GunsIn a Year of Racial and Political Turmoil, This Black Gun Group Is Booming
The National African American Gun Association was founded as a refuge from the discrimination and fear that often come with being Black and armed in America. Thousands of new members have joined its ranks in 2020.
The Compound is easy to miss on the first pass. Nestled between trees and a cow pasture just off a country road in the Chicago suburbs, the only indication the gun range exists is the spattering echo of gunfire.
“This is basically one of the many facilities where they train police,” says Kourtney Redmond, 39, as he pulls into the outdoor range the day after Juneteenth, in his black pickup truck.
Redmond has arrived to meet about a dozen members of the 761st Gun Club, of which he is president. He and his peers stand out, not just among the group of white men shooting farther up the range, but in the common conception of who owns and shoots guns legally. Redmond and his group sport twists, dreadlocks, silk presses, and crew cuts. Some wear shirts with the club’s slogan: “Come Out Fighting.”
Over the next four hours, Redmond and his group practice how to shoot at moving targets, fire shots while lying on the ground, and fix jammed magazines. “That’s what the 761st [Gun Club] is about — making sure that people get classes, making sure that people have firearm knowledge and knowledge of the law,” Redmond said. “A very big part of gun ownership is being within the corners of the law.”
The gun club is a chapter of the National African American Gun Association, or NAAGA, which was created in 2015. NAAGA’s membership steadily grew during the candidacy and presidency of President Donald Trump, but this year was different. The pandemic, police brutality, and civil unrest sent scores of people to the organization. Membership has grown by more than 25 percent this year, and NAAGA now boasts more than 40,000 members.
“My phone’s still going off on membership. People are still signing up,” said Dickson Amoah, 40. “I think a lot of [Black] people are noticing that we’re in the same boat.”
Amoah founded the Chicago chapter in 2016, and spent much of this summer fielding inquiries from prospective members. Other chapters were similarly inundated. In Atlanta, the local NAAGA chapter’s president said membership doubled this year, driven by first-time gun owners looking for community. In Phoenix, where the chapter has a large portion of women, some new members joined amid the summer’s protests. The message was clear: Black people wanted to exercise their Second Amendment right. The uptick in interest coincided more broadly with skyrocketing gun and ammunition purchases amid the coronavirus pandemic.
