Over at Breitbart, Ian Hatchett notes a very revealing statement made by Democrat Presidential contender Hillary Clinton.

“Too many young people, in particular, are turning to guns to settle disputes, grievances, resentments. We have got to help our young people understand, guns are never an answer, and there have to be other ways, and that’s going to take all of us, working in our schools, working through our churches and our houses of worship. We’ve got to break the grip of the gun culture on our young people, because the number one leading cause of death for young African-American men, are guns. It outranks the next nine, together. So, this is a health issue, a safety issue, a cultural issue, and I’m going at it from the very first day. I’m going to keep talking about it, and we’re going to make it clear, that this has to be a voting issue. If you care about this issue, vote against people who give in to the NRA and the gun lobby all the time.”

Clinton is correct in her initial statement that weapons should not be used to settle personal disagreements.

Where  she goes completely off the rails, however, is in her inability—or perhaps her unwillingness—to separate criminal culture from gun culture. This strongly suggests that we have a Democrat front-runner who is either deeply confused and is co-mingling two significant oppositional groups, or even worse, is intentionally smearing roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the American electorate.

The violent “young people,” and in specific, “young African-American men,”  Mr.s Clinton says are being shot in “disputes, grievances, resentments” all have a very common trait that Mrs. Clinton pointedly refuses to mention. The majority of them are predators with criminal records involved in street gangs which are engaging in violent crime and narcotics trafficking. Because these gang members typically have criminal records they cannot obtain firearms legally, and get them via the black market or via “strawman” purchases via friends and relatives who can (until they are caught) pass a background check.

These people are part of thug culture, not gun culture.

As a general rule of thumb, these criminals do not go to the gun store or gun shows to acquire their firearms, because they can’t pass background checks (and yes, FFLs must conduct background checks wherever they do business, including gun shows). These violent criminals do not compete in competition shooting, do not go to firing ranges, belong to gun clubs or the National Rifle Association, attend formal firearms training schools (which often require a concealed carry permit or other background check verification), or participate in recognized gun culture (versions 1.0 or 2.0) in any way, shape or form.

So why is Mrs Clinton conflating roughly 1.4 million gang members with the 120+ million law-abiding Americans citizens in both political parties who lawfully own firearms for self-defense, hunting, collecting, and target shooting?