Of all the ugly silences to emerge from the shootings of ‪#‎AltonSterling‬ and‪#‎PhilandoCastile‬ none speaks more loudly than that of the ‪#‎NRA‬ and other gun rights activists. Both men were killed for 1) being Black and 2) carrying a gun, in that order. Whatever Wayne LaPierre thinks about the first of those things, he is supposed to care passionately about the second. Each man was carrying his gun legally and Castile even had a license. In other words, they were exercising the very rights the NRA has fought so hard for.

But if a person of color were to go over to the NRA website to see what they have to say about the issue, they'd see a picture of Wayne LaPierre and the caption "We Don't Need You." Whatever that caption is supposed to mean, it is a pretty good summary of what the NRA really thinks of gun owners of color. They will raise holy hell if anyone even threatens to infringe on the right of a white person to have multiple assault rifles with 30-round clips, but say nothing when two Black men are killed for legally carrying pistols.

And to take it a little further, one of the justifications for everyone having guns that the NRA and the right wing use is the supposed ability to shoot back if you think the government is oppressing you too much. A person of color being approached by a cop today has a non-trivial chance of being killed and a much larger chance of being beaten, harassed, wrongfully arrested or stolen from. By the NRA's logic, if they have a gun they should just start shooting first. I do not think people should do this! I am just demonstrating what would happen if people of color were to follow the right wing's idiotic beliefs to their logical conclusion.

A few days ago I reposted an article previously posted by Manny Jalonschi which made a well-documented case that the real reason for the second amendment was to allow slaveholders to continue to oppress their slaves. In other words, the original meaning of the 2nd Amendment was the right to keep and bear arms by white people. In practice, it still means pretty much the same thing.

As further evidence I offer the second picture, of an officer at a Confederate flag rally peacefully trying to talk down a white man standing threateningly in front of him with one hand on a pistol. The cop doesn't even have his gun out. If the cop had so much as taken that guy's gun away, I bet Wayne LaPierre would have something to say about it.

As a result, I recommend that in the future we call the supposed "National Rifle Association" what it really is, the ‪#‎WPRA‬, or‪#‎WhitePeoplesRifleAssociation‬.