After Supreme Court ruling, LA Times asks if California is 'ready' for more Black gun owners

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The Los Angeles Times questioned whether California is "ready" for Black people publicly carrying guns after Thursday's Supreme Court decision.

After the Supreme Court ruled that New York’s concealed carry laws were unconstitutional, columnist Erica Smith suggested Monday that California gun laws could be in jeopardy.

She discussed with Nathan W. Jones, leader of the Bay Area chapter of the Black Gun Owners Assn., how the idea of armed Black people could inspire "fear and hatred" in others.

"On the one hand, [Jones] wants it to be easy for law-abiding citizens to be able to defend themselves ‘if and when the time arises.’ But on the other hand, he’s a 50-year-old realist who knows that fear and hatred of Black people run deep in the United States, especially when we’re armed," Smith wrote.

FILE - A handgun from a collection of illegal guns is reviewed during a gun buyback event in Brooklyn, N.Y., May 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, FIle)

With the new ruling, "California could be forced to confront a reality that has long made many self-proclaimed liberals uncomfortable: Black people — potentially a lot of us — legally carrying guns in public," she wrote.

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To Smith, a "truly weird thing is that race is now actually being used as an argument in support of loosening gun laws."

However, she did acknowledge, as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued in his opinion, that gun control laws have had a history of limiting Black gun owners from exercising their Second Amendment rights. The sentiment was echoed by several progressive organizations, Smith wrote.

A Texas concealed carry permit holder diffused a situation where a man was wielding a machete at the driver who fatally struck his girlfriend Thursday.  (iStock)

"Their argument? That gun control laws in New York, like California, disproportionately harm Black and Latino people who carry guns for self-defense. They complained of clients who have been ‘stopped, questioned, and frisked,’ and deprived of their livelihoods because they ‘exercised a constitutional right,’" she recognized.

Although many Black men and women have reported buying and stockpiling guns, Smith worried that the new scenario of Black people open carrying could be "dangerous."

She concluded, "In our polarized political environment, that’s a dangerous scenario that seems increasingly likely. Just as likely as some Black people wrongly getting shot by police while legally carrying a firearm. When society is armed to the teeth, bad things are bound to happen."

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Many Twitter users were also appalled by the headline which read "Is California ready for more Black people to legally carry guns in public?"

A clerk shows a customer a California legal, featureless AR-15 style rifle from TPM Arms LLC on display for sale at the company's booth at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Orange County Fairgrounds on June 5, 2021 in Costa Mesa, California. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

Townhall.com editor Rebecca Downs joked, "Ah, the racist columnist who called @larryelder a white supremacist strikes again!" remarking on Smith’s piece on California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder.

Columnist David Marcus wrote, "Wow. The entire political philosophy of the American left hinges on their opponents being racists. If, as is the case, that’s not true the whole thing falls apart."

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"HOLY COW THIS HEADLINE FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES..." Ted Cruz communications adviser Steve Guest tweeted.