Why the NRA silence on Castile’s trampled rights?

Outrageous. Apparently, video evidence showing a panicky police officer isn’t enough. Apparently, having a valid permit to carry a weapon isn’t enough. When a cop confronts a black man, it’s shoot first, get away with it later.

It is truly inexplicable how a Minnesota jury could acquit the police officer who killed Philando Castile. Despite video taken by Castile’s girlfriend as he lay dying next to her, despite her narration that Castile was clearly complying with the officer’s instructions, despite the panic in the officer’s voice, despite newly released dashcam video showing the encounter abruptly turn from a routine stop to a bloodbath — despite all of this, jurors did not find grounds to convict the officer.

Equally if not more perplexing is the near silence of the nation’s loudest gun rights organization.

Like millions of other Americans, Castile exercised his Second Amendment right to own a firearm, and he complied with all legal requirements to do so. The NRA is supposed to defend the rights of gun owners — all of them. But when the gun owner is black and is the innocent victim of an unjustified shooting, the NRA says little if anything.

Last July 8, two days after Castile was killed, the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action said on Facebook that “the NRA proudly supports the right of law- abiding Americans to carry firearms,” that “the reports from Minnesota are troubling,” and that “the NRA will have more to say once the facts are known.”

The facts are now known.

Where is the strong NRA statement that mentions Castile by name and forcefully declares the right of this young black man to legally own a gun? Where are the no- nonsense words from the NRA that condemn the officer for judging Castile as someone to be feared simply because he was following his constitutional rights?

That permit did not save Castile’s life — and the organization that bills itself as “America’s foremost defender of Second Amendment rights” has essentially been mute.

Apparently, guns don’t make black men equal. They get black men shot.

In the minds of too many Americans, people of color will never be equal. When a racist person sees a black man with a gun, the black man becomes a target. This is especially worrisome when that person is a law enforcement officer. Gun plus black equals shoot.

I recently spoke to Florida law enforcement officers about the need for accountability and transparency. To their credit, these officers are at least trying.

Groups like the NRA need to take a long, hard look at themselves, and find a way to be more transparent and accountable to all citizens who choose to exercise their right to bear arms.

Our nation cannot, and will not, achieve the greatness it has always imagined for itself as long as innocent citizens are gunned down by those sworn to protect them — for no reason other than the color of their skin.