Black Guns Matter sweatshirt turns heads at Trenton Transit Center
A Caucasian man wearing a “Black Guns Matter” hooded sweatshirt inside the Trenton Transit Center guarantees attention, especially when passersby have no understanding about the meaning..
Eric, of Bucks County, had not given any serious thought about his apparel selection. His wife, Marcella, had her own opinion.
“Of all the (sweat) shirts he could have worn,” she said, eyebrows raised. Hey, his shirt opened eyes and owned an intellectual gravitational pull for inquiry although one could wrongfully deduce that “Black Guns Matter” served as a kind of antithetical play against the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Instead, “Black Guns Matter” represents a gun effort created by Maj Toure who hopes to educate African-American gun owners about gun safety and laws.
“It’s a great effort that supports legal gun ownership and provides information about safe gun use,” Eric explained.
Toure, a Philadelphia community activist and musician, started his initiative to support black gun owners although his main effort represents support for the Second Amendment.
Toure told Ammoland that he started Black Guns Matter “because I kept seeing guys across my community catching the same case. People were all getting possession charges. Not like robbing the liquor store. It was crazy to think that the mere act of having a firearm would be a crime. I’m not talking about criminals. I am talking about people who might work at a bank or live in a rough neighborhood, and they’re not allowed to carry guns. Seeing that, I decided I needed to do something about that and we had a class in Philly, and so many people came from New York and New Jersey.”
Toure owns NRA membership and expects a nationwide tour to enlighten gun owners about rules, regulations and other aspects involved with legal possession.
Toure includes residency in Chicago as part of his life history. The Windy City proved that even legal ownership does not mean safety necessarily.
Last week, a Chicago suburban police officer shot and killed security guard, Jemel Roberson, 26, following a skirmish inside Manny’s Luxury Lounge in Robbins, Ill. where a person had opened fired. Roberson, who owns a gun license, had apprehended an alleged suspect in a nearby parking lot.
Roberson died after police arrived and noticed him holding a gun. As in many incidents, police accounts did not match eyewitness versions.
L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist. Find him on Twitter @LAParker6 or email him at LAParker@Trentonian. com.