How To Be An Urban Gun Owner

Black city dwellers are armed, too. Here are 5 ways to pack heat responsibly.

To search the web or watch TV, you might get the impression that gun owners are all white guys living out in the country or in the 'burbs. But there are plenty of black folks, city dwellers, who own guns, too -- and legally. We're not talking about the corner dealer with the illegal .9 mm.

According to the most recent Gallup polling and data kept by Gun Owners of America, a little more than a quarter of the black population -- 27 percent -- owned guns in 2010. So, as America's lawmakers gear up for battle over the rights of gun owners and those who want to be, blacks are among those concerned about what changes to the nation's gun laws could mean for them.

Karen Ford, an African American gun owner and medical professional in crime-ridden Detroit, decided to revisit gun owner safety classes she took two years ago taught by Rick Ector, an outspoken black member of the National Rifle Association and Detroit-area gun safety instructor.

“I would like [Rick] to show me the right types of guns I can now own,” Ford says. “I’m a 56-year-old female. I was really concerned about being in the house by myself. I left [Rick’s] class feeling cocky. I feel like it’s something that every woman should take.”

Despite recent tragedies propelling new gun control measures – especially last month's elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. – Ford says she has concerns about urban crime that are just as valid as concerns raised about the random madmen who have been the perpetrators in recent mass shootings.

Ector says he couldn’t agree more.

“People who don’t live in urban areas may not be familiar with the environment that I’m in,” Ector says. “When we’re talking about areas like Detroit and Chicago, individuals should take advantage of their rights to arm and protect themselves.”

Ector, also the founder of Legally Armed in Detroit, offers the following five recommendations for city dwellers who own guns or are thinking about doing so:

1. Take a class.

5 Ways People Are Fighting Poverty In Urban America

Beloved Community Center. Based Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision for a “Beloved Community,” this Greensboro, N.C.-based group fights for people’s access to economic mobility. They’ve been praised an employment program, “Pathways to a Green Career.” It intensively trains and then employs young people in the “green economy.” Their work includes weatherizing homes in the Greensboro area. Photo: Beloved Community Centere

Thumbnails

Photo 1 of 5

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Groups focus on prosperity, wellness and mentorship to build up communities

It’s fitting that this week the nation is not only celebrating the upcoming second inauguration of the nation’s first African American president, Barack Obama, but also the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

King, of course, was better known for his fights to achieve racial justice. As the nation’s leaders continue to debate over matters that will affect the socioeconomic status of all Americans, it’s civil rights activists who say lawmakers should look again at King’s work.

“All of [Dr. King’s] work wasn’t just around race; he had a poverty piece in there,” said Judith Brown Dianis, co-director for D.C.-based civil rights group, Advancement Project. “We can’t go into any of this debate about gun control, education or immigration and not talk about poverty.”

Brown Dianis added that addressing poverty has to be a “real piece” of what President Obama does while in office.

For Growing Power, Inc. founder Will Allen, addressing poverty has to include talk of expanding access to healthy, affordable produce. He runs Milwaukee’s last working farm inside city limits and has led an urban farming movement.

“We’ve been able to change the economics in these communities,” says Allen, who was named one of the world’s most influential people by Time magazine in 2010. “There are hundreds of different jobs connected to new food systems. There are renewable energy jobs, need for engineers and architects.”

Allen says the mayors who want to reduce poverty and make their communities environmentally sustainable by 2020, as many have pledged to do, won’t achieve that without a building up a local food system.

“Food is the most important things in our lives and we have a lot of unhealthy communities,” he said.

According to the University of Michigan’s National Poverty Center, 15.1 percent of Americans lived below the poverty line in 2010. That’s the highest rate since 1993. Children make up 36 percent of the poor population. Broken down by race, African Americans were the most impoverished group in the nation, at 38 percent, followed closely by Hispanics, at 35 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Whites have a poverty rate of 12.4 percent.

Lots of work to combat poverty happens everyday, much of it unnoticed. In the gallery above, find more examples of groups fighting poverty in urban America.

JOIN US: THURSDAY, JAN. 17, LOOP 21 HOSTS A TWEETUP AT 3.30 PM PST/6.30 PM EST #L21poverty

[SUBSCRIBE TO LOOP 21 RSS FEED]