The right to keep and bear arms cares absolutely nothing for your personal politics. Those of us who support them tend to lean toward the Right, either as conservatives or libertarians, while most leftists are vehemently anti-gun, but the right exists even for those who think it's not really a right. For those on the Left who do, well, they're as free as the rest of us.
That matters a great deal because in Pennsylvania, the Black Panthers are on the prowl in one town, and some people aren't happy about it. Others, however, think it's fantastic.
I'm not sure what The Trace thinks about it.
On a sunny October afternoon, two members of the Black Panther Party, dressed head to toe in black with assault-style guns slung over their shoulders, patrolled the streets of Chester, Pennsylvania.
Their names were Paul Birdsong and Tajh Carter. As they passed bustling storefronts, abandoned buildings, and graffiti-covered walls, residents stopped to greet them. Some thanked them for patrolling or shouted “Black Power.” Others expressed concern about people walking the streets carrying such large weapons.
“We came out here because people kept asking us to come and patrol,” said Birdsong, the group’s 40-year-old chairman. He was holding an assault-style pistol and had an AK-style rifle dangling across his back.
...
Vincent Oberton, a 38-year-old auto mechanic, spotted the Panthers while driving past and pulled over to shake their hands. “When these brothers are around, I feel safer,” Oberton said. “I don’t have to worry about anybody stopping me or doing anything to me.”Some city officials are less enthusiastic. Mayor Stefan Roots declined to discuss the group with The Trace, but his spokesperson said he stood by his comments to the Delaware County Daily Times in September. “I wish they weren’t here,” Roots told the newspaper, referring to the Panthers. “I wish there were stronger gun laws that would allow us to tell them to put their stuff away.”
Police Commissioner Katrina Blackwell worried that the patrols could lead to confrontations between the Panthers and her officers. “I don’t think we need them,” she told The Trace.
Chester's violent crime rate is apparently above the state and national averages, which suggests that maybe, just maybe, someone needed something.
I'm not a fan of the Black Panthers, personally. They're leftist extremists, and we all know it. Them having guns only makes me nervous because I figure they really want to use them on me and mine because of our race and our politics. However, until they cross a line, they have every right to carry them.
Of course, Birdsong is currently facing charges of carrying concealed without a permit, a charge he denies and a charge that shouldn't exist, so a case could be made he's already crossed it. I don't think so, myself.
The Trace, however, had to find itself in a tough spot. On the one hand, they're all leftists, and that means groups like this can do no wrong. On the other, we're looking at a couple of guys walking around openly armed. That goes against the grain on every level over there. What was there to do?
For perhaps the first time, they didn't take the vehemently anti-gun stance, which is nice. I just wish they'd try it more often.
There are going to be some ostensibly pro-gun people who will have an issue with this. They'll have an issue because of race or just the fact that armed leftists make them too nervous to think straight. Believe me, I get it. The Black Panthers are a black supremacist organization, and that's the legacy from the original group back in the day. Nothing has really changed in that regard.
That said, our rights are either sacrosanct or they're not. If you can't support the rights for those you disagree with, do you really support the Second Amendment as a right? Or a privilege you think should only be extended to people who think like you?
