Does race shape Americans' passion for guns?

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

(CNN) -- Here's a thought experiment:

What if large groups of African-American men carrying shotguns and semi-automatic rifles started moseying into stores across America to tout their support of open-carry gun laws?

Would they be greeted by the same anxious looks shoppers gave groups of armed white men who did the same this summer at Target stores and chain restaurants like Chipotle? Or something more lethal?

For Charles Gallagher, a sociologist who studies race, the answer to that "what if" is easy.

"Whites walking down Main Street with an AK-47 are defenders of American values; a black man doing the same thing is Public Enemy No. 1," says Gallagher, a professor at La Salle University in Pennsylvania.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/10/us/guns-race/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

[Curmudgeon 227]

Nope, I don't agree with that hypothesis at all.

[GBCW 397]

"Whites walking down Main Street with an AK-47 are defenders of American values ...

Clearly, whoever said that is white because that's not how this person of color would see it at all.

Frankly, all you people (white AND black) worry me with your nonstop racial nonsense.

[SMOKE 1,426]

I see its gonna be one of those days on VJ.

[GBCW 397]

Shut your pie hole, whitey!

[Curmudgeon 227]

Clearly, whoever said that is white because that's not how this person of color would see it at all.

Frankly, all you people (white AND black) worry me with your nonstop racial nonsense.

That's easy for you to say, Martian!

[Sousuke 1,214]

(CNN) -- Here's a thought experiment:

What if large groups of African-American men carrying shotguns and semi-automatic rifles started moseying into stores across America to tout their support of open-carry gun laws?

Would they be greeted by the same anxious looks shoppers gave groups of armed white men who did the same this summer at Target stores and chain restaurants like Chipotle? Or something more lethal?

For Charles Gallagher, a sociologist who studies race, the answer to that "what if" is easy.

"Whites walking down Main Street with an AK-47 are defenders of American values; a black man doing the same thing is Public Enemy No. 1," says Gallagher, a professor at La Salle University in Pennsylvania.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/10/us/guns-race/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

This has happened in the past. Arms were used by organized groups in the 60s/70s to provide access for african americans and also allow them to walk the street safely because neither the community nor the police could be trusted.

[decocker 7,198]

"Whites walking down Main Street with an AK-47 are defenders of American values; a black man doing the same thing is Public Enemy No. 1," says Gallagher, a professor at La Salle University in Pennsylvania.

that thought experiment has been going on for quite some time now