All around the nation, some are still bound and determined to try and claim that gun rights are racist. They routinely try to paint gun owners as violent bigots, misogynists, and homophobes just looking for an opportunity to shoot anyone who isn’t exactly like us.

We can argue until we’re blue in the fact that such a characterization isn’t remotely accurate, but until and unless the media starts showing that, no one is going to believe it. After all, people feel this way because that same media painted us in such a light.

Which is why I was glad to see this piece at Business Insider.

Grief and rage swept the country after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in late May. His death renewed debate about racialized police violence and the disproportionate killing of Black Americans, who are up to four times likelier than white Americans to be killed by police.

That debate has typically centered on policing itself. But Maj Toure, the founder of Black Guns Matter, has taken another tack: Advocating for Black Americans to take up arms for self-defense.

While many argue that the way to prevent violence is to have fewer guns, he says the opposite.

“I believe that more Black people would be alive if they were armed,” Toure told Business Insider Weekly.

“So when I hear ‘unarmed Black man,’ I’m sad,” he added, “because there should be no such thing.”

I can’t disagree with Toure.

Look, I love Maj. I’ve never met the guy and only talked to him a time or two on social media, but I genuinely like his approach to the Second Amendment. He’s not a Republican yes-man but he’s more critical of the anti-gun Democratic Party from what I’ve seen. Yet he’ll call anyone on their BS, which I just have to respect.

Additionally, I have to agree completely that there would be a whole lot fewer innocent black men being killed if they were armed.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that would necessarily help with issues with law enforcement–not unless they were in a position to shoot back when they were unlawfully fired upon–but I do think we’d start seeing fewer innocent black men and women being killed, particularly in the crossfire between criminals. We’d also likely see fewer dead black children as well and for the same reason.

More importantly, though, it’s good to see Black Guns Matter getting some attention from the non-gun media. It’s long overdue.

If Toure and his group can sway the black community, what we may see is Democrats start to back off on their constant anti-gun rhetoric. After all, they don’t want to alienate an important demographic and push them toward the GOP. Especially since many in the African-American community already share many Republican values as it is, but vote Democrat out of a sense of tradition or something.

Let’s be clear here. Black guns really do matter, same as anyone else’s guns.