocent black men who were tragically shot and killed by police because of a misunderstanding -- he continued: "Is the NRA there for black people? And we know that the NRA is consistently using black men as a boogeyman to motivate gun sales. Where are you on that, Mike?"
Reid soon complained about NRA reaction to President Obama:
Speaking of using black men to sell guns, you know, the NRA have been pretty explicit about the fact -- gun manufacturers have been explicit that having a black man in the white house really helped gun sales. They scaremongered around Barack Obama -- made a lot of money -- they actually stockpiled guns to sell thinking then there's going to be a woman who's going to come and bring the black helicopters.
She lost, and now companies like Remington that make the AR-15 are financially down the tubes because they don't have a black man to use to scaremonger.
But the NRA's Noir recently recorded a commentary in which he responded to accusations by liberals that the NRA is racist, and recalled that the pro-gun group has a history of defending gun ownership by black Americans:
Where media engages in the most egregious form of willful ignorance is when they push the narrative that the NRA doesn't care about minority gun owners. But the NRA has been fighting for the rights of all gun owners for more than 100 years, including minority gun owners. But because these so-called reporters with degrees from top universities are incapable of researching, I now have to do their job at the risk of pandering to my own people.
In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that Chicago's 28-year-old ban on gun ownership was unconstitutional. The case was brought in part by a 76-year-old black man who lived in a Morgan Park neighborhood that had been taken over by gangs and drug dealers. The NRA supported and argued on behalf of McDonald, a black man whose gun rights, according to the mainstream media, the NRA is not supposed to care about.
Josephine Byrd, an elderly black woman, her building was overrun with crime, drugs, and prostitutes. Josephine wanted a gun for protection, but the Wilmington Housing Authority banned their elderly tenants from owning a gun for protection. Did any of the people who claim the NRA doesn't care about minority gun ownership step up and help Ms. Byrd? No. But the NRA did.
They helped her sue the housing authority where the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in her favor. Ms. Byrd was later specially recognized at the NRA membership meeting, and was also featured in a national TV ad paid by the NRA. And, as you guessed, most of the media ignored it.
